Deported mother argues her fetus is U.S. citizen

By Laura Wides
The Associated Press

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That argument sounds like a longshot to some on both sides of the immigration debate. But in May, a federal judge in Kansas City, Mo., approved a stay of deportation for a pregnant Mexican woman after raising, among other concerns, the question of whether her fetus could be considered a U.S. citizen. The judge is reviewing the issue.

Last week immigration officials in Los Angeles denied a request to grant 30-year-old Maria Christina Rubio, mother of two young U.S.-born daughters, a temporary humanitarian visa to return to the United States because of complications in her pregnancy. The request was filed by her husband's attorney, Luis Carrillo, who is considering whether to file a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement for unlawful deportation.

Carrillo said Rubio, who was hospitalized with complications in her fifth month and has suffered severe stomach pains throughout her pregnancy, needs to be back in the United States because the baby is at risk.

He also cited the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004, in which unborn children are granted equal protection under criminal law. Carrillo said that since the fetus is 8 months and would be viable outside the womb, it should be treated as a child born in the United States.

"The child was conceived in the United States and would have been born in the United States except that the mother was deported. Through no part of his own, the unborn baby is in Mexico," he said.

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the U.S. Constitution's definition of citizen is very clear.

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States" are considered citizens under the 14th Amendment. "It doesn't say all persons who were conceived in the United States," Kice said.

Rubio was deported after she went to what her husband says was to be a status conference on her residency request. Immigration officials say Rubio was immediately deported after they learned her residency request had been denied two years before and she had previously entered the country illegally.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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