GettingAnother Chance

BROWNSVILLE — The U.S. State Department will hold special passport processing services next month in Harlingen and Brownsville for South Texas residents whose passport applications were denied because midwives attended their births.

At the “acceptance events” to be held Dec. 1, U.S. citizens will be allowed to reapply for passports without fees and under a new application process. But not all of those who were denied passports will be allowed to attend.

The events, which already have been held in El Paso, Del Rio, Eagle Pass and Laredo, are the result of a settlement agreement in a year-long class action lawsuit filed against the State Department by the American Civil Liberties Union and immigration attorneys representing citizens who were denied passports.

Only those who qualify as a class member in the case, Castelano, et al. v. Clinton, et al, and receive a verification letter from the State Department will be allowed to reapply at the events.

Potential class members — persons whose births were registered by a midwife or birth attendant and who applied for a U.S. passport in the country between April 8, 2003 and Aug. 14, 2009 but did not receive it — need to register online through the Web site: www.travel.state.gov/passport.

Requests for verification can also be made by mail, but with only two weeks until the event, the best way is to go online.

The verification process can take up to four weeks and only those verified as class members will receive the exact times and locations of the events through the Web site.

Department of State officials are working to expedite the verification process, Jose Borjon, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, said.

“Right now, they are turning (the requests) around in one to two weeks,” Borjon said. “The Department of State is working vigorously to get these letters out to potential class members before the Dec. 1 deadline.”

The State Department began questioning passport applicants’ citizenship when it suspected that as many as 15,000 midwife-granted birth certificates were issued fraudulently in South Texas. From 1960 to 2008, more than 75 South Texas midwives were convicted of signing birth certificates for children they did not deliver.

Immigration attorneys, particularly in South Texas, began seeing a steady stream of cases in which residents were asked to supply all sorts of necessary and obscure documentation as additional proof of citizenship. The applicants ranged from senior citizens to children and even included veterans and employees of federal agencies.

There may be more events not limited to Castelano class members early in 2010.

But some immigration attorneys and community leaders expressed concerns that the State Department had not disseminated enough information about the December events to those affected.

Centro Cultural Educacion Y Asistencia de Cameron Park and Proyecto Juan Diego, also in Cameron Park, have become bases for dozens of people sent in bureaucratic circles. Yet, community workers at both nonprofit groups have not seen nearly as many people come to ask about the December passport acceptance events or the verification letters.

“I do not think people here in Cameron Park know about (the events) or else we would have had throngs of people coming in to ask,” Lupita Sanchez, a community health worker for Proyecto Juan Diego, said.

Immigration attorney Elisabeth Brodyaga, who originally led the lawsuit against the State Department, said most verified class members should have already received their letters but doubted many knew the exact times and locations of the events.

“I don’t think that this fulfills the spirit of the agreement,” Brodyaga said referring to what she believes is the State Department lack of information disclosure to the public.

Meanwhile, immigration attorney Jaime Diez said those who are not verified class members should still reapply for a passport. The lawsuit agreement has instituted new procedures to approve passport applications that should benefit everyone.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “If you are a citizen, you need to get your passport.”