Texas native banned from the U.S. after saying she isn't an American

Published On: Tuesday December 18, 2012  2:50 AM
By: Sarah Weiss

Woman faces questioning by U.S. border patrol agents

A Texas woman has been stranded on the Mexican side of the U.S. border for more than three months after making a statement that she was born in Mexico and was not a U.S. citizen, the news media reported.

Brenda Vazquez said her "false" declaration to an official of the U.S. border at the international bridge in Brownsville on February 19 came after she was interrogated for seven hours when she tried to re-enter Texas where she says she was born in 1982 in Weslaco.

A petition filed in a U.S. federal court on behalf of Vasquez says she only signed the statement after
 a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer took her Texas driver's license and birth certificate of the U.S. and refused to allow her access to a lawyer until she admitted she was not an America, the news media reported.

Vazquez has been stuck in limbo in Matamoros on the Mexican side of the border since then.

Her lawyer based in Brownsville said, Jaime Díez is trying to retrieve her documents so that she can re-enter the U.S..
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials did not respond to requests from the news media for comment.