It may be more than a year before the U.S. government confirms what Francisco Galicia has been saying since June -- that he’s a U.S. citizen.

The Dallas-born 18-year-old high school senior who spent nearly a month in the custody of U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement learned last week that an immigration court in Harlingen has ordered him to appear in August 2020.

His attorney fears that the U.S. government may be trying to build a case to question his citizenship based on the fact that his mother solicited a birth certificate for him in Mexico almost three years after he was born in Dallas, an action Galicia would have had no control over at that age.

Claudia Galan, Galicia’s attorney, said she hoped the court date would be scheduled sooner so the matter could be put to rest and questions of Galicia’s citizenship can cease.

But now she said there’s no choice but to file a motion to terminate in the hope that she can get before a judge who can order the government to speed things up. Galan added that this shouldn’t be a concern for him as he tries to finish his high school senior year.

Francisco Galicia told The Dallas Morning News that he fears Immigration and Customs Enforcement is still trying to have him deported. (Ryan Michalesko / Staff Photographer)

“The plan now is to file a motion to terminate deportation proceedings so we don’t have to wait until 2020. We’re going to attach all the evidence that has already been submitted to ICE and hope we get a positive ruling,” Galan said.

ICE officials issued a statement in response to The Dallas Morning News’ inquiry about the court date and the ongoing deportation proceedings, saying that “As a matter of policy, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not comment on pending litigation.”

The statement also said “However, lack of comment should not be construed as agreement with or stipulation to any of the allegations. As part of the Department of Homeland Security’s homeland security mission, our trained law enforcement professionals adhere to the Department’s mission and values, and uphold our laws while continuing to provide the nation with safety and security.”

The statement is identical to one ICE sent to The News for the October 4 report about Galicia’s ongoing deportation proceedings.

A fake Mexican birth certificate

Galan said she worries the door remains open on whether the U.S. government will question Galicia’s citizenship because he has a Mexican birth certificate that his mother obtained for him in 2003.

Sanjuana Galicia, Francisco’s mother, said that when Francisco was about 3 years old, she tried to enroll him in school in Mexico. She moved back to Reynosa from Dallas in 2001 after separating from Francisco’s father.

But Mexican school officials told her that he needed to be a Mexican citizen if he was to be enrolled, so she obtained the birth certificate.

Sanjuana Galicia leaned into son Francisco's shoulder as they talked outside their home in July. (Ryan Michalesko / Staff Photographer)

The News reviewed that document. The Mexican civil registry states on the document that the certificate was registered in Mexico in August 2003. Galicia’s U.S. birth certificate from the City of Dallas Vital Statistics Division was received by the local registrar in Dallas in January 2001, just a few days after he was born at Parkland Hospital.

“He was a baby. He didn’t make any decisions. I made those decisions thinking of a better future for him,” Sanjuana Galicia said. “I made those mistakes, but I made them thinking it was what was best for him. He needed to go to school.”

Galan said that Galicia’s Mexican birth certificate actually serves as proof of his birth in the U.S. because it was filed years after his birth in Dallas was registered.

A citizen by birthright

It’s understandable that the U.S. government would question Galicia’s case because of this second birth certificate, said Gerard Magliocca, a constitutional law expert and law professor at Indiana University who has written about the 14th Amendment, which grants birthright citizenship to those born on U.S. soil.

But by all intensive purposes, Magliocca said, because Galicia’s birth in the U.S. was registered close to three years before his mother obtained the Mexican birth certificate, Galicia “constitutionally speaking” is a U.S. citizen.

“The only exception would be if [Galicia] has somehow renounced his citizenship. And I’m not sure a parent can in fact renounce a minor child’s citizenship,” Magliocca said.

According to the State Department, U.S. nationality is “a status that is personal to the individual U.S. national, it cannot be renounced by a parent or a legal guardian under any set of circumstances.”

The Immigration and Nationality Act states that a U.S. citizen can lose citizenship if that person obtains citizenship in a foreign country but only if that person is older than 18.

Public Radio International’s The World reported in 2018 that there are about 600,000 U.S.-born children living in Mexico struggling to claim their U.S. citizenship. Some families reported having to obtain Mexican birth certificates so U.S.-born children could attend school.

While in custody, Francisco Galicia said he lost 26 pounds and was fed only dry bologna sandwiches for breakfast and junior cheeseburgers for dinner. (Ryan Michalesko / Staff Photographer)

Ongoing deportation proceedings

ICE signaled in late September that it was still seeking Galicia’s deportation by filing his case with an immigration judge in Harlingen.

His attorney said she has presented evidence of his native-born status to ICE officials at least three times since his release from custody in late July, when The News first reported about his detention.

Galicia was detained in June by U.S. Border Patrol at a checkpoint in Falfurrias. He was traveling to Ranger College in North Texas with his brother and three other friends for a soccer scouting event.

Galicia presented Border Patrol officers with a Texas ID and a wallet-sized birth certificate, but he said the agents didn’t believe him. Officers then detained him and fingerprinted him. They found he had a visitors visa that his mother obtained for him when he was a minor to travel back to the U.S. from Mexico.

He was then held by Border Patrol for three weeks in conditions he said were so poor that he almost self-deported. He was transferred to ICE for about three days and was released less than 24 hours after The News reported his story.

One immigration attorney focused on removal defense told The News earlier this month that ICE could have already closed Galicia’s case based on prosecutorial discretion given the evidence Galan has presented.

Galicia could not reached for comment.