WAVE 3 TV Louisville, KY | Controversy Surrounds Consular ID Cards

Controversy Surrounds Consular ID Cards

By Jay Warren

(LOUISVILLE, October 20th, 2003, 5 p.m.) -- In the last decade Shelby County has seen a boom in its Latino population. Many are in the U.S. illegally, working on farms and in factories.Now some are seeking ID cards from their home country which will help them open bank accounts here. Critics of the cards, called Consular ID Cards, say it is an immigration slippery slope which carries homeland security implications. WAVE 3's Jay Warren explains.

Latino advocate Jose Donnis says the issue isn't security, it's identity. He says the Consular ID card is "not for driving, not for working, just to have something that says I am this person."

Donnis is talking about having a recognized ID from the country who issues it -- in this case, Guatemala. So far, 13 states recognize it along with a growing number of police jurisdictions.

"It's sort of a creeping legalization is what it is," says David Simcox a 30-year veteran of the State Department and former President of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington. He says "the card, in effect, is a free pass for the criminal -- the criminality of a person can't be checked on the card, his background can't be checked."

The card can be used to open bank accounts. Citizen's Union Bank sponsored the Guatemalan consul's trip to Shelbyville, they say, to help a community that needs it.

"We are in it to be a bank, and hopefully, years from now, this group of unbanked will be banked and will be future bank customers," says Kim Davis with Citizen's Union Bank."

Davis says the reality is Mexicans and Guatemalans are here working and supporting families. "It's not our job to be policing if these people are here or not legally."

Simcox has an explanation for Davis's attitude: "the banks have a great deal to gain from being able to take on depositors who are illegally in the country -- they tend to be big savers and there's money to be made from transmitting their funds back to their families in Central America."

But for people like Liza Veras, who helps organize the drive to issue the Consular ID cards, the issue is about dignity for people who help the American economy but see little of its protections. "They left happy that someone understood the idea of being identified who they were."

The U.S. Treasury Department says the Consular ID can be used to open bank accounts in this country, which has other banks sponsoring sign-ups.

Despite resistance from federal law enforcement agencies, many local agencies, desperate for a way to ID people, are accepting it.

Meanwhile, Mexico and Guatemala officials plan to be back in Shelbyville taking applications for the cards in the future.

Online Reporter: Jay Warren

Online Producer: Michael Dever