FRI., JUL 4, 2008 - 12:30 AM
Business will be brisk when Mexican consulate comes to town
By HEATHER LaROI
608-252-6143
hlaroi@madison.com

More than 1,000 people have already signed up for appointments with the Mexican Consulate when officials from the Chicago office set up a mobile field office in Madison next week.

The annual visit, which runs from Wednesday through Sunday and is expected to draw immigrants from throughout southern Wisconsin, provides Mexican citizens a convenient opportunity to renew passports without the time and expense of a trip to Chicago.

It's also an easy way for Mexican nationals to obtain a consular identification card — known as a "matricula consular" — that is often helpful in this country to open bank accounts, rent apartments or take out library books.
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Juan Carlos Reyes, the Latino family resource coordinator at the Bridge Lake Point Neighborhood Center in Madison, which is organizing appointments, said phones at the center have been ringing off the hook all week.

"We schedule people for a specific hour," he said. "This is really fast, really efficient."

The consular identification card, which identifies someone as a Mexican national living outside of Mexico, looks similar to an American driver's license, with the person's name, photo, date of birth and address. Valid for five years, it costs $27. The cards aren't needed in Mexico.

To get it, a person must provide proof of his or her Mexican citizenship, proof of identity and address in the United States.

It says nothing of the holder's legal status in the U.S. A Wisconsin identification card, by contrast, requires a person to document his or her legal immigrant status.

The consular ID card has generated some controversy because, although it is not officially a valid form of U.S. identification, it is increasingly accepted as such.

Critics say that where accepted, the card enables immigrants who are here illegally to do things like cash checks, take out loans, rent apartments or register children in school — in effect making it easier for them to live in the United States regardless of their legal status.

Some also question the authenticity of the documents used to obtain such identification cards.

But while illegal immigrants might stand to benefit from such a card, the cards are indispensable for many others, including migrant laborers with a work visa, students or others on long-term visas, said Peter Munoz, executive director of Madison's Centro Hispano. They're also more convenient than carrying around a passport on a daily basis.

"It is simply an identification form," Munoz said.

As the state's Latino population continues to grow, local organizers expect the 'mobile consulate" program and its services to draw ever larger crowds.

"In the past, they started with three days, then four days and now they are shooting for five days," said Antonio Quintanilla, with the Guadalupe Center. "It's always, always not enough."