Sali's concerns put spotlight on ID cards issued by Mexico
Mexican officials say the matricula consular is used mainly to get a bank account, but the congressman says they just make life easier for illegal immigrants.

BY ERIKA BOLSTAD - ebolstad@idahostatesman.com
Edition Date: 05/25/08

WASHINGTON - When the Mexican government opens its consulate in Boise, one of the services it will offer is identification for Mexican citizens living in the U.S., whether they're in this country legally or not.
Many of the Mexican government's 48 other consulates in the U.S. issue the identification, known as matricula consular, or consular registration. The cards are most useful at banks, which generally accept them to open up accounts.

"It's an identification card," said Humberto Fuentes of Nampa, a longtime advocate for farmworkers who founded the Idaho Migrant Council and who sits on a Mexican government advisory committee, the Institute of Mexicans Abroad. "Mexico has done a lot of work to make sure those matriculas are secure."

But matricula IDs are at the heart of the concerns raised by U.S. Rep. Bill Sali, who has objected to Mexico's decision to open a consulate in Boise.

Sali singled out the matricula last month when he wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking that the State Department delay approving the Boise consulate until his questions about the cards had been addressed.

"The congressman has deep concerns about the use of the cards by people who are in the United States illegally," said Sali's spokesman, Wayne Hoffman. "The cards are known to be used by people who are here illegally, to make their stay more comfortable and easier. We should not facilitate the willful breaking of U.S. law, and yet that's what these cards have been known to do."

Sali is seeking re-election to a second term. The Republican primary is Tuesday.

A spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington said that the cards are most helpful for documented and undocumented Mexican migrants who need bank accounts.

"They are able to put their money in a bank account," said embassy spokesman Ricardo Alday. "They're able to go about their life without carrying cash, and they're also able to send money back to Mexico."

Many Mexicans in Idaho now travel to Salt Lake City to obtain the cards.

Last week, Sali continued to press the issue. His office sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking whether his agency had concerns about the use of matricula cards.

Homeland Security does not accept the matricula consular as valid identification at the U.S. border when Mexican citizens seek entry, said the agency's spokeswoman, Veronica Valdes.

"It's not something that we really accept for official purposes," Valdes said.

The FBI has taken a stronger stance.

"From a FBI or Department of Justice perspective, we have concluded that these cards are not a reliable form of identification due to the nonexistent means of identifying the true identity of the cardholder," said FBI spokesman Bill Carter. "It's also vulnerable to fraud. They're vulnerable to forgery. Even the newest version can be easily replicated."

Alday said that since reports that some matricula consular cards were being falsified, especially in the southern U.S., the Mexican government has been working to improve the security as well as the government database of cardholders.

"We have been taking steps ... to make our database more trustworthy," he said.

Other U.S. government departments have few objections to the cards, including the Treasury Department, which declined to take a position on them.

The Treasury Department said in 2002 that it is up to individual banks to determine whether they want to accept matricula consular cards, spokesman Brookly McLaughlin said.

Many banks have done so, said Carol Kaplan, a spokeswoman for the American Bankers Association. She said it is a business decision. The 2000 census showed that an estimated 13 percent of the U.S. population is Hispanic, and many of those people are Mexican, Kaplan said.

"That's 35 million people, at least it was in 2000," she said. "That certainly represents an audience for banks. We'd like to serve that audience."

Matricula consular are a fairly common form of identification within Mexico, too, said Rob McInturff, a State Department spokesman who formerly worked issuing visas in Monterrey, Mexico.

In Mexico, U.S. government officials wouldn't accept them as the only proof of identity when someone was applying for entry, McInturff said, but they were considered as part of an entire application along with other forms of identification, such as birth certificates.

Within the U.S., the State Department has no authority to restrict the Mexican government from issuing identification to its own citizens, McInturff said.

"In terms of using it, Mexican citizens are free to show it as a form of ID, and whoever they show it to, it would be up to the individual receiver," he said. "They can only use it if people accept it. If people don't accept it, then it's useless."

Many local governments accept them as identification when ID is needed, such as applying for a library card or utility services.

Efforts to prohibit the cards have been unsuccessful, even in border states where immigration is an overwhelming political issue. Last year, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, vetoed legislation that would have prohibited state and local governments from accepting the cards. At the time, Napolitano said it would hinder the ability of law enforcement to confirm the identities of foreign nationals.

However, since Sept. 11, many local governments have been more restrictive about issuing driver's licenses and require applicants to prove they are in this country legally.

The matricula consular are not valid identification to obtain a driver's license in Idaho, said Jeff Stratten, a spokesman for the Idaho Transportation Department.

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