Thread: VA- Salvadoran ID center opens

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Salvadoran ID center opens
By DANIEL GILBERT
dgilbert@potomacnews.com
Thursday, September 21, 2006


The government of El Salvador has chosen Woodbridge as one of three locations nationwide to release a new form of identification to its nationals in the U.S.

The choice to issue the ID in Woodbridge, alongside the traditional immigrant magnets of Los Angeles and Long Island, N.Y., highlights the region's rapid, growing pull for Salvadoran immigrants.

The Woodbridge center processing the "Unique Identification Document" - DUI by its Spanish acronym - is located in the same shopping center as the Salvadoran consulate, the newest of 16 nationwide, that opened last year.

After Los Angeles, metropolitan Washington has the largest Salvadoran population among urban areas in the country. In Prince William, the number of Salvadorans shot up fourfold from 2000 to 2004, reaching 16,148, according to U.S. Census data.

The DUI is El Salvador's answer to thousands of its nationals who lack identification documents, and represents the government's first attempt to issue an international ID.

The three DUI centers began operating last Friday, and will be formally recognized in a speech by President Elias Antonio Saca this Friday, when he is scheduled to visit New York.

On Wednesday, Helden Torres, a Sterling resident from El Salvador, traveled to Woodbridge to purchase a DUI.

For the three years that Torres, 19, has lived in the U.S., he has not had a form of identification. He paid $35 for the bilingual card, which contains his name, address and other personal data.

The DUI offers Salvadorans several advantages, including the possibility of voting in Salvadoran elections while abroad, and opening bank accounts in the U.S.

Ana Margarita Chavez, consul general of El Salvador, said the DUI has been accepted into the International I.D. Checking Guide, a resource with controlled circulation that includes IDs issued by government agencies.

The guide's editor, Amy Lucas, said subscribers include businesses "with proven need" for verifying a person's identification, like banks, bars and car rental agencies.

The Salvadoran government may expand DUI production centers to 11 of the states where it has consulates. The Woodbridge center is at 14572 Potomac Mills Road and is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Not only do they send their people here but branches of their government. Nations within a nation.