Macon Telegraph

September 30, 2008

Mexican Consulate issuing IDs to undocumented Middle Georgians

By Ashley Tusan Joyner


Representatives of the Mexican Consulate are in town from Atlanta issuing matriculas consulares and passports to more than 1,200 Mexican nationals living in Middle Georgia.

The Mexican ID cards will enable undocumented residents to corroborate their identities for authorities, open bank accounts and use check cashing facilities, among other things.

The cards cannot be used to apply for a state driver's license or qualify for other rights of U.S. citizenship.

Moises Valez, a local Hispanic community organizer and publisher of QuŽ Pasa?, a Spanish language newspaper, said the event, which began Wednesday, is in conjunction with National Hispanic Month, celebrated in September.

Twelve volunteers from the consulate are set up in a vacant space at the Pio Nono Plaza strip mall at Pio Nono Avenue and Rocky Creek Road in south Macon, where many of the city's Hispanics live.

Old South Pawn Shop nearby donated the space. Representatives from Bank of America were on site distributing information about how to open a checking account.

To obtain identification, residents must present an original copy of their Mexican birth certificate, two forms of picture identification - one must be current - and an item, such as a power bill, proving one's residence in Georgia.

Lines of more than 200 people filled the two large rooms for hours Saturday, as residents waited to present their papers, pay the $27 fee, take an ID picture and receive a new card or passport, which costs $101 and is valid for six years.

The operation does not serve walk-ins - people were required to make an appointment Wednesday. Those with appointments may obtain IDs today from 8 a.m. to noon.

Valez said the droves of residents seeking identification this week - 300 to 350 residents each day - reveals the midstate Hispanic population is much larger than U.S. Census Bureau data, tracking only citizens, indicates.

According to population estimates from 2006, there were about 2,480 Hispanic residents in Bibb County, 4,591 in Houston County and 1,214 in Peach County.

Having the new ID cards will help undocumented midstate residents who seek U.S. citizenship feel less ostracized from society in the interim, Valez said.

"They don't have to be legally here to feel like they have an identity with the nation," he said.

He said the cards also will make it easier for the residents to pay taxes.

"Even if you are here illegally and you need to pay your taxes, you need identification to get a tax ID number and pay them," he said. "Contrary to what many people think, these people do pay taxes."

Between one-half and three-fourths of undocumented immigrants pay state and federal taxes, according to the Immigration Policy Center. They also contribute to Medicare and provide as much as 7 billion dollars a year to the Social Security Fund, according to the policy research center.

Without the special ID program this past week, Middle Georgia residents in need of Mexican identification would have to travel to the consulate's Atlanta office to apply for a card and have it processed. The task usually can take months.

Most of the applicants Saturday were young to middle-age adults with children. Many came to the U.S. years ago and still await legal citizenship.

Erika Medina, 33, drove from Elko, her home for 2 years, to replace her matricula consular after losing the card about three months ago.

The mother of two teenage daughters said she came to the United States in 1986 as a child. Her family moved from Mexico City to Lakewood, Calif., near Los Angeles. Unlike Georgia, California issues state ID cards to undocumented residents, she said. When she lost her Mexican ID card this summer, she worried about the hassle of obtaining a new one.

"I'm really lucky because it would've have been impossible for me to transfer my papers from California," she said.

Medina said she and her daughters, and her sister's family, who moved to Elko 10 years ago, are probably the only Hispanics in the small city in south Houston County.

Because of common misperceptions about Hispanics, she said she likes it that way.

"In a state like Georgia, where many people are not used to seeing Latino people, people sort of think we're all the same - and not in a good way," she said. "They think we don't have jobs and drink all day. So it's better for us to stay apart."

Randy Flores, who lives in Fort Valley and needed a passport, said he moved to the midstate from New York City when a cousin told him the job market was good.

"He said, 'I'm making a lot of money down here,' " the 23-year-old said. "He was lying."

A native of Tlaxcala, the smallest of Mexico's states, he came to the United States in 2004. He hasn't returned to Mexico, even though his father and brothers still live there.

Flores said owning the new passport will encourage him to save money for a trip.

But working in Georgia is tough. He has a background in home construction, a field hit hard by the lagging economy. He's picked up part-time work in air-conditioning systems maintenance and at the Blue Bird bus lot in Warner Robins.

"I would look for other work, but it's hard to get around because I cannot get a license. I have two cars and now I cannot drive them," he said, citing a new state law preventing illegal residents from obtaining driver's licenses. "If I try to drive and I get a ticket, it's really dangerous."

Many undocumented residents are faced with breaking the law by driving in order to get to work, Flores said. Should an undocumented driver be pulled over for a traffic violation, that person faces jail time and the possibility of deportation.

"The Latino population is not growing in this area because of lack of work. And the reason they are leaving the state is because laws are making it very hard for them to live here," said Valez, who is Puerto Rican. "Georgia is one of the hardest states for anybody undocumented, not just Mexicans."