RALEIGH — The city of Durham may be on the verge of giving illegal immigrants a free pass when government officials demand proof of identity. While the rest of the country rightfully is concerned about identity fraud and making sure illegal immigrants don’t receive improper benefits, Durham wants to go in the opposite direction.
A resolution being considered by the city would direct Durham law enforcement to accept a document called a Matricula Consular as a means of verifying identity. The resolution also would allow the ID to be used for obtaining government services.
A Matricula Consular is an identification card issued by the Mexican government to Mexicans living overseas. It is a document that has virtually no credibility in establishing that a person is who really he says he is.
In congressional testimony, FBI officials stated “that the Matricula Consular is not a reliable form of identification, due to the non-existence of any means of verifying the true identity of the card holder.” According to the FBI, the documents are prone to fraud, in part because they are so easy to obtain.
In 2004, North Carolina recognized the problems with these documents and stopped accepting them as a means of identification at the Division of Motor Vehicles. The National Notary Association, in opposing a 2009 California bill allowing the use of these documents, argued, “Allowing acceptance of the Matricula Consular will compromise the safety and security of California consumers and undermine the credibility of the state’s Notaries Public.”
To obtain a Matricula Consular, an individual does not need to demonstrate lawful status in the country. Therefore, even if the person is properly identified on the document, it provides no information regarding lawful status.
The government should always look to ensure that documents used for identification purposes are legitimate. The Matricula Consular fails on that count. A Blockbuster video card, which requires some type of government-issued photo ID before obtaining the card, is arguably a better source of identification.
There, of course, is the abuse of the Matricula Consular by illegal immigrants. Those individuals lawfully in this country would possess a number of government-issued documents, such as drivers licenses, visas, or passports. A legal immigrant must possess a federal-issued document.
Mexicans living in this country can use a Mexican government-issued passport for identification purposes. There seems to be a misconception that the Matricula Consular is the only document that can be issued by the Mexican government, while in fact, a Mexican passport is a perfectly appropriate form of identification.
The only reason individuals would be compelled to get the Matricula Consular for ID purposes is to hide their true identities or to have an ID that poses no risk of alerting authorities about their illegal status in the country.
In 2006, the North Carolina General Assembly made it more difficult for illegal immigrants to secure driver’s licenses. The state used to accept something called an individual taxpayer identification number, which is an Internal Revenue Service number generally issued to those illegally in this country so they can pay taxes. The state now requires that an individual have a Social Security number, which can be obtained even by legal immigrants.
A driver’s license is a critical form of ID because it is used by so many people to prove who they claim they are. Further, a license is a key that unlocks the door to the many benefits of citizenship in the United States. We use licenses for everything from boarding airplanes to getting a library card. Having a driver’s license generally provides the ability to enjoy the American life without ever raising suspicions of your immigration status.
Once the legislature took action to make it more difficult to get a license, it made it more difficult for illegal immigrants to get that key to enjoy the American life. The end-run around this obstacle is to allow illegal immigrants to use the Matricula Consular.
While the Matricula Consular may not allow someone to drive, accepting the card certainly provides illegal immigrants access to many other benefits, depending on how far Durham is willing to go in accepting the document. Illegal immigrants could receive business licenses, marriage licenses, library cards, discounts for parks and other city services, and government subsidies.
This is just a sample of the government benefits illegal immigrants could receive, and this doesn’t include the many things they already can secure from private companies, such as mortgages.
Durham should become neither a haven for illegal immigrants nor a city that doesn’t care if taxpayer-subsidized benefits go to illegal immigrants. If Durham fails to do the right thing by rejecting the proposed resolution, the General Assembly will need to prohibit local governments from accepting the Matricula Consular. It’s difficult enough to fight illegal immigration without cities imposing policies undermining those who enforce the nation’s immigration laws.
Daren Bakst is director of legal and regulatory studies at the John Locke Foundation.