AUSTIN — A Brownsville woman who had a Texas driver license for over a decade was denied a new one in 2017 — and again last month — when the state suddenly raised suspicions that her birth certificate is fraudulent and questioned whether she is really a U.S. citizen.

Lorena Flores, born in 1984, is now suing, saying she was given no way to contest the ruling and wasn’t shown the evidence against her.

Though her situation echoes those depicted in lawsuits filed by Hispanics born along the U.S.-Mexico border who have been denied U.S. passports in the past, Flores’ attorney Peter McGraw said her lawsuit is the first he knows of related to driver licenses.

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Flores’ birth certificate was investigated by the state’s health department in 2017, a year when the agency flagged 722 birth certificates for potential fraud, said spokeswoman Susan Biles. She said the agency flagged 325 birth certificates in 2018.

She declined to comment on Flores’ case but said several things can prompt investigation.

“These include conflicting information received regarding the place of birth of a Texas registrant or referrals from law enforcement identifying potential fraud,” Biles said in a written statement.

It’s not clear how many of those flags have led to denied licenses: the Texas Department of Public Safety didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“They are investigating people in secret, and not providing any notice to anyone,”said McGraw, who leads the civil rights team at Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid. “The problem is they are taking away someone’s driving privilege because of that suspicion.”

Attorneys have filed hundreds of cases on behalf of people who were denied U.S. passports over allegations their birth certificates are fraudulent. Many of those flagged had been submitted by midwives, some of whom were convicted in the 1980’s and 1990’s of falsely registering births in Texas that occurred in Mexico.

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Now all birth certificates signed by midwives are being scrutinized, even if they weren’t involved in past prosecutions, said Brownsville attorney Jaime Diez, who has helped close to 1,000 people denied Social Security cards and passports based on their birth certificates.

“All these people here cannot get passports, cannot get driver licenses, cannot get birth certificates,” Diez said. “It’s a witch hunt.”

The U.S. State Department told Hearst Newspapers last year it is not targeting people at a higher rate than in the past. The federal agency said it refused 25.8 percent of passport requests in midwife cases in 2018, the lowest percentage in six years. The agency didn’t respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

State picks up 30-year-old case

It’s not clear what brought Flores to the state’s attention. The inspector general’s office at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission sent a letter to DPS in March 2017 saying it had conducted a birth certificate investigation and found Flores “may posses a fraudulent Texas Identification Card or Texas Driver’s License.”

The one-page letter, however, doesn’t spell out how the Health and Human Services Commission reached that conclusion.

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Flores was delivered in Brownsville by a midwife, who was later accused of falsely registering births in the U.S., the lawsuit said. Though the midwife was convicted of two counts in 1985, neither related to Flores, the lawsuit said.

Flores’ parents were indicted in connection to the case, but neither was arrested, prosecuted or even notified of the case, the lawsuit said. After 30 years of inaction, the U.S. government dismissed their indictment in 2016 “in the interests of justice.”

Like many children of transnational families, the lawsuit said, Flores also had her birth registered in Texas and later in Mexico, so she could get vaccinated there, her mother said in an affidavit.

Flores this month applied for a new birth certificate from the state. Until the state gives her a hearing to prove her birth certificate is valid, McGraw said, the state should give her a driver license.

Without a valid license, Flores has been fearful of driving her daughters to school and doctors appointments, or even leaving her home.

“I am afraid for my children,” Flores, who wasn’t available for an interview, wrote in an affidavit. “I do not know what would happen to them if the government decided to deport me from my own country.”