Thread: Lake Worth church provides place to get Guatemalans consulat

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... 0978.story

Lake Worth church provides place to get Guatemalans consulate ID

By Paola Iuspa-Abbott
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

July 10, 2006


With the Guatemala Consulate General's identification card, Eddie Alvarez will be able to rent a better place to live in Lake Worth.

Without a proper ID, landlords don't want him.

That's why he didn't mind waiting more than seven hours at a Jupiter-church-turned-consular office to get a consulate-issued ID card on Sunday.

"It is worthy," Alvarez said. "I took a chance because I need an ID card."

He feared immigration agents would raid the place but overcame his apprehension in the last minute, said Alvarez, who works in landscaping.

More than 430 Guatemalans gathered at St. Peter Catholic Church Saturday and Sunday to meet with Guatemalan consulate officers and apply for the ID card. Many also applied for a Guatemalan passport, which some of them said they had no need for when they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.

Maria Andres Miguel, who was with her 5-year-old son, didn't mind the wait either. After all, the card will allow her to cash checks without having to ask others to endorse them. Miguel, who crossed the border five years ago with her son on her back, also plans to open a bank account.

"We all need some form of identification," said Valentin Montejo, of Jupiter, who works in landscaping.

The card shows a person's name, home address and fingerprint. The document will help open bank accounts, sign leases, buy health insurance and get phones. But it won't grant legal status or help them apply for a driver's license in Florida and other U.S. documents, said Guatemalan vice consul Carla Cruz.

The Palm Beach Sheriff's Office hopes this effort will prevent crime and save lives in Jupiter, Lake Worth and West Palm Beach, homes to the county's largest concentrations of Central-American laborers. Often, the workers carry cash in their pockets or stash it at home. They are easy prey and victims of robberies and home burglaries, said Fernando Alvarez, the Sheriff's Office supervisor of the community relations unit. He is not related to Eddie Alvarez.

The Sheriff's Office began noticing an increase in robberies and homicides of undocumented immigrants eight months ago. Deputy J. Rendon-Olivo has been meeting with pastors to create awareness in the Hispanic community.

Joining forces with the Guatemala Consulate for the event made sense to the Sheriff's Office, Alvarez said. Representatives from Washington Mutual and Bank of America were also at the church.

Bilingual bank employees sat at two tables and took turns opening checking accounts to those with their new ID cards and passports.

Juan G. Herrera, with Bank of America, said his bank opened at least 130 accounts between Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. Banks often require two IDs to create an account and not many immigrants know the consular card can be one of them, Herrera said.

"They were shocked because they didn't know they could open an account," he said.

Paola Iuspa-Abbott can be reached at piuspa@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6631.

Wonderful...they break our laws and get rewarded for doing it. Bank of America really is getting in on the illegals boom. They are a BIG supporter of Laraza. I walked into my branch here in Vegas and every single poster hanging was in spanish, home loans all in spanish with pictures of smiling happy mexicans. Their loan officers desks each had 4 or 5 mexicans helping them fill out forms and the waiting area was full of the second round. The parking lot looked and sounded like ole meheeko. There were people mulling around drinking and eating while sitting on the cement stops. I saw food containers and trash thrown all over, kids bumping into other people. Someone had a wirecage with a rooster in his truck. We are turning into a third world slum.