Anti-matricula bill clears House panel

By Ray Gronberg gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648 DURHAM -- A bill that would stop police in Durham and other communities from recognizing identification cards like the Mexican matricula consular cleared its first hurdle in the General Assembly on Thursday.

The N.C. House's Government Committee endorsed the bill by a 16-10 vote, sending it on to the chamber's Judiciary Committee for additional review, City Councilman Mike Woodard said.

Woodard, who attended the morning hearing at the request of El Centro Hispano organizer Ronald Garcia-Fogarty, said the vote followed party lines.

He reported to his City Council colleagues Thursday afternoon that Durham legislators are pessimistic about the chances of stopping the bill.

"I got pretty grim predictions from [Paul] Luebke and [Mickey] Michaux," Woodard said, naming the Democrats who head Durham's House delegation.

Thursday's committee vote came 22 days after the chamber's lone independent joined an otherwise GOP-only group of House members in introducing the bill.

It would allow police, judges, magistrates and other officials in the criminal-justice system to accept as confirmation of a person's identity only a state driver's license, a state ID card, a passport or official U.S. immigration papers.

The bill also bars cities and counties from recognizing by "policy or ordinance" any other type of ID and specifically overrides any such policies or ordinances that already on the books.

Woodard said that the hearing left him in no doubt that the bill targets the Durham Police Department's practice -- endorsed by a November City Council resolution -- of accepting the matricula consular.

The November vote was a flashpoint for people on either side of the illegal-immigration debate, as it's generally regarded a potential benefit to Mexican nationals who without the card might have trouble establishing their identities if they have to deal with a cop.

But Woodard noted that the bill's restrictive wording can open up a far wider set of issues. He and other council members asked City Attorney Patrick Baker to evaluate them and report back.

Police commanders have said that when making traffic stops, they prefer for reasons of efficiency to write tickets for most offenses instead of making a formal arrest. But matters can escalate if they can't establish a person's identity.

Officers have discretion not just to accept a matricula but many other types of documents. Provided they're convinced that what they see is genuine, "it gives as an opportunity to write you a ticket and know that if you do not show up in court, we can find you at that location -- simple as that," Police Chief Jose Lopez said in November.

Lopez added then that the department's practice benefits everyone it deals with, U.S. citizens included, because there's no legal requirement that people carry ID and no one national identity card.

The chief made it clear earlier this month he didn't like the bill's potential impingement on police discretion. Woodard, meanwhile, said he fears the measure "establishes a beachhead for an number of other identification issues," including the possibility that the GOP will push through a bill requiring anyone who votes to produce photo ID.

Supporters of the bill in the House have argued that the bill would simplify matters for law enforcement, by reducing the number of potential ID cards they'd have to be trained to evaluate.

The House Government Committee's two chairmen, Rep. Larry Brown, R-Forsyth, and Rep. Dan Ingle, R-Alamance, were both among the measure's co-sponsors. Ingle is the former police chief of Elon, N.C.

The Judiciary Committee's chairman, Rep. Leo Daughtry, R-Johnston, hasn't signed on, but three of the panel's vice chairmen are co-sponsors.

Democrats have little means to stop the GOP from enacting legislation this year or next, assuming the majority votes as a bloc and the House and Senate work in harmony.

Republicans have a veto-proof majority in the Senate. In the House, they need only line up support from Rep. Bert Jones, an independent from Rockingham, and secure the defection on any given issue of just two Democrats to override a gubernatorial veto. Jones is a co-sponsor of the ID bill.

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