A California couple who traveled to Mexico for a surrogate birth has been unable to obtain a local birth certificate for their newborn son, which has made it impossible for them to return the United States, ABC News reported.

Without the document, Grayson Amireh, the newborn baby, cannot obtain the passport he needs to cross the border. His parents, Haseeb and Christy Amireh, have been stuck in hotels in the Mexican state of Tabasco while they try to sort out the bureaucratic nightmare, CBS News detailed.

"We just want to get home," Christy Amireh told San Francisco CBS affiliate KPIX. "It seemed like time just kept passing - and the next day, and the next day, and next day -- and no birth certificate; and we started panicking," the new mother chronicled.

Unable to have children, Amireh and her husband had opted for surrogacy and chose to have the procedure in Tabasco, where it is much more affordable than in the United States, CBS News explained.

The Amirehs traveled to Mexico multiple times over the past year so that Haseeb could donate sperm and the two could maintain a close relationship with the doctor and surrogate mother, a family friend named Vivek Bobby Khullar told ABC News.

"They did their homework and research; Mexico seemed liked a good option because the legality of it there seemed on point," Khullar explained. "Everything went smoothly up until after the actual delivery," he added.

"It seems like the governor (of Tabasco) suddenly stopped allowing surrogate families to get birth certificates," he said.

The Amirehs have since hired a local lawyer and have been in contact with the State Department, CBS News said.

The governor's office in Tabasco and the consulate general of Mexico in New York, meanwhile, did not immediately respond to requests for additional information, ABC News added.

Eric Swalwell, a California congressman, suggested on KPIX that the couple's experience could give others pause as they consider surrogacies in foreign locales.

"From what we learned, the governor in that state has put a moratorium on all birth certificates for surrogate families," the Democrat said. "I think this just highlights why it's really important to understand the laws of any country that you're traveling to to make a health-care decision."