1 Year Later, ID Card a Mixed Bag
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Victor Zapana, New Haven Register, June 8, 2008
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One year ago, they tucked the city’s Elm City Resident Card into their wallets and helped begin a controversial program that has brought scorn from anti-illegal immigration activists and praise from people who want more rights for illegal immigrants.
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The New Haven ID card provides access to city services, discounts for business and membership to a debit card program to all residents, regardless of immigration status.
While the card, the first of its kind in the United States, has caused national ripples, it still affects the New Haven community.
On the anniversary of the aldermanic meeting that approved the card, Fair Haven residents, business owners and city officials paint the picture of the municipal ID as a mixed record of success: Its symbolism for immigration advocacy is as strong as ever, while its appeal to the general public appears in question.
For the first year, city Community Services Administrator Kica Matos said, “there were unrealistic expectations from those who supported the card.”
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Meanwhile, opponents say the card is slowly failing and ultimately does not help the illegal immigrants that city officials had originally targeted.
Jose, a 32-year-old Mexican man from Fair Haven is one of 5,731 ID holders. He is a worker in another city and a father of four. With his card, he opened a bank account recently.
He is an illegal immigrant from Tlaxcala. His wife, a Mexican-American, does not have the card. His sister, Maria, also an illegal immigrant, does.
Jose and his wife are part of the group of 10,000 to 15,000 illegal immigrants who City Hall officials estimate live in New Haven.
“I was scared for my husband before,” his wife said. They had moved from house to house in New York City fleeing from federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. “How am I gonna help my husband? What am I gonna tell my kids? All they know is that daddy is here.”
She said she has noticed Fair Haven has become less on edge since the federal raids, and fewer rumors of la migra (federal agents) had popped up.
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Some vocal opponents say the card is illegal protection for illegal immigrants.
Dustin Gold—chief strategist for Community Watchdog Project, the major local voice of opposition—said the ID program is dying as a result of public disinterest.
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In order to apply for a municipal ID, an applicant must fill out a form, pay $10, show photo identification and supply two documents to prove residency. One in four applicants are rejected, Matos said, usually for not having the proper identification.
City Hall has ordered 10,000 cards so far from the company that makes them, Parcxmart. The company also issues a separate card for anyone, which serves as a debit card and can be used in parking meters.
Although 5,731 IDs have been issued, the number of distributed cards will balloon to 7,000 at the end of the summer, when city officials give ID cards to about 1,200 teenagers who participate in the city Youth@Work program.
Stack said he keeps the card in his wallet proudly. He uses it at the public library, a few times a month. He also buys coffee using it as a debit card at Koffee on Orange Street. But most importantly, he said, the card was a symbol of protection for “the vulnerable population.”
“We all rely on immigrants—always have, always will,” he added.
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Edwin Rivera, crime prevention manager at New Haven’s Wal-Mart, said he has seen many of the cards used in the stores when residents use checks or when residents who commit crimes in the store use the cards as ID.
Matos said city officials intend to raise awareness of the card.
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(Posted on June 9, 2008)
Comments
It is bad enough that we have lost many of our freedoms with the way that Social Security Cards are mandatory on practically everything in our society.
Benjamin Franklin warned us that if we give up liberty for security, then we deserve neither.
If we get National I.D. Cards. it will certainly not give us security from terrorism or prevent crimes like identity theft.
National I.D. Cards would only be the final blow that turns our country into a police-state dictatorship. Two of history’s most horrendous dicatorships, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, also had mandatory National I.D. Cards!
I hope that what I am posting is not unrelated to the subject matter of illegal immigants as written about in this article. However, National I.D. Cards would not do anything to solve our country’s illegal immigration problem, either. This is because illegal immigrants would find ways around the dictatorship imposed by a National I.D. Card system.
This is why I am also opposed to registration and control of fireams. Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Fidel Castro are among the experts who would agree that gun control works!
Posted by Ross at 9:20 PM on June 9
B.O. plans to fingerprint every one of his subjects, and pass more severe penalties for “Hate crimes”. The king is dead,long live the king. Et Tu Brute’?
Posted by at 11:05 AM on June 10
I will not carry an internal passport. Whenever I am asked for my SSN, for non-tax reasons, I say “No.” I was born in Ohio. What are they going to do: send me back if I refuse? I am already a convicted felon over something I once said. The last time I went shooting was July 4, 2000, with my best friends, one of them a licensed machinegun dealer. The last firearm I shot was a BREN gun. The second-to-the-last was a Swedish “K”. I never was any good with a submachinegun, but we murdered a vacuum cleaner and a microwave oven with that BREN. I think the BREN is the best rifle-caliber light machinegun on the planet, and the British SAS agrees, as they still use it in 7.62mm NATO. I went out on a high note. The FBI testified in court that they had no intention of kicking my door down, as they figured on losing six to eight agents. I would have fired from behind the chimney, which rises upstairs here through the den. They could have come through the kitchen windows, but firing through the floor would have stopped that quickly enough. For tear gas, I had a gas mask. They were very polite and asked me to come downtown to surrender, so I did.
I am 42 and I have spent 1/8 of my adult life locked up. As Mr. Bigwig said to General Woundwort in “Watership Down”, “You will have a lot of trouble pushing me back from here.”
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 3:44 PM on June 10
“It is bad enough that we have lost many of our freedoms with the way that Social Security Cards are mandatory on practically everything in our society.”
Posted by Ross at 9:20 PM on June 9
I have my original SS (pun intended) Card that I got around 1960. It is clearly written on the bottom of the card that it is not to be used as identification. I seem to recall reading some years ago that one of the fears when the card was first introduced was that it would become a national ID card, but the opposition was assured that would never happen. I think my husband’s card (my husband is younger than me)says that it can only be used for SS and tax purposes. The new cards don’t say anything at all. By the way, years ago you were not required to give your SS # when you did your taxes.
Bottom line - Never trust what the government says!
Posted by Varina at 2:34 PM on June 11