Mexican consulates to ease immigrants’ access to birth records (w/video)

A change in practice by Mexican consulates worldwide means those born in Mexico will no longer have to travel back to their homeland to obtain a birth certificate, nor struggle to find relatives to track down the document, a shift that immigration advocates say will help those living in the U.S. illegally prove their identity when they apply for deportation reprieve later this year.

The change enables all in the Mexican consulates in the United States to access birth records through a digital archive, spokesman Mario García said. That means Sonoma County residents who were born on Mexican soil will only have to travel about 50 miles to San Francisco for certified copies of their birth certificates, instead of wait for a relative to slip the document in the mail, which some say can be unreliable. The cost: $13 a copy.

“No matter where they were born (in Mexico), they’ll be able to find their birth certificate,” said García, who works at the consulate in San Francisco, which serves about 800,000 people in Northern California.

However, the person must have been registered after birth at one of the government offices in Mexico, a challenge for those who lived in remote villages.

Still, the move is supposed to make it easier for undocumented immigrants applying for California driver’s licenses under the new law known as AB60, as well as those seeking reprieve from deportation and work permits under President Barack Obama’s new immigration policy announced in November.

It’s a welcome change for Suzy Becerra, a legal aide at the Santa Rosa nonprofit Vital Immigrant Defense Advocacy and Services, known as VIDAS.

Becerra, who was born in Mexico, said she frequently comes across people who need their birth records but don’t have them. She said many of them cannot afford to travel back home to get them because of their undocumented status, so they turn to relatives to pick up the record at a government office in their birth state.

“Oftentimes, what they have to do is call family in Mexico and ask them to get them a birth certificate and mail it,” she said.

Becerra said it can take months for the birth certificates to arrive in the mail - that is, if they don’t get lost along the way. That has happened often, she said.

Others reported problems finding family still living in their birth state, said Manuel Rivera, a lead immigration counselor at Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa. Families move out of the states, making it challenging for those in the U.S. to track down their records, said Rivera, who previously had clients who spend years unsuccessfully chasing down birth certificates.

“It’s helpful not just for the undocumented, but for all Mexicans,” he said about the new service. “You use it to get a passport, matricula (card) and other documents.”

About 45,000 residents in the county were born in Mexico, according to U.S. census data.

With AB60 and the presidential executive order, García said, there’s been a bigger demand for documents at the consulate, which requires customers to make appointments.

“We have a long wait,” he said, adding that once people are there, it only takes 10 to 15 minutes to print the birth certificates.

To make an appointment for a birth certificate, call 415-354-1700 ext. 1524 or email fdcastro@sre.gob.mx.

Reach Staff Writer Eloísa Ruano González at 521-5458 or eloisa?.gonzalez@pressdemocrat.com.