http://www.abqjournal.com/border2005/40 ... -01-05.htm

Tuesday, November 1, 2005

Mexican ID Card Helps Immigrants in U.S.

By Andrew Webb
Journal Staff Writer

Every week or so, Mari Monge brings an immigrant to the Mexican Consulate, near Downtown Albuquerque.

It is the only place in the state where, for $35, one can apply for access to many of the services U.S. citizens enjoy every day.

Monge, a home health care provider in Roswell, said she does it because she already knows the ropes of the system, and why the matricula consular identification card is so important to immigrants, whether legal or illegal.

"They need it to get their driver's license, to pay their bills, to get a place to stay," Monge said during a recent visit to the Consulate with a companion who was seeking a card.

The matricula consular card is a Mexican identification card available to anyone with a Mexican birth certificate, proof of address and some government-issued photo identification. Officially, it is designed to help Mexican citizens prove their identity.

But, increasingly, the green, red and white card has become a passport to the modern U.S. economyâ€â€