State (yr 72an District 90
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES REPRESENTATIVE RAMON ROMERO, JR.
July 15, 2015
The Honorable Kirk Cole
Commissioner, Department of State Health Services
1100 West 49th Street

Austin, TX 78756

Dear Commissioner Cole,

The 14:th amendmenti?ofzt?e United States Constitution states, "All persons born or
naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereo? are citizens of the
United States and the State wherein they reside. With that in mind, you can imagine how
troubled I was to receive news that the Texas Department of State Health Services Vital
Statistics Unit was allegedly refusing to issue birth certificates to children born to
undocumented parents in Texas in circumstances where birth certificates have been issued
in the past.

The specter of changing internal agency policy to overturn nearly 150 years of
constitutional protection is ill-advised at best. Further, this protection has been reaffirmed
in court repeatedly for over 100 years with the courts consistently holding that no person
should be deprived of citizenship because of their parents? status as non-citizens. Lack of a
birth certificate and citizenship will disenfranchise these children, who are by all rights
American citizens they will not be allowed to enroll in daycare or public schooling
without proper documentation and would be unable to work when older as well. Any
decision negatively affecting the ability of?United States citizens to obtain a birth certificate
would be tantamount to creating a state-sponsored, undocumented second class. One can
only imagine the long-term fallout that would follow from such a rash decision.

It is my hOpe that these recent reports in the news are either unfounded or the exception
and not the rule. Regardless, if the situation has occurred even once, it is unacceptable. Any
person born in Texas deserves all documentation and privileges concomitant with being
both a United States and Texas citizen. As former Texas solicitor general James C. Ho
eloquently stated during a Joint hearing on Immigration and Border Security Issues in
2007, ?The US. Constitution speaks directly to the issue of birthright citizenship. It makes
clear that birthright citizenship is a matter of constitutional right?no less for the U.S.-born

 

Capitol: P.O. Box 2910 Austin, Texas 78768?2910 plume (512) 463-0740 fax (512) 463-1075
District: 1550 W. Berry St. Fort Worth, Texas 76110 0 phone (817) 924-6788 ramon.romero@house.state.tx.us

children of unlawful aliens and undocumented persons than for the descendants of
passengers of the May?ower." 

Please provide my office with an exhaustive list of necessary and acceptable documentation
when applying for a birth certificate. If this list differs in any way from state law, the Texas
Administrative Code or Department of State Health Services internal rules, please provide
an explanation as to why a state agency is operating outside the bounds of the operating
rules set forth in the code. Additionally, please advise my office of any identified cases
where children of undocumented parents, or other citizens, have been denied a birth
certificate due to recent rule changes, if such situations have occurred.

1 look forward to your written response.

Sincerely,

   
 
   

Ramon Romero, Jr.
State Representative District 90