Offering Noncitizens a Local Identity

[marmar]

from The American Prospect:


Offering Noncitizens a Local Identity

With immigration reform stalled at the national level, some cities are taking small steps toward a solution by issuing municipal ID cards to all residents -- even those who aren't U.S. citizens.

Mara Revkin | July 30, 2007 | web only


With immigration reform jettisoned from the national agenda, the mayor of New Haven, Conn., is resurrecting the debate in his own backyard. Rejecting the morally charged rhetoric that conservatives have used to cast opprobrium on "free-riding" aliens, Mayor John DeStefano is arguing that there are significant benefits associated with the inclusion of illegal immigrants in civil society.

Although these non-voting immigrants are politically peripheral, New Haven officials estimate that they comprise ten percent of the city's population. In an effort to acknowledge and validate the presence of this community, the board of aldermen has approved a municipal ID -- the first of its kind in any American city -- that is universally available to all New Haven residents, regardless of citizenship status. The ID will enable immigrants to fill prescriptions and access local banks, libraries, and public services. Most importantly, it will designate them as full-fledged participants in civil society.

The Elm City Residence Card, named for the trees that once dominated the regional landscape, is only the most recent in a series of public policies designed to incorporate marginalized groups into the New Haven community. Over the course of his 13 years in office, Mayor DeStefano has invented his own brand of small town realpolitik, which he has put into practice by consistently prioritizing the city's cohesion over the citizenship of its residents. DeStefano has earned a reputation for reconstituting public offices to reflect New Haven's diverse demographic makeup. Half of the city's police officers are African-American or Latino, and the force includes a higher percentage of female officers than any other department in the state. The mayor's latest project, the Elm City ID, is an identification card that is being offered to all of the city's 125,000 residents, including an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 undocumented immigrants.

While the card is by no means interchangeable with a driver's license or a visa, it does validate an immigrant's membership in a community that, historically, has embraced outsiders. "The city has always been an immigrant community," DeStefano said. "Either your grandparents came here legally when the entry quotas were more generous, or you're still trying to get in under tighter regulations."

Until Congress succeeds in producing a plan for comprehensive reform, communities like New Haven will continue improvising their own solutions. Public officials in New York and other major cities are monitoring New Haven’s experiment and cautiously evaluating its suitability for their own communities. If the Elm City ID lives up to the lofty expectations of its architects, other cities may replicate the program. .....(more)

The complete piece is at; http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=offering_noncitizens_a_local_identity

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Don't tell Lou Dobbs!!

:)

[EXANTIREPUB]

2. They are here illegally

  Why should anyone that entered this country illegally be
given any type of identitity card?  We do have laws that
regulate immigration.  I'm beginning to 
feel like I have less rights than the illegal immigrants.  For
example, I now have to pay $50 if I have to go to the
emergency room at the hospital.  But
an illegal alien does not have to pay anything.  The last time
I went to the emegergency room here in Texas we had to wait
six hours because of all the
illegals that were in there in front of us.  I say this is
absolutely ridiculous when any city makes it easier for these
people to break the law.  It's 
time we started enforcing our laws, especially all these big
corporations that are employing these people that are here
illegally.

[murielm99]

3. I didn't have to pay $50.00

the last time I went to the emergency room.

I did have to pay a lot for the ambulance that got me there.

I was honestly too sick to notice who was ahead of me, or whether they paid.

I suspect that you are full of crap.

[EXANTIREPUB]

4. No, I,m not full of crap.

The last few times I have taken my wife to the emergency room in Arlington Tx. the majority of the people in there were speaking Spanish and they had
all their children with them. The emergency room has been full every time. I don't know where you live, but in Texas we have been invaded. If you don't
believe me, then come down here and go to the emergency room. Then you will know what I'm talking about.

[murielm99]

6. We have a lot of Hispanics around here, too.

In fact, in my son's community, the stores in the malls all have bilingual signs for the departments. Many of the store clerks are bilingual.

My daughter is bilingual. That is why the law firm she works for hired her. They have many LEGAL Mexican immigrants for clients.

Hispanics are the fastest growing group in our country. Get over it.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

5. This is a municipal ID card that lets them use city recreational

facilities, the library, etc. It MAY also be used as ID by banks if the bank elects to do so.

It does nothing to encourage/discourage illegal immigration. That is a whole other issue.