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Mayoral hopefuls disagree on IDs for illegal immigrants

By Vesna Jaksic
Staff Writer

October 13, 2005

STAMFORD -- The city's three mayoral candidates are split on whether illegal immigrants should be issued identification cards. New Haven Mayor John DeStefano said last week he wants to issue ID cards as part of a program that would help immigrants access city services.

Asked how he felt about the plan, Mayor Dannel Malloy said he would not run it in Stamford.

"This is not a proposal that I embrace," he said. "The reality is that immigration, both legal and illegal, is a federal issue. And on the other hand, we have certain obligations to provide services as required by the law, such as education and to treat people fairly. But to try to circumvent or violate the federal law is not something that local governments should get involved with."

DeStefano, a Democrat running against Malloy for the party's 2006 gubernatorial nomination who like Malloy is running in the state's 2006 gubernatorial race, proposed the program last week.

He has since said that legal experts were looking into whether such a proposal is lawful. DeStefano's office has received calls from local and national media since the announcement was made, setting off another heated debate on immigration.

Darek Shapiro, the Green Party's mayoral candidate, said DeStefano had a good idea, but that he would not propose the same plan in Stamford.

"I think DeStefano is on the right idea, but the idea is not really addressing the problem," he said. "We need to be able to do this on the state level."

Shapiro said he would encourage illegal immigrants to get a tax ID number, which allows them to pay taxes when they cannot get a Social Security number. After two years of paying taxes, they will qualify for a "temporary driver's license," he said, pointing out that he would work with DeStefano, other mayors and state legislators to pass the proposal.

Christopher Munger, a Republican who is challenging Malloy for Stamford's top elected seat, said he was not ready to say how he felt about such a plan.

"That's a really complicated issue that involves federal, state and local agencies," he said. "I'd have to really give it some deep thorough research before I take a stand on it."

While several states have toyed with ideas about how to help illegal immigrants get identification, DeStefano's proposal is the first by a municipality, immigration experts said. Most immigrants' advocates said it is a good idea but has its disadvantages.

Such cards may help immigrants access services on the local level, but they will not be valid in federal buildings or airports, said Deborah Meyers, a senior policy analyst for the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., a nonpartisan think-tank which studies dedicated to studying migration patterns.

"Any locality certainly is able to issue documents to individuals living in that locality, but the issue is whether those documents will be accepted as proof of federal identity, and I don't think they would," she said.

Anti-immigration activists said such programs help boost illegal immigration.

"Illegal immigration is a problem that when you accommodate it or make it easier for illegals to stay in the country, you just increase the problem," said Paul Streitz, director of Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control, which aims to limit numbers of illegal and legal immigrants.

Streitz said such a proposal would violate a section of the U.S. Code that says criminal penalties may be issued to anyone who "encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States" knowing his or her entry or stay violates law.

But Josh Bernstein, director of federal policy at the National Immigration Law Center, which promotes immigrants' rights, said such proposals do not affect numbers of illegal immigrants.

"Is anybody making a decision about whether to come to the United States and stay here on whether they'll get an ID card in the city of New Haven?" he said. "No, you're not affecting immigration one way or another. What you're affecting is public safety in the city."

Still, Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan research organization that wants to lower immigration numbers, questioned the proposal's legality.

"I think most people would say either you argue to change the law or enforce the law but not have a situation that the county or state or city government would work to subvert the law," he said. "That's what this would explicitly be."

Derek Slap, DeStefano's press secretary, said he did not have details on how the cards would be issued because the proposal is in its early stages. But essentially, the cards would allow foreign aliens who are not able to get state-issued identification such as driver's licenses to get a card that would help them access city services, Slap said.

"The mayor originally expressed it as this is something that would be of value to a lot of people in the city," he said. "There are a lot of good reasons to do it but that doesn't mean it's going to happen in the next few days."

Audrey Singer, immigration fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan think-tank, said such a program aims to bring immigrants out of the shadows. But because the plan would target undocumented aliens, many may be afraid to apply, she said.

"It's really kind of interesting and I'm not surprised it's blown up," she said of the media attention surrounding DeStefano's proposal, which made it to The New York Times and CNN in addition to local media. "It's a controversial idea from all sides. . . I think this is an issue that a lot of communities are confronting right now."

While immigration is federally governed, more municipalities have been dealing with it because they have felt the impact in their schools, housing and other venues. City-issued ID cards for illegal immigrants may become more common as a result, said Michele Waslin, director of immigration policy research at the Washington, D.C.-based National Council of La Raza, the country's largest Hispanic civil rights organization.

"Businesses want to market to them, banks want them to open accounts, police want them to be able to identify themselves," she said. "So I think that this might be a creative solution that some localities try to deal with it."