City gives its blessing to Mexican consulate IDs

The lives of Chicago’s Mexican immigrants, often stymied in routine ways by the lack of proper identification, became easier Wednesday when the City Council made it legal to accept consulate-issued ID cards, allowing greater access to city government and other mainstream institutions.

The action puts Chicago on a growing list of major American urban areas, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas, that have recognized growing Mexican immigrant populations by validating the card, known as the “Matricula Consular.”

From police scrapes to applying for library cards and check-cashing cards, the ID will lessen fears of recrimination that many Mexican immigrants face, supporters said. Some financial institutions already accept the card in opening new accounts, and the city’s action Wednesday is expected to encourage that practice.

But matricula’s increasing popularity has not come without controversy, often revealing America’s ambivalence toward immigrants. While the U.S. Justice Department aggressively pursues illegal immigrants, many local governments remain reluctant to act as “immigration police” and the American economy’s appetite for immigrants as a source of cheap labor continues unabated.

A recent study by the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago revealed that undocumented workers contribute an estimated $5.45 billion to the economy. At least 70 percent of undocumented workers pay taxes.

Immigration reform advocates argue that acceptance of the matricula condones illegal immigration.

But supporters see validation of the card as simply acknowledging that undocumented workers make significant contributions to the local and national economy.

In the post-Sept. 11 era, the matricula gives Mexican immigrants valid identification for entering business and government buildings under tighter security.

For Manuel de Jesus Herrera, 24, an undocumented immigrant applying for a matricula at the Mexican Consulate on Michigan Avenue Wednesday, the card will be his ticket to renting an apartment and opening a bank account, and now he won’t worry if Chicago police stop him, he said.

“I’ll feel more comfortable here,” Herrera said.

Comfort a factor

Comfort was a primary factor for Ald. Edward Burke (14th), whose ward is largely Latino, introducing the ordinance through the city’s Human Relations Committee last year. Mexican immigrants have been reluctant to come forward to report crime and are generally fearful in dealing with police because they don’t have proper identification and worry that such interaction could lead to deportation, Burke said.

Herrera, for example, said he has friends who live in fear of police because they don’t have Illinois driver’s licenses or other valid ID.

“You get stopped and you show them a Mexican license–they don’t want to see that,” Herrera said. “Then you’re in a bigger bind over some little incident.”

“The ultimate benefit that occurs is the support that it gives to the hardworking Mexican citizens here in Chicago,” Burke said. “Their labor, the work that they do, is a tremendous resource all across not only our city but our region.”

Providing that level of comfort for Mexican immigrants is exactly what upsets immigration reform advocates.

“It’s absurd for local governments to facilitate illegal immigration when the federal government is doing everything it can to get a handle on the problem,” said David Ray, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigrant Reform.

“One of the deterrents to coming here illegally is that it will be impossible to start a normal life in the United States. This undercuts that deterrent and entices people to flaunt immigration law,” Ray said.

The matricula has become an essential document for Mexican immigrants and the Chicago consulate has issued 60,000 cards this year, with long lines of immigrants like Herrera snaking down Michigan Avenue daily, waiting to plunk down $29 for the card. Applicants are required to have lived in the United States for six months and to provide a valid regional birth certificate from Mexico.

Difficult to duplicate

Consulate officials worked with Chicago police to devise a card that they agreed was virtually impossible to duplicate. Officials said the card has at least seven security features, including watermarks and other hidden marks that can only be detected with a decoder.

But Ald. Dorothy Tillman (3rd), the ordinance’s lone dissenter, drew the ire of Latino aldermen by suggesting the measure was discriminatory because it excludes other immigrant groups. Tillman was not placated by Mayor Richard M. Daley’s pledge that other consuls general in Chicago would have the opportunity to work with the city in creating similar measures.

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Tillman suggested the city was bowing to pressure from the Mexican government.

“To allow some other government to dictate what law that we pass in respect to immigrants is unfair. If they wanted to pass this, they should have left the window of opportunity open for other immigrant groups. This is wrong,” Tillman said. “The Mexican government cannot pass a law for our city.”

Cecelia Munoz, vice president for policy at the National Council of La Raza, said accepting the Mexican ID is not discriminatory because many governments don’t issue consular cards.

“All you’re doing when you deny documents is isolating these people,” she said. “If we want to improve security we need to have contact with these folks.”