Thread: LA plan to give illegal immigrants IDs moves ahead

LA plan to give illegal immigrants IDs moves ahead

The Associated Press
Updated: 11:36 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012 | Posted: 11:36 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012

LOS ANGELES —

A plan to create Los Angeles photo-identification cards to help identify illegal immigrants has passed through a City Council committee and is moving closer to approval.

City News Service reports the plan backed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was approved 3-0 Tuesday by the Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee.

The plan will create a photo-ID that would act as a library card and a debit card, and it would be up to law enforcement to decide whether to recognize the cards as identification.

Councilman Richard Alarcon says the ID cards are necessary because federal government has failed to make significant reform in immigration policy and it's undeniable that businesses and individuals are hiring illegal immigrants.

The plan now goes before the full council in about three weeks.

source: LA plan to give illegal immigrants IDs moves ahead | www.wdbo.com

ID card for illegal immigrants breezes through L.A. council panel

October 16, 2012 | 11:35 am

A plan to provide illegal immigrants with an official city ID card easily won a key vote Tuesday when members of a Los Angeles City Council committee agreed to solicit bids for a third-party vendor to handle the program.

Councilman Ed Reyes, a member of the Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee, said it’s “about time” that L.A. residents, regardless of immigration status, have the ability to easily open bank accounts and access city services.

“This card allows people who have been living in the shadows to be out in the light of day," Reyes said, calling Los Angeles a cosmopolitan city with an international economy.

Reyes said opposition to the so-called City Services Card is inevitable because it touches on the hot-button issue of illegal immigration. But in the end, “cooler heads will prevail and understand the humanity of the suggestion,’’ Reyes said.

The committee voted unanimously to ask the full council to approve a request for proposal that would allow potential vendors to study the city’s plan and offer bids on running it.

The committee's review was the first step in a process to create the card system.
Critics say the proposal initially raised by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is the latest indication that Los Angeles leaders are taking an increasingly supportive view of undocumented immigrants as they encourage them to join in the city's civic life.

"It is clearly an accommodation," said Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group critical of illegal immigration. "Los Angeles is making it easier for people who have violated federal immigration laws to live in the city."

But backers said the mayor was doing the right thing, pointing out that the initiative could reduce crime because fewer people would have to carry cash.

The idea for the city ID card originated in his office, the mayor said, as part of previous efforts to help immigrants open bank accounts so they wouldn't become targets of crime.

Councilman Richard Alarcon recently introduced a more limited proposal to create a new library card that could also serve as a debit card. But Villaraigosa said he wants to go further and have the city begin offering full-fledged photo IDs.

A handful of cities, including San Francisco and Oakland, issue identification cards to anyone who can prove residency, regardless of immigration status. Villaraigosa said it's time that the Los Angeles metro area — home to an estimated 4.3 million immigrants — joined them.

ID card for illegal immigrants breezes through L.A. council panel - latimes.com

I.D. cards are bad enough, but states want to give them driver's licenses.

http://www.alipac.us/f12/nc-driver-l...grants-265456/

　
The driver license issue
has been settled in some states, Texas, Virginia and Oregon among them, that have said they will allow driver's licenses for immigrants obtaining what the Obama administration calls "deferred action for childhood arrivals."
Arizona and Nebraska have pledged to deny driver's licenses to anyone who benefits from the federal relief.
http://www.alipac.us/f12/california-...n-wire-264611/

Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington do not require drivers to provide citizenship or legal documentation to obtain a drivers license.
http://www.alipac.us/f12/ca-rep-hunt...aliens-263551/

CA. DMV
announced earlier this month it would issue driver's licenses to people who receive a work permit under the new program. In a statement to the North County Times Wednesday, the DMV backtracked, saying it was not clear what documents the federal government would give people and whether those documents met state regulations to issue the licenses.
http://www.alipac.us/f12/obama-work-...loyers-263423/

Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio are planning to provide driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants who get work papers under a new federal policy.
http://www.alipac.us/f12/driver-lice...youths-263209/

Even in some states that have passed strong anti-illegal immigration laws, such as Georgia, driver's licenses may be available to undocumented immigrants who qualify under the new policy.
Under current Georgia law, people with deferred status can get a license, and that's what the state will do unless it gets different orders, said Susan Sports, spokeswoman for the state's Department of Driver Services.
http://www.alipac.us/f12/drivers-lic...debate-262893/

October 17, 2012
Judicial Watch

Los Angeles could soon be the latest of several cities across the nation to make life easier for illegal immigrants by offering them official photo identification cards to help them access taxpayer-funded services and open bank accounts.

It’s a necessary measure to help illegal aliens incorporate into civic life, according to lawmakers in the city of about 4 million. Nearly half of L.A. residents are of Hispanic or Latino origin, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and a chunk are in the U.S. illegally. One L.A. councilman told a local newspaper that the ID cards will allow illegal aliens “who have been living in the shadows to be out in the day of light.”

So this week a council committee unanimously approved a measure that allows the city to solicit proposals from potential vendors who would implement the ID card program. This, of course, means it’s going to cost taxpayer a chunk of change. The full council must now approve it, but that will be a breeze in the City of Angels. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a renowned open borders advocate, is ready to sign the law. In fact, the idea came from him.

A self-described Chicano mayor, Villaraigosa is a longtime member of an extremist Mexican group (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan—-Mecha) that claims seven states in the southwestern U.S. were stolen from Mexico and must be re conquered and reclaimed for Mexico. He played a key role in his city’s huge and disruptive pro illegal immigration marches a few years ago and encouraged massive student walkouts that cost the area’s beleaguered public school system nearly $1 million.

The L.A. mayor says his key goal is to help illegal immigrants in his city access banking services with the new ID cards. Several municipalities across the nation already offer illegal immigrants official government ID cards to facilitate life in the U.S. New Haven, Connecticut became the first to offer undocumented aliens the cards in 2007 and a handful of others soon followed. In California, San Francisco and Oakland offer illegal immigrants the perk and in New Jersey both Princeton and Trenton issue the cards to illegals.

California has the nation’s largest population of illegal immigrants—mostly from Mexico—and taxpayers take a huge hit to pay for their education, incarceration and medical care. In healthcare alone, Los Angeles County blows about $400 million annually on illegal aliens, according to figures published a few years ago by the Department of Social Services. Welfare and food stamps add another $440 million and incarceration $244 million, according to the agency’s figures.

L.A. To Give Illegal Immigrants ID Cards | Judicial Watch

RELATED

California taxpayers spend $65 million each year to detain immigrants for ICE.

http://www.alipac.us/f12/secure-comm...n-year-262977/

Originally Posted by HAPPY2BME

Councilman Richard Alarcon says the ID cards are necessary because federal government has failed to make significant reform in immigration policy and it's undeniable that businesses and individuals are hiring illegal immigrants.

OK, if we follow Alcaon's logic here, we should probably also start giving welfare benefits to burglars, because robberies are up.
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http://www.alipac.us/content/la-plan...es-ahead-1053/