Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid and the Texas Civil Rights Project have filed a lawsuit on behalf of six children who've been denied birth certificates even though they were born inside the United States.
As you know, birthright citizenship is a thing that exists in America, but if the allegations in this lawsuit are true it would seem that Texas is making up its own rules.
via NBC News
According to the civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Austin, the Texas Department of State Health Services has denied birth certificates to U.S. citizen children on the border whose parents lack citizenship or legal status. [...]
"It's not up to the state to decide on immigration policy. This is a federal issue," [Attorney Jennifer Harbury] told NBC. "The state of Texas has to accommodate these women. They can't disenfranchise them."
Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment which states that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." The Supremacy Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment also states that federal law is the "supreme law of the land."
As you might have guessed, Republicans are not big fans of the Fourteenth Amendment or birthright citizenship, at least not for babies with brown skin. Several congressional Republicans, including infamous xenophobe Steve King of Iowa, have introduced bills to repeal birthright citizenship.
Unless Texas decides to settle the case, this could go higher than the District Court.