Screwup Leaves Man|Without a Country

SAN DIEGO (CN) - A man claims the State Department canceled his passport and the Border Patrol fired him because Uncle Sam refuses to believe he was born at a midwife's house in California, and insists he was born in Mexico.

Tomas Jimenez sued Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the United States of America, in Federal Court, seeking declaratory, injunctive and mandamus relief.

Jimenez says he was born in Newhall, Calif., at the home of a midwife, but his father and grandfather failed to register his birth "because they completed the application improperly and further had no money to contract the services of an attorney in 1973 (the year plaintiff was born)."

When he was born, his parents were not U.S. citizens. He was moved to Mexico a few months after he was born until he returned to the United States 1989, Jimenez says in his complaint.

He says his parents registered his birth in Mexico in 1974 "without his knowledge or consent."

In 1996, when he was 22, Jimenez says, he "obtained a California delayed registration of birth". Unfortunately, he "did not know the address at which he was born," he says in his complaint. He says his mother had told him "that he was born at the midwife's home, which was near his uncle's home." So he used his uncle's address as his birthplace.

Before he got his delayed registration of birth, however, he says he had "indicated on several documents, such as his marriage certificate with Juana Gutierrez, his son Joshuel Jimenez's birth certificate, and his prenuptial marriage application, that his place of birth was in Mexico."

Using his 1996 Delayed Registration of Birth from the Department of Health Services, he was issued a passport in 2002, Jimenez says.

In October 2011, the State Department canceled his passport, and "did not suggest any avenue of appeal". Then in March this year, he says, the Border Patrol fired him "for failure to maintain conditions of employment, specifically because they do not believe him to be a U.S. citizen or national."

Jimenez says the State Department canceled his passport "via a letter notifying him of the cancellation but provided no process by which plaintiff could present evidence that he was a U.S. citizen."

Jimenez claims that his U.S. citizenship has been recognized "on various occasions, e.g. the government has received payment of federal taxes, they have received the payment of Social Security, they have authorized Mr. Jimenez a California Driver's License, they even adjusted the status of his mother."

Jimenez is represented by Tina Malek with Rudolph, Baker & Associates.

Follow @jamierossCNS

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit