Thread: Ohio Cities Struggling With Mexican IDs

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Ohio Cities Struggling With Mexican IDs
Lack Of Consistent Laws Plagues State
POSTED 5:38 pm EDT July 8, 2005

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Mexican government is meeting resistance in Ohio and other states that remain holdouts against accepting identification cards issued by consulates.

Advocates for Mexican workers say the cards help people who otherwise have no means to open bank accounts or arrange utility service. Some police say the cards are not reliable proof of identity.

In May, Dayton became the latest Ohio city to start accepting the cards. Others that started allowing the cards in recent years include Cincinnati, Toledo, Lorain, Fremont and Fostoria.

While mayors in Cleveland and Columbus endorsed the cards, the cities' police departments will not accept them.

Thirty-three states, more than 500 cities and counties and about 1,200 law enforcement agencies have recognized the card in some fashion, according to the consulate in Detroit. The U.S. Treasury Department allows financial institutions to accept the card, but the Justice Department does not recognize it.

Mexico has issued the cards since the 1870s, mainly as a way to keep track of citizens living abroad. Mexico has made a push in areas with relatively recent influxes of Mexican nationals to register more of them for the card.

At least 60,000 Mexicans living in Indiana, Kentucky and southern Ohio have registered for the card since November 2002, said to Sergio Aguilera Beteta, the Mexican consul in Indianapolis, whose office covers that region. Many of them got cards when consulate staff held roving sign-up sessions in different cities, when up to 700 people can be registered in a day.

Many states have accepted the matricula consular card for years, even before Mexico added several security features in 2002. In Michigan, the card is so prevalent that the debate has moved on to whether undocumented immigrants should be issued driver's licenses.

But Ohio _ where the state's Hispanic population has doubled to nearly 280,000 since 1990 _ remains a patchwork of places where the card is taken at face value and others where it is taken away.

In Cleveland and Columbus, the mayors issued proclamations deeming the card acceptable.

"Of course we'd prefer they all became American citizens, but while that gets figured out, we need to be able to work with them as a city," said Mike Brown, a spokesman for Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman.

That doesn't extend to the police departments, however. Cleveland officers who encounter people with the matricula as their sole ID treat them as if they had no ID at all, referring them to federal authorities to see whether deportation is in order, police Lt. Thomas Stacho said.

Officers in Columbus started seeing the cards more frequently after a roving consulate session early this year. Assistant City Attorney Jeff Furbee determined state law doesn't allow the cards to be accepted without a local law.

Coleman approved the cards a year ago, after a spate of violent attacks on Hispanics whom advocates said were targeted because they were known to carry cash since they did not have bank accounts.

But the city council hasn't acted on the matter, Furbee said, so he's telling officers to disregard the cards when they see them.

In asking governments of all levels in the U.S. to declare the cards legitimate, Mexican authorities have been touting its security features and the requirements to get one. Applicants must show consulate representatives paperwork similar to documents required of U.S. citizens at a motor vehicle office, including a birth certificate or other government-issued ID and secondary documents such as a utility bill showing proof of address.

Applicants who are in the U.S. illegally still can get the cards.

"As long as they can prove that they are a Mexican citizen, we don't ask about their immigration status," Aguilera said.

Furbee said the issue deserves a uniform resolution.

"What would be nice, frankly, is if the feds and the state decided what they were going to do about this, because having this patchwork of one city accepts it, another doesn't, it's not good for anybody," he said.
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Applicants who are in the U.S. illegally still can get the cards.

"As long as they can prove that they are a Mexican citizen, we don't ask about their immigration status," Aguilera said.

That has me convinced it's a reliable and trustworthy ID.

I think I would trust a forged American document more than anything issued by Mexico.

They would accept Monopoly Money as proof of ID if it was handed to them by a "Mexican" illegal worker. That's how far the process has sunk into the sewer of corruption in the United States.

Well, lets see if we can get Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell, and Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman to change their minds. By the way, Coleman wants to be Ohio's next governor...so if you're from Ohio, make this a major campaign issue.

Great Idea Steve!!