New Haven Is First City To Offer

ID Cards To Illegal Immigrants

By John Christoffersen

Associated Press

NEW HAVEN — More than 100 people, ignoring protesters, lined up outside City Hall Tuesday morning to receive the first identification cards to be issued to illegal immigrants by a US city — a measure that comes as the immigration debate rages on the national and local levels.

The cards, which are being offered to all of New Haven’s 125,000 residents — including some 10,000 to 12,000 illegal immigrants — are designed to open up many services such as banking to the immigrants, who face increasing crackdowns by communities across the United States.

For many of the immigrants, the cards offer the promise of peace-of-mind in a climate where the federal and local governments are increasingly at odds over what to do with the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

While Congress has failed to move forward on a controversial immigration law, new laws or proposals in more than 90 cities or counties across the US prohibit landlords from leasing to illegal immigrants, and penalize businesses that employ them. Some of the measures are being challenged in court.

Ray Sanchez, 36, who a self-described laborer, said he would use the card for to open a bank account and to join the library to learn English.

“We need to send money to the places we come from. For me, I feel better. If the police catch me, I have identification now,” he said.

City officials say the cards will also encourage immigrants who are crime victims or witnesses to cooperate with authorities.

“The simple straightforward purpose here is to build a stronger community,” Mayor John DeStefano said Monday. “You can’t police a community of people who won’t talk to our cops.”

The immigrants were greeted by several dozen protesters. One held a sign reading, “You have cheated on those who have been waiting to enter the country legally.”

Bob Lucian, a school teacher from Woodbridge said he is concerned that that other cities may do what New Haven has done.

“It’s going to metastasize across all over the country. I think this is totally illegal,” he said. “If we don’t go by laws, then we’re going to have anarchy.”

Others complained the cards would make the city more attractive to illegal aliens, flood the city’s labor market and take jobs away from legal residents.

DeStefano, the mayor, said the city was simply acknowledging who already lives here.

“I think New Haven is doing something that makes sense for New Haven,” he said. “Service to one another in community, more than waving an American flag, defines the spirit of our soul.”

He said the federal government has failed to address immigration-related issues, forcing cities to find ways to manage them.

A New York City councilman said he plans to introduce legislation on Wednesday creating municipal identification cards similar to those in New Haven for the city’s 8.2 million residents.

Councilman Hiram Monserrate said many of New York City’s residents are immigrants who have lived there for years and to provide such an ID card “only makes sense for our municipality.”

New Haven already offers federal tax help to immigrants and prohibits police from asking about their immigration status. The new ID cards cost $5 for children and $10 for adults.