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My family needs some advice on what to do with our predicament. In 2002 we immigrated to the USA so that my parents could find new work opportunities. In the 10ish years we spent in the US my brother and sister were born there. We needed to move back to Mexico and of course we needed to take my brother and sister with us. We couldn't really travel via air since my mother and I were illegal immigrants so the only real option was for us to drive all the way back to Mexico(we lived in South Carolina and DROVE all the way to Veracruz lol) and since we had cargo with us, again, driving there was our only option.

Before we made the journey though, mom made sure to gather all my siblings documentation including birth certificates, documentation of the hospital they were born in, social security, and passports. We drove to the border and arrived at an un-maned and unguarded border checkpoint at 9:00pm where we were supposed to get my siblings passport stamped and singed. We waited there for 4 hours for someone to arrive and sign our papers so that my brother and sister could pass, and so that all the stuff that we were carrying could be checked. no one showed up and the person that was driving us decided to just pass us across and take us to a safe place since that particular area was known for some... questionable activities. So to avoid our potential deaths we decided to book it and so we essentially smuggled my siblings out of the US...

TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE when it was time for them to finally go to school they couldn't enroll since they didn't have the nationality and my mother was so scared to give them the double nationality because we crossed the border without stamping their passports, essentially smuggling them into Mexico, and her fear was that the US gov would come and take them from her. They would have been ok-ish since we have family in the US and they most likely would have been placed there but that was still her fear. I am aware that things would have been fine if she would have done things the right way but people were pressuring her to hurry up and make the journey back, not to mention that others would tell her that the gov would take her kids away if she even wanted to go back.

Anyway, the time for them to enroll into school and get that sweet third world country education came along and they just couldn't do it. And so mom got a judge to help her register her children as if they were born here in Mexico... Basically doing the reverse of what Mexicans do in the US lel. They enrolled and got their education, grew up, and now they want to go back to the USA to continue their education.

The issue being is that they technically never left the US. What can we do? How would they be able to enroll into a school or get a job since they(US Gov) have no documentation of them ever having any education in the US? Could there be a way to merge their MX documentation with the US one? They have papers stating that they were born here in Mexico, they are "Mexican"... But they were born in the US and by all means are United States Citizens... I can't really say that the papers here were faked or doctored... they weren't. Our judge just helped them get registered here as if they were born here without taking into account the United Stated documentation. We have NO idea what to do or what angle to even begin attacking this issue from.

Any suggestions on what to do? I'm also really sorry if this wasn't the place to ask about this stuff. I had no idea where to ask and I thought that maybe Stack Exchange had something for issues like this. The closest I could find was the Travel section haha. If there's a better place to ask this, please do let me know!

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    This case is probably too complex for anyone to give you a complete answer, but, if your siblings were indeed born in the US, then they are US citizens, and only a few specific things can change that. It certainly does not matter if they left irregularly or lied to the Mexican government (though it is unclear why they would have needed to lie anyway). They are eligible to apply for US passports (presumably at the consulate in Mexico closest to them) and to enter, reside, and work in the US with those passports.
    – mlc
    May 1, 2022 at 3:09
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    While this is probably more in the realms of Expatriates.SE, I think the best advice anyone could give is going to be "Get a US immigration lawyer"
    – Peter M
    May 1, 2022 at 4:26
  • @mic My mother really had NO information given to her on what to even do. Later on as the time passed, I was the one that started to do some research and found out that everything that she was told was greatly falsified (like the US gov taking her babies away and that she would go to jail) We had no internet access back then so she really went on the stories that other told her. They do have their passports and all their documentation and Haven't given up their citizenship. As PeterM states, I think we need an immigration lawyer.
    – Losvaize
    May 1, 2022 at 18:09
  • @Losvaize No, other than failing to register her children as Mexican citizens, your mother did everything correctly. Only when one of the two countries disputes the Dual-Citizenship of the children do you need a lawyer.
    – Mark Johnson
    May 1, 2022 at 18:19
  • You definitely need a lawyer, unless you (or your family) want to risk saying the wrong thing to the wrong person and potentially face charges or lose any chance of getting it sorted out. Fraudulently gaining citizenship is still illegal even if there was a legal path.
    – eps
    May 1, 2022 at 22:33

2 Answers 2

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Any suggestions on what to do?

As children of Mexican parents, they are eligible for Mexican citizenship on that count alone - therefore there was no need to falsify their place of birth.

The US generelly doesn't (if at all) stamp passports upon exit, so no one will be surprised that they don't have one.

Make sure they now have a valid US passport and apply for Mexican passports based on the parents citizenship.

Get the faulty record of place of birth corrected.

It is completely legitimate for minor children to travel with their parents.

The correct procedere would have been to register the children in South Carolina as Mexican citizens after their birth.

Had the children been registered as Mexican citizens, they could have entered Mexico on their Mexican passports and there would have been no problem with the school.

It is surprising that a Mexican judge doesn't know that the children of Mexican citizens are also Mexican citizens.

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  • "As children of Mexican parents, they are eligible for Mexican citizenship on that count alone" I believe that that is only true if the parent was born in Mexico, although that is probably true here.
    – user102008
    May 1, 2022 at 16:45
  • @user102008 Kindly qoute the Mexican Nationality law that makes such a distinction.
    – Mark Johnson
    May 1, 2022 at 18:02
  • @MarkJohnson Yeah the judges here are kind of um, not good haha. Our judicial system is REALLY bad. Thank you so much Mark, I'll have a talk over with my parents and see what we can do about this predicament.
    – Losvaize
    May 1, 2022 at 18:22
  • @Losvaize As a boy (a long time ago) I lived 7 months in Mexico, entering in Vera Cruz and living in Guadalahara, so I have an inkling on how things 'work'. Getting Mexican Passports with the correct place of birth should resolve any 'misunderstandings' made in the past.
    – Mark Johnson
    May 1, 2022 at 18:37
  • @MarkJohnson Thank you so much Mark. You've cleared up a lot of our worries and lifted a huge weight off our shoulders. We'll get things corrected and in order. I had a talk with my mother and said that, yeah, that judge seemed to have just wanted a quick buck. Once again, thank you Mark.
    – Losvaize
    May 1, 2022 at 19:00
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You need a lawyer. You probably need one to sort out your situation in Mexico, and another to see if you will ever be allowed back into the US.

There is absolutely no chance that a random person on the internet will be able to sort this out for you.

You have done a whole number of complicated things, some of which appear to be illegal from your description. If your description is true then your "judge" is also going to facing criminal prosecution if people find out what he did. (You say he got the children "papers stating they were born in Mexico" when they weren't.) Only someone with a detailed knowledge of the law can sort this out for you.

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  • Sorry, but I disagree. 1) the children were born in the US and and thus are US citizens. 2) their parents are Mexican citizens and thus the children are Mexican citizens. Only when one of these two countries deputes these facts, is a lawyer needed.
    – Mark Johnson
    May 1, 2022 at 18:06
  • I agree with your statement that the judge should had adviced the mother that her children were Mexican citizens based on her citizenship and should have assisted her in the registration of them as Mexican citizens. Returning to her home country with her children is not illegel. So what, please, do you think 'appear to be illegal'?
    – Mark Johnson
    May 1, 2022 at 19:13
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    What "appears to be illegal" is that the judge arranged for the children to be given papers stating they were born in Mexico when they weren't. I quote: "They have papers stating that they were born here in Mexico". If that's not what happened then the judge is fine.
    – DJClayworth
    May 1, 2022 at 20:40
  • For that the OP needs no lawyer. (The judge is not the OP) Please clairify why the OP needs a lawyer as your first 3 words (in bold) states.
    – Mark Johnson
    May 1, 2022 at 20:47
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    @Losvaize be careful not to confuse the fact that it was you (and your parents) that overstayed, but not your siblings. Your siblings are US citizens, therefore they have not overstayed (and can not overstay) in the US.
    – Midavalo
    May 2, 2022 at 0:52

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