Thread: Congressman flies to Catalina Island, slams Mexican consulat

Congressman flies to Catalina Island, slams Mexican consulate over immigration
By LOUIS SAHAGUN
Los Angeles Times
Published: Thursday, Jun. 3, 2010 - 1:00 am
Last Modified: Thursday, Jun. 3, 2010 - 12:53 pm

AVALON, Calif. -- Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., flew by helicopter to Santa Catalina Island on Thursday to personally condemn an effort by the Mexican consulate to offer identification cards to undocumented workers there.

Rohrabacher began his visit with a private, 90-minute breakfast meeting attended by Santa Catalina Island Co. officials, Los Angeles County sheriff's authorities and Avalon Mayor Bob Kennedy to discuss the matter. By some estimates, as much as 70 percent of Avalon's permanent population of 3,000 residents are Spanish-speaking Latinos.

"It was a good meeting. We had a very frank discussion about a national issue," Rohrabacher said afterward. "This community is a microcosm of the problems in the whole country.

"America can close its eyes and incrementally allow the country to be dominated by people who are here illegally," added Rohrabacher, who is running for re-election in November and whose district includes the island. "Where you have illegal immigration, crime and drugs are sure to follow."

Kennedy, standing nearby, would not go that far.

"We have been labeled a sanctuary city and that is not true," he said. "But this is not a situation that can be handled by local officials. The problem is national."

The Mexican consul's office first offered the photo identification cards to local illegal immigrant workers two years ago, setting up shop for a day in the upscale Catalina Island Country Club restaurant. The matricula cards can be used to establish credit, open bank accounts, buy insurance and apply for government services.

The consul's office was originally scheduled to offer the service again Thursday at the country club.

But all that changed when Rohrabacher on Wednesday informed the restaurant's owner, the Santa Catalina Island Co., that State Department approval was necessary in order for any service to be provided by a foreign government on its property.

As a result, the company informed the consul's office that it could no longer operate out of the country club.

The consul's team of 12 specialists moved a few blocks away to St. Catherine of Alexandria Catholic Church in Avalon.

But their problems were far from over.

At 10 a.m., Rohrabacher and an assistant strode into the church to personally express his concerns, raising eyebrows. Rohrabacher was greeted by Deputy Consul General Juan Carlos Mendoza Sanchez of Los Angeles in the middle of a room where Mexican specialists were typing information into laptop computers from two dozen men and women seeking their services.

But all eyes were on Rohrabacher and Sanchez, who launched into a carefully worded dialogue, expressing strongly opposing opinions.

Standing inches apart, Sanchez told Rohrabacher, "We have a lot of respect for you. At the same time, we have certain responsibilities."

Rohrabcher responded: "I understand that. But there is a problem in our country; there are too many illegals here."

"This is not done with any type of belligerency," Rohrabacher added, referring to his unannounced visit.

"Everyone has their own point of view," Sanchez said. "We are performing this activity under international law."

"Well, that will be decided in Washington and Mexico City," Rohrabacher said.

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/03/279662 ... alina.html

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/03/279662 ... z0pp5t8Wst

"Everyone has their own point of view," Sanchez said. "We are performing this activity under international law."

SEE OUR LAWS MEAN NOTHING TO OTHER COUNTRY'S ANYMORE!!

INTERNATIONAL LAW!!!!!????

THE HELL IF I HAVE TO LIVE UNDER ANOTHER NATIONS LAWS!!!

THOSE ARE FIGHTIN WORDS IF I HAVE EVER HEARD EM!!

The matricula cards can be used to establish credit, open bank accounts, buy insurance and apply for government services.

That better be California government services. I don't want a penny of my taxes distributed to people with bogus Mexican documents that aren't even accepted in Mexico.

MatrÃ*cula Consular
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Matricula Consular de Alta Seguridad (MCAS) (Consular Matriculation of High Security) is an identification card issued by the Government of Mexico through its consulate offices to Mexican nationals residing outside of Mexico regardless of their emigration status. Also known as the Mexican CID card, it has been issued since 1871, and cardholders could be either legal or illegal aliens in the foreign country they are residing in. The official purpose of the card is to demonstrate that the bearer is a Mexican national living outside of Mexico. It includes an official Government of Mexico issued ID number and bears a photograph and address of the Mexican National to whom it is issued.

Due to the lobbying efforts by the Mexican government's foreign Consular agents since March 2002, several U.S. states, municipalities, and businesses have been accepting the Matricula Consular as an official form of identification. Two million Mexican CIDs were issued in 2002-2003. A number of countries have followed suit including Guatemala, Brazil, and Ecuador. Other countries are considering the program, including: Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru. "Peru has specifically cited the acceptance of the Mexican CID card in the United States as a factor contributing to its interest in issuing a CID card." The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations define Consular functions to include issuing passports and travel documents, but makes no mention of issuing non-passport identification to their citizens in other countries carrying no passport.

On September 14, 2004, the United States Congress voted down a motion to prevent financial institutions from accepting consular IDs. Representative Tom Price announced that the Committee on Financial Services would be convening hearings on the methods permitted by the United States Department of the Treasury applying to the use of the Matricula Consular by banking institutions for the purposes of verification of identity.

The "FDIC says about $18 billion is wired annually from the U.S. to Mexico. Many U.S. banks have welcomed the IDs as a way to get a cut of this activity by profiting from the handling charges on the wires and increased deposits." Early in 2009, despite a global recession, a bank teller at Chevy Chase Bank quit his job when the bank announced that it would accept the MCAS cards as identification. The bank is promoting the event as an "Hispanic Banking Initiative."

[edit] Security issues
According to Representative Scott Garrett, Republican of New Jersey, the use of the MCAS cards by undocumented migrants weakens the measures established by the U.S. Congress after "9/11 to safeguard American businesses and financial institutions against fraud and abuse".[4] U.S. law enforcement officials also cite that Matricula Consular cards are issued by Mexican Consulate without checking the authenticity of the applicant's supporting documentation. In testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) disclosed and reported that the Matricula Consular card is inherently unreliable and unverifiable as an identification card and is highly vulnerable to fraud, regardless of its security features. The FBI reported that because Mexico lacks a centralized database for their CIDs, they are unable to prevent an individual from receiving multiple CIDs and cannot access information about a CID applicant's identity. An FBI agent said that "Mexican consulates issued CID cards to individuals lacking any proof of identification, as long as they fill out a questionnaire and satisfy the consular official that they are who they claim to be." U.S. Federal and local drug enforcement agents have discovered that numerous non-citizen narcotics traffickers obtain Matricula Consular cards using aliases and that their use in the United States presents the U.S. with a serious criminal threat.

In a 2003 letter to the Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge by the U.S. House Chairmen of the Homeland Security Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, and the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, & Intellectual Property, it was written that the Matricula Consular "can be a perfect breeder document for establishing a false identity". They warned that criminals could exploit the cards to conceal their identity as well as launder money and write fraudulent checks. They went on to point out that any acceptance of the cards by the Federal government "compromises our homeland security" by providing an opportunity for terrorists to freely move about the U.S., board planes and transfer funds for terrorist activities.

In January 2003, Nancy Pelosi, the ranking Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, pushed for a trial arrangement to give holders of Matricula Consular cards access to the Phillip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco. Due to national security concerns, other members of congress later revoked the privilege by the summer of 2003. In response to this, Pelosi argued that the vote to restrict the use of the MatrÃ*cula Consular was "anti-Hispanic" and that "We in San Francisco know that the MatrÃ*cula Consular works". The Matricula Consular card has been embraced by the Democratic Caucus. The Mayor of San Francisco established a policy in December 2001 for the city and county of San Francisco to accept the Mexican CID as a valid form of ID. The mayor's office issued a press release stating that the card would prevent those in the Mexican immigrant community lacking an acceptable identification from being jailed or deported when committing minor offenses.[

The U.S. Department of Agriculture warned that the Matricula Consular card is not sufficient to determine legal immigration status nor eligibility for the U.S. Food Stamp Program. The department also advised that home addresses on these cards may not be current "given the potential mobility of this population".

Bank on California, a program launched by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in December 2008, encourages financial institutions to accept the Mexican CID, Guatemalan CID and other CID cards as primary identification for opening bank accounts.

Activists opposed to illegal immigration have shown that the High Security Mexican CID is subject to identity theft by even non-Mexican citizens by obtaining the Mexican IDs for U.S. citizens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matr%C3%ADcula_Consular

GIVE the Church a call and tell them to stop breaking federal law

Let them know that the mobile consulate was chased away from the Country Club because they didnt have permission from the state department to set up operations there.
Ask the church if they had state dept. approval and if they didnt tell them they should not be associated with breaking federal law

St Catherine of Alexandria Parish
800 Beacon St.
Avalon, CA 90704
Phone: (310) 510-0192 Fax: (310) 510-8360
A Parish of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles CA

This is one of the reasons I am no longer a Catholic.

Everyone has their own point of view," Sanchez said. "We are performing this activity under international law."

International law! Mexico is openly defying our laws and the only one to stand up to it is Rep. Dana Rohrabacher!

BTW...Avalon is loaded with illegals, so much so, that a few years ago, ICE had a surprise immigrations check at the Long Beach terminal where the Catalina ferry docks!

since when is the US under international law? because some a$$clown from the mexican government says so??? i dont think so.

Added to Homepage

http://www.alipac.us/article-5326--0-0.html

WOW. I had no idea there were IA's on Catalina.

It's been years since Ive been to the island. When I used to fly me and a friend took a Cessna 172 to that "airport". There were huge cracks all down the runway and it sits on top of a mountain with drop offs on each end. I went there a few times by plane or boat a bit in the 90's, but after reading this, I have even less desire to ever go again...