Legislature 2004
Panel OKs ID cards for Mexican nationals

By Lornet Turnbull
Seattle Times staff reporter

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With the checking account, she avoids the costly fees that friends without ID pay to neighborhood shop owners and check-cashing stores.

"It's nice to have the consular Mexican card," she said.

"Without (it), they don't know who you are. You have no credit, no Social Security. For apartment, you give the landlord more money if you have no ID. It's more difficult for a person."

By a vote of 6-3, the House Judiciary Committee yesterday passed House Bill 3029, which authorizes statewide acceptance of the card, known as a matricula consular and issued by the Mexican government to nationals living in the United States.

Acceptance of this card, needed mostly by illegal immigrants with no other legal form of ID, is a controversial and divisive issue, particularly in this political season and in an era when Latinos have emerged as the country's largest and fastest-growing minority group.

Advocates call it an act of humanity; immigration purists say it undermines U.S. immigration law.

Six cities in Washington — Seattle, Tacoma, Kent, Renton, Bellevue and Yakima — have authorized acceptance of the cards. In just over a year, the Mexican consulate in Seattle has issued about 21,000 of the cards to the state's estimated 500,000 Mexicans, said Jorge Madrazo, consul general.

This week, the Judiciary Committee heard testimony from sponsors and supporters including Madrazo, major banks, Latino advocates, law enforcement, and municipal and Department of Licensing officials.

No one testified against the measure.

It was a delicate dance by committee members skeptical of the proposal and those who support it, with no one directly stating the obvious: that, with few exceptions, those who need this card are here illegally.
 
"People who are in the U.S. lawfully already have proper, legal documents," Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Roy, Pierce County, said. "Why would they need this?"

Rep. Bill Fromhold, the Vancouver Democrat who sponsored the bill, pointed out that the matricula consular will do nothing to alter a person's immigration status.

"State and federal laws, for example, make undocumented immigrants ineligible for most forms of public assistance," he said.

"This bill does not alter that at all."

Rather, he said, it should help law enforcement by encouraging victims and witnesses of crimes to cooperate with authorities, knowing their identification is acceptable and recognized. It would authorize financial institutions and state and local government agencies, including law enforcement, to accept the card as ID.

The Department of Licensing accepts the card as a secondary form of ID, and the bill wouldn't change that. Washington does not consider an individual's legal immigration status when issuing state driver's licenses or ID cards.

"It's important that we remember that states do not make or enforce immigration laws," Fromhold said.

"And nothing in this bill will prevent our federal authorities from enforcing our federal immigration laws."

Madrazo sought to address concerns about counterfeiting, noting "every institution that accepts the card has decoders" to verify their authenticity.

Across the country, banks, law-enforcement agencies, cities and states recognize and accept the matricula consular to varying degrees.

While the U.S. Treasury has approved it for opening bank accounts, other federal agencies have been silent.

In Seattle last month, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services director Eduardo Aguirre said, "We in the federal government haven't yet finished looking at the merits of the matricula consular. It's not fraud or tamperproof. As a state, as a municipality, if you accept that card, that's your problem — or your opportunity."

Denise Movius, assistant director of the Department of Licensing, said a delegation visited consulate offices this week to review new procedures for issuing the cards.

The cards have new security features to guard against counterfeiting, she told the committee. Its digital photos are similar to those taken at the Department of Licensing offices.

To obtain a card, a Mexican national must submit three pieces of ID, which can include a birth certificate, voter's card or military ID.

Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that supports strict enforcement of immigration laws, questions the ability of the Mexican government in the U.S. to certify that its citizens are who they say they are.

"It's not against the law in the U.S. for people to provide false information on the card," he said. "It's not backed up by the threat that false information is a crime. It's deeply troubling when you have state or local government subverting U.S. immigration law."

Juan Aguilar, vice president of community development at Washington Mutual, said the measure is consistent with WaMu's objectives to serve the Mexican immigrant community.

"We recognize the importance of the Hispanic community as a growing consumer and worker base and a force that really lends to the economic vitality of the state of Washington," he said.

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com

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