13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |Problems with widely-used Mexican ID card

Problems with widely-used Mexican ID card

Indianapolis, October 24, 2003 (AP) - Financial institutions and state agencies are recognizing a card issued by the Mexican government as a form of identification, but critics say there is no assurance the people who carry the cards really are who they claim to be.
     
The Mexican Consulate in Indianapolis has issued more than 16,000 of the cards, known as "matricula consular," to immigrants in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky during the past year.
     
Indiana state agencies have accepted the cards since July, and about a dozen banks and credit unions accept them, The Indianapolis Star, WTHR's newsgathering partner, reported Friday.
     
"It gives immigrants the possibility of leading a more normal life," said Sergio Aguilera, Mexican consul in Indianapolis. "It means they have access to services that they otherwise wouldn't."
     
The cards include date of birth and a photograph and address of the cardholder. A Mexican birth certificate is needed to obtain the document.
     
David Ray, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the cards often are issued to illegal aliens.
     
The FBI says the card is easy to obtain fraudulently and could be used as phony identification by terrorists.
     
But Anna Urias Hail, a Mexican native and caseworker at Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis, noted the terrorists in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were in the United States legally.
     
"Our community are not terrorists," Hail said. "Our community came here to work."
     
The U.S. Treasury Department says banks can accept the cards, but a White House-led panel is reviewing the cards to determine if they pose a security risk.
     
That poses a dilemma for bankers who want to serve Indiana's burgeoning Hispanic population.
     
Nearly 23,000 Marion County residents said they were of Mexican descent in the 2000 census, about two-thirds of the official Hispanic population in the county.
     
"There are banks that want to service the (Mexican) community but they are not sure if they can," said Jim Cousins, executive director of the Indiana Bankers Association.
     
Ron Hall, vice president at First Merchants Corp., said his bank decided to accept the card, but reserved the right to turn down potential customers if there were other signs they might not be who they claim to be.
     
"It's not risk-free, but an Indiana driver's license is not risk-free either," he said.
     
      (Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)