Mexico files amicus brief for birthright citizenship lawsuit against Texas

Illegal immigration proteste, Los Angeles, July 10, 2015. (REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson)

Americans may see where today’s court system stands on birthright citizenship sooner they thought.

The rejection of birth certificates in Texas of children born to illegal immigrants from Mexico within the state caused the Mexican government to file a brief attached to a lawsuit against the Lone Star State.

According to The Texas Tribune, Mexico’s 19 page amicus brief says that “friendly nations” should accept foreign passports or government-issued IDs to ease the identification process of a foreigner.

“Conversely, expressions of doubt about the integrity of documents issued by a friendly country introduce a troublesome and discordant element into bi-national or transnational relations,” the brief says.

Texas county registrars’ offices are refusing to accept parents who present foreign national passports as a valid form of identification sans a valid visa or consular identification document.

Claiming the registrars are violating the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause as well as the violating the Supremacy Clause, the families filed a lawsuit against the state government.

CBS News reports that 17 Mexican and Central American families who live in Cameron and Hidalgo counties are part of the lawsuit against the state. Texas Civil Rights Project and Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid are representing the families

Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley tweeted about the case, calling citizenship “a human right.” Hillary Clinton railed against Republicans like Donald Trump who believe that illegal immigrants’ children born in the U.S. should not be given U.S. citizenship, calling them “out of touch.”

Republican presidential candidates, however, have taken different sides on the issue. While Donald Trump and Ted Cruz believe the children of non-citizens born in the U.S. should not be granted citizenship, other GOP candidates feel differently on the issue.

According to The Tribune, the Texas attorney general’s office has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the agency is protected from litigation by the 11th Amendment and that the state cannot be taken to federal court under its sovereign immunity provision. However, legal experts tell the Tribune the case is likely to go forward to court.