Thread: NJ: Mex. consulate aiding/abetting illegal aliens-Lakewood

May 15, 2008

People offered a helping hand

Mexican Consulate on Wheels renews passports, ID cards

By ZACH PATBERG
TOMS RIVER BUREAU

The Mexican Consulate on Wheels will be at St. Anthony Claret Church at 780 Ocean Ave. from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day through Saturday. Officials say the program expects to return every six to eight weeks. People who come will be served in the order they arrive and should bring their birth certificate, proof of address and some form of Mexican identification such as a voter ID card. An application fee for a passport is $74 for three years and $101 for six years. For more information, call the New York consulate at (212) 217-6400.

When Daniela Palacios was born, her mother, Paolina Gonzalez, figured the tallest hurdles were cleared.

Three years after emigrating from Puebla, Mexico, she and her husband had found steady work in house cleaning and landscaping. Two of her children were in grade school, and one was in preschool. Now the youngest, Daniela, would be the first in the family to have a birthright to be here, they thought.

However, more than a year later, Daniela still did not have a birth certificate to make her citizenship official.

"It was too difficult to go to New York to apply," Gonzalez, 28, said of getting her passport at the city's Mexican embassy — a requirement for obtaining the birth certificate.

Like her, many Mexican nationals have found traveling to the consulates in New York and Philadelphia too costly and time-consuming, especially for the hundreds of laborers in Lakewood whose daily wages depend on their steady presence on the Clifton Avenue street corners. An appointment with the New York consulate can take about six to eight months to make. And transportation to Philadelphia's consulate can cost as much as $200 on top of the application fee.

Because of these obstacles, on Tuesday, the consulate came to people in Lakewood. Hearing of its arrival through Spanish-language newspapers and Hispanic advocacy groups, several Mexicans camped out the night before, awaking in the morning to be the first in what would be a line of several hundred at St. Anthony Claret church.

People who got through in time — about 400 total, according to officials, including Gonzalez — received on-the-spot new or renewed passports and consular identification cards. The documents will allow the immigrants to open bank accounts, get birth certificates for their children and visit relatives in Mexico.

"I see every day the need in the community. I see the frustration in people who go all the way to New York and come back with empty hands," said Cecilia Reynolds, publisher of the Monmouth-based Spanish language newspaper Nosotros who organized for the consulate to come to Lakewood. "That is the reason why we are here."

The program, called Mexican Consulate on Wheels, started in February in an attempt to alleviate the backlog of applicants at the New York and Philadelphia consulates. It has already visited eight towns and boroughs in the tri-state area, including Asbury Park where last month it served 350 Mexicans.

On Tuesday, the line stretched onto the church's lawn with women cradling babies, men dozing under their hats and families sharing tamales sold on the sidewalk for $2. Consular Officer Yolanda Castro said the Lakewood turnout was far more than the 200 or 250 people she expected.

"But that's fine with us," she said. "It shows the effort is paying off on both ends."

For Nicolas Sanchez, 24, a passport meant his first bank account into which he can start depositing checks from his landscaping employer rather than carrying around large amounts of cash after paying the high fees at a check-cashing store.

Sherry Hammond, a manager for Bank of America, said she opened at least 71 new bank accounts for Mexicans with freshly minted passports.

Along with offering better security for their finances, the accounts help build credit and allow free money transfers to Mexico every three months, said Hammond, who had a station set up at the church.

For Eladio Mena, 30, the new documents meant the next milestone in his three-year acclimation into an American life.

"It gives us a base to go on," the father of two said through a translator. "It lets me know people care and we can go on to advance ourselves."

Such a hesitancy to acclimate out of fear of exposure is a trait many Latino advocates have struggled to erase among undocumented immigrants. Even at the church where the presence of the Mexican Consulate made it neutral ground, Carlos Cedeno, a Lakewood fair housing officer, said it was his "biggest fear" that many wouldn't show up Tuesday.

Along with the overall turnout, Sanchez dispelled that concern.

"I wouldn't be in this country in the first place if I were afraid," he said.

From the comments in this story, it appears that these Mexicans are illegal aliens. They obviously don't have green cards and should not be working in the US. At least they will be easier to identify when caught and deported. But then again, how many have multiple IDs? Sickening!

Three years after emigrating from Puebla, Mexico, she and her husband had found steady work in house cleaning and landscaping. Two of her children were in grade school, and one was in preschool. Now the youngest, Daniela, would be the first in the family to have a birthright to be here, they thought.

However, more than a year later, Daniela still did not have a birth certificate to make her citizenship official.

The Mexican consulate does not issue U.S. birth dertificates--so are they applying for a Mexican one so she is a dual citizen?

People who got through in time — about 400 total, according to officials, including Gonzalez — received on-the-spot new or renewed passports and consular identification cards. The documents will allow the immigrants to open bank accounts, get birth certificates for their children and visit relatives in Mexico.

New passports should only be issued in Mexico BEFORE leaving Mexico. Don't passports allow a person to board planes and fly--so this becomes a national security issue for the U.S.

Do passports allow illegal aliens exit and entry across the border?

Don't Mexican consulate issued passports, consular identification cards and birth certificates enable fraud and identity thief?

Mexico is compiling a census/list of names, ages, addresses, etc. of illegal aliens in the U.S. with their consular identification cards--for what purpose? Not for anything which will benefit the U.S.A.

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power."
Franklin D. Roosevelt

A few ALIPAC Patriots positioned across the street with cameras might put a stop to this insanity.

The Mexican consulate does not issue U.S. birth dertificates--so are they applying for a Mexican one so she is a dual citizen?

I believe, and I may be wrong, that the rolling consulate issues Mexican birth certificates for anchor babies born here.

Along with the overall turnout, Sanchez dispelled that concern.

"I wouldn't be in this country in the first place if I were afraid," he said.

Hmm, that's what I have always thought. If these people were so afraid, they wouldn't be here. I guess common sense still does apply occasionally.

So much for living in fear or staying in the shadows, or whatever that stupid euphemism is the pro-illegal invader groups like to use everytime there is a raid or other disturbance involving their illegals.