[EXCERPTED FROM ORIGINAL STORY BY ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON Associated Press]
*
Because of the byzantine rules of
Mexican and U.S. bureaucracies, tens of thousands of children 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.
**
One by one, the parents tell government workers their
stories: 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.
At issue is a Mexican government requirement that any
official document from another country be certified inside that country with a
seal known as an "apostille," then be translated by a certified, and
often expensive, translator in Mexico.
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.
**
More than 300,000 U.S.-born children have been brought to
Mexico since 2005, out of a total of 1.4 million people who moved back from the
U.S. during that period, according to the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center.
The number of U.S.-citizen children living in Mexico with
at least one Mexican parent reached 500,000 in 2011, according to one
demographic study.
**
Many of the
Mexican parents of U.S. children were not aware of Mexico's paperwork
requirement before they came back, so now tens of thousands are struggling to
get their children's documents to the United States to be certified, and then
returned to Mexico to be officially translated.
They get little help from the Mexican government....
"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 last year after their father was deported.
She and other returnees have gone to schools and to
education offices seeking to enroll their children. Some were sent to
Malinalco's records office, which suggested they hire a lawyer.
**
Many parents don't understand what administrators and
clerks tell them. Official procedures are often confusing even for
college-educated Mexicans. Misconceptions are widespread: Hernandez said he'd
heard from other families that if he didn't get the children's documents
stamped, U.S. officials could take the youngsters from him, even in Mexico.
"The mothers have come to us for help after multiple
frustrations," said Ellen Calmus, director of the Corner Project.
"I've literally had a series of mothers in tears coming to the
office."
**
A majority of migrants' American-born children stay in
the U.S. with relatives, or are taken into state foster care after their
parents are arrested for crimes. Demographers say only about 10 to 15 percent
of the U.S.-born youngsters are taken to Mexico.
"These are children who are kind of stateless in
both countries," said Hirokazu Yoshikawa, academic dean at the Harvard
Graduate School of Education and author of "Immigrants Raising Citizens:
Undocumented Parents and Their Young Children."
**
"Each generation is undocumented in one
country," he said.
**
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.
Leyva said 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.
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