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Texas woman barred from US after swearing she is not American

A Texas woman has been stranded on the Mexican side of the US border for more than three months after making a statement saying she was born in Mexico and was not an American citizen, The Brownsville Herald reported.

Brenda Vazquez said her "false" statement to a US border official at the Brownsville international bridge on Feb. 19 came after she was grilled for seven hours when she attempted to re-enter Texas -- where she says she was born in Weslaco in 1982.

A petition filed in a US federal court on behalf of Vazquez claims she only signed the statement after a US Customs and Border Protection official seized her Texas driver's license and US birth certificate and refused to allow her access to a lawyer until she admitted she was not American, the Herald reported in its Sunday edition.

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

Her Brownsville-based lawyer Jaime Diez is attempting to retrieve her documents so she can re-enter the US.

US Customs and Border Protection officials did not respond to the newspaper's requests for comment.

Read more: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/articles/hours-140955-customs-vazquez.html