7-18-2012
http://news.yahoo.com/us-born-kids-migrants-lose-rights-mexico-163418022.html
US-born kids of migrants lose rights in Mexico
First, they crossed illegally into the United States for work, found jobs, and had children. Then, they were caught and deported, or left on their own as the work dried up with the U.S. economic slump. Now they are back in Mexico with children who are American citizens by virtue of being born on U.S. soil.
Because of the byzantine rules of Mexican and U.S. bureaucracies, tens of thousands of those children without Mexican citizenship now find themselves without access to basic services in Mexico unable to officially register in school or sign up for health care at public hospitals and clinics that give free check-ups and medicines.
It's a growing problem in Mexico as hundreds of thousands return home because of the sluggish U.S. job market and a record number of deportations.
Illegal migration of Mexicans to the U.S. is at its lowest level in decades, with more Mexicans now leaving the United States than entering it each year.
"The government doesn't care about what happens to the people who are coming back," said Maria del Rosario Leyva, who came back with her two U.S.-born children, a 3-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl, from Santa Ana, California, last year after their father was deported.
In Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said that the U.S. government worries about U.S.-born offspring of migrants.
"Where are the children? What's going on with the children?" she said in an interview with The Arizona Republic newspaper.
The U.S.-born children who are brought back to Mexico have birth certificates and American passports, so they don't need anything else to prove they have citizen rights if they should go back to the U.S.
Leyva says her U.S.-citizen children will not stay in Mexico beyond childhood.
Her eyes moistened as she told of how they often ask when they will return to the United States.
"When they are old enough, they will leave," she said. "Their future is not here. Their children will have papers; the children of their children will also have papers. The problems will end."
http://news.yahoo.com/us-born-kids-migrants-lose-rights-mexico-163418022.html
US-born kids of migrants lose rights in Mexico
First, they crossed illegally into the United States for work, found jobs, and had children. Then, they were caught and deported, or left on their own as the work dried up with the U.S. economic slump. Now they are back in Mexico with children who are American citizens by virtue of being born on U.S. soil.
Because of the byzantine rules of Mexican and U.S. bureaucracies, tens of thousands of those children without Mexican citizenship now find themselves without access to basic services in Mexico unable to officially register in school or sign up for health care at public hospitals and clinics that give free check-ups and medicines.
It's a growing problem in Mexico as hundreds of thousands return home because of the sluggish U.S. job market and a record number of deportations.
Illegal migration of Mexicans to the U.S. is at its lowest level in decades, with more Mexicans now leaving the United States than entering it each year.
"The government doesn't care about what happens to the people who are coming back," said Maria del Rosario Leyva, who came back with her two U.S.-born children, a 3-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl, from Santa Ana, California, last year after their father was deported.
In Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said that the U.S. government worries about U.S.-born offspring of migrants.
"Where are the children? What's going on with the children?" she said in an interview with The Arizona Republic newspaper.
The U.S.-born children who are brought back to Mexico have birth certificates and American passports, so they don't need anything else to prove they have citizen rights if they should go back to the U.S.
Leyva says her U.S.-citizen children will not stay in Mexico beyond childhood.
Her eyes moistened as she told of how they often ask when they will return to the United States.
"When they are old enough, they will leave," she said. "Their future is not here. Their children will have papers; the children of their children will also have papers. The problems will end."
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