Most immigration issues tend to deal with a person’s citizenship in the United States. Yet there are some cases where these immigration issues also affect the family in their home country. For many illegal immigrants, the trek to America wasn’t worth it. These people were sent to their home country when they were discovered by the border patrol or by a law enforcement officer after setting up a home in their new country.

These immigrants remained undiscovered for years, and were able to secure jobs, buy homes, and eventually raise a family in America. Later, they were discovered and deported with their family in tow. Other times, the illegal aliens may have left on their own when the U.S. economic crisis cost them their jobs. Once living on low income in America became impossible, the families migrated back to Mexico, where life is more affordable. Now, the children in these deported families are “country-less.”

This is because the children do not have Mexican citizenship. They were not born in the country. They also can’t exercise their American citizenship because they were born to illegal immigrants in the country and don’t have legitimate documentation. Now that they have moved back, these children are being denied their basic rights. These rights include school registration, health care at public hospitals and clinics, and other benefits. The Mexican government requires that any official document from another country be certified inside the country with an apostille.

After this, that document needs to be taken to Mexico and translated to give the child the citizenship they need for basic rights. More than 300,000 U.S. born children have been taken back to Mexico since 2006. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, these children are a part of the 1.4 million Hispanics who fled the country during economic difficulty to seek a less-expensive lifestyle in Mexico. One demographic study shows that about 500,000 U.S. citizen children are now living in Mexico. The children will not be given state benefits unless they can obtain government-issued records from the state where that child was born.

According to many returners, Mexico doesn’t seem to care much about the people who are coming back. One parent says that his children will not be regarded as citizens because they don’t have official seals on their California birth certificates and the certificates were issued through a health department rather than a government entity. This means that a translator will not legitimize the documents. The Mexico Health Officials told the Associated Press that they do provide shot term health care to U.S. born children, but the parents must certify the children’s documents within 90 days to continue receiving these benefits. As well, the children are technically not permitted to go to school without certification, but will sometimes be permitted to attend if the teachers are gracious.

Some nonprofit organizations like The Corner Project are out to help the children in this unfortunate situation by working towards giving them the permits needed to receive country-benefits while waiting for certification. According to Fox News, only about 10 to 15 of the youngsters who are born to illegal immigrants in the United States return back with their parents. Because the children are natural born citizens in the U.S., they are often told to stay with aunts, uncles, or grandparents and continue their education in the United States. Also, many parents from Mexico are realizing that their parents are in a better situation if they live in the U.S., where they will be able to attend public school and receive public health care without any trouble.