Mobile Mexican Consulate rolls into town to help immigrants
Submitted by Chris Allen on Mon, 08/16/2010 - 11:33am.

SHALLOTTE, NC (WWAY) -- Some see it as a blessing, while others think it's a curse. The Mobile Mexican Consulate rolled into Shallotte Saturday to help immigrants get important documents.

St. Brendan's Catholic Church was transformed into a Mexican Consulate on Saturday. Families in Shallotte lined up for the chance to get a Mexican passport and ID card known as a matricula consular. Some say that because of services like the mobile consulate, undocumented immigrants can apply for North Carolina driver licenses and social services like food stamps, WIC and housing assistance and can even register to vote. Others disagree saying that these are nothing more than rumors.

"Totally false. It's, I don't know, something out of ignorance," Carlos Flores Vizcarra, Consul General of Mexico, said. "They will not be accepted for applying for benefits here in the US, nor will they serve the purpose of, let's say, registering someone as an elector in the state of North Carolina. That is a misleading rumor that someone has put out."

The Mexican nationals at the mobile consulate are happy to have this service, because now they will at least have a place to put their money.

"(The) bank won't take my money. It's no good," Ricardo Manuel Garrido said. "I keep (it) in (my) pocket. Someone steal, you know?"

The Mexican Consulate has assembled a mobile team tasked with going to cities across America to increase the accessibility of their services for the growing Hispanic community. The mobile consulate also saves these Hispanics valuable time, as they won't have to travel to Raleigh to obtain a passport or matricula card. The mobile consulate says that this is a good opportunity for Mexicans looking to live a better life in the United States.

Protests from conservative groups who feel like the mobile consulate is paving a way around the legal citizenship process often occur when the mobile consulate comes into a town. There were no reports of protests in Shallotte.

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