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What goes on at the (illegal) Mexican consulate…protection racket story?

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The unbelievable
story on how part of our country is behind allowing ILLEGALS to enter the USA
and then after they are here, make them citizens.  This is the front and
back page of the Style Section with 6 color photos of families and
children.

As the boys on
the street say: we have been screwed, rookydooed and tatooed.

                                                                                    Sharon
Stark, Little Rock

 

Going for the ID

The first foreign consulate in Arkansas keeps busy issuing
identity cards and other documents to Mexicans living here

By Samantha Friedman

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

LITTLE ROCK — In April 2007, the Mexican government
formally opened its 47th consulate in the United States in Little Rock,
bringing the first – and still only – foreign consulate to the state. Mexico’s
is the largest consular network operated by any country inside another.

Four
years before, former Arkansas Gov. Mike
Huckabee had flown to Mexico City to meet with former Mexican President Vicente
Fox to suggest he consider establishing consular representation in
Arkansas. In 2006, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that Arkansas had 104,920
Mexicans out of a Hispanic population of 138,283. Considering the thousands of
uncounted illegalaliens, Andres Chao, Mexican
consul in Little Rock, estimates the actual number of Mexicans is closer to
185,000.

In
its first year and a half, the consulate issued
almost 30,000 documents to Mexicans in its jurisdiction of
Arkansas,eastern Oklahoma and western Tennessee – and Mississippi, until the
New Orleans consulate reopened in March. For Mexican nationals, those documents
include consular identification cards, passports, powers of attorney, birth
certificates and marriagelicenses, as well as visas for foreigners planning to
spend prolonged periods of time in Mexico.

The
consulate, at 3500 S.University Ave., reports that the greatest demand is for
the identification card, called the matricula consular in Spanish and issued by
the Mexican government since 1871. The card represents more than half of all
documents issued.

“It
is useful for opening bank accounts, but also is useful forthem to have an
identification with their real name and real address,” Chao said. “The Mexican
national needs to prove with an original birth certificate that he is a Mexican
national, then show another original ID card and then, proof of residence. With
these documents, we are allowed to get them a passport or matricula consular.”

At
$27, the card, which is valid for five years, is cheaper than a passport, which
costs $74 and expires after three years or $101 for a six-year version. An
additional benefit to the matricula is the fact that it includes the bearer’s
address, while the passport does not, says Eric Levy, a deputy consul. The U.S.
government requires passports for any person entering the country by air – and
beginning in June 2009, by land or sea as well. Levy says many customers
purchase a matricula and a passport.

“The
purpose of the matricula consular is for the sending state to have a registry
of their citizens living in the receiving state,” Levy says. It is up to municipal governments, banks and other
agencies to decide whether to accept the card as a means of identification.

According
to the consulate, 1,439 police departments, 265 counties, 435 cities and 475
banks accept the card nationally.

A
dispute has erupted over the use of the card in acquiring an American driver’s
license. The state of Arkansas does not accept
foreign documents other than passports when issuing driver’s licenses.
Foreign passports must be accompanied by an Immigration and Naturalization
Services card or a U.S. visa.

Carlos
Cervantes, state director of the Arkansas chapter of the League of United Latin
American Citizens, said it would be logical to
allow use of the card in helping uninsured Mexicans acquire licenses and car
insurance.

“I
don’t want to get hit by any uninsured [driver], whether he’s documented or
undocumented, whether he’s a citizen or noncitizen,” Cervantes said. “We need
to figure something out so they can participate in the rules of the law.”

The
card has been criticized as facilitating illegal aliens’ functioning in
day-to-day society and threatening national security. In 2003, Steve McCraw,
assistant director of the FBI Office of Intelligence, testified to the U.S.
House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims that
the consular ID card “is not a reliable form of identification, due to the
nonexistence of any means of verifying the true identity of the card holder.”

“We
have absolutely no hand in how these cards are issued or who they’re given to
or what sort of background is run on these folks, so for the [United States] to
accept these cards as a legitimate form of identification, we would be
completely remiss in checking for a number of things that we check for when we
issue identification here in the [United States],” said Caroline Dierker, national spokesman for the Department of Homeland
Security. “In terms of security, it would be a risk because we don’t have any
role in giving the cards.”

Levy
said the Mexican government observes strict procedures when checking clients’
application documents. In the aftermath of increased security and identity
concerns after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Mexican government
also set up an intraconsular database in 2002.

“That
means that if you got a matricula in Seattle or Albuquerque and show up here,
when we put your data in, the system will automatically have a red flag
informing us of your previous matricula and then we will not be able to issue
another one,” Levy said. “Regarding the birth certificates, we have trained
personnel that check the validity of the birth certificates and any other
document presented to us. If there is any doubt about the authenticity of the
document, we just don’t issue a matricula.”

But
birth certificates can be forged, and people have been arrested while
possessing multiple consular ID cards, said Bob Dane, press secretary for
Washingtonbased Federation for American Immigration Reform. His nonprofit
public interest group estimates that 3 million matriculas consulares are
circulating in theUnited States.

Though
LULAC does not encourage illegal immigration, said Michel Leidermann, state
director of communications, even undocumented immigrants who have demonstrated
a commitment to the U.S. economy should be supported in their efforts to
operate legally in society.

“Once
they’ve been here for years and are good citizens, paying taxes, they don’t
have problems with the law, they have American children, they have businesses,
they work, and so on, they should be given certain latitudes, contrary to those
that just crossed the border yesterday,” he said.

The
Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies contends that the matricula
consular is only needed for Mexicans residing in the United States illegally
because legal residents can obtain other identification documents.

“We should not be doing things that basically make
illegal immigration an attractive option, meaning they shouldn’t be able
to come here and get a driver’s license, bank account, mortgage, job, among
other things, because those are the things that people are immigrating here
legally for – to improve their lifestyle,” said the center’s spokesman Bryan
Griffith. “Any legal immigrant has absolutely no need for the matricula.”

The
list of banks accepting the card now includes Bank of America, Chase, Citibank,
Capital Bank and regional institutions Twin City Bank, Metropolitan Bank and
Arvest Bank, according to Levy. Early this decade, Bank of America, which has
50 branches in Arkansas, was one of the first to accept the card along with a
secondary form of ID to open a bank account.

“We
have long supported service to Hispanics, and it was around the same time also
that we started launching our bilingual ATM, so it was a natural fit for us to
be able to offer that,” said Diane Wagner, a Bank of America spokesman. “It
enables them to establish a checking account and a banking relationship, which
would be good for them to establish a credit history.It also enables them to
know that their money is put in a financial institution and it’s safe.”

She
said that the company “follows all federal laws relating to identification
requirements for new customers.”

But
Dane said that opening the financial system to those whose backgrounds may not
have been sufficiently checked could be contributing to the current credit
crisis.

“It’s unconscionable for U.S. banks to identify an
illegal population as a group of potential customers, and to some extent
– we don’t really know the depth of it – that may very well be part of the
problem with our subprime mortgage crisis and credit crisis,” Dane said. “There
are times where identification theft, financial meltdown and risk of terrorism
ought to really supersede the acceptance of these Mexican governmentissued ID
cards.”

Bank
of America does not go out of its way to recruit customers living in the United
States illegally, Wagner said, but does want “to offer innovative financial
services that meet the needs of all our customers, including our Hispanic
customers.”

When
issuing documents or providing any other service, the consulate is unconcerned
with the immigration status of its clients, consul Chao said. The consulate’s
responsibility is to represent the Mexican government, not to question the
reason Mexican citizens are requesting services, he said.

“For
me, what’s important is they are Mexican nationals, regardless of immigration
status,” he said.

To
reach Mexicans throughout its tri-state jurisdiction, the consular staff sets
up mobile consulates once a year in each major city in its region. Because
consular equipment is needed for these trips, the staff holds its portable
versions on weekends so as to not interfere with normal business at the
consulate. Prior to this year’s one-day visit to the Springdale Civic Center in
August, the 350 appointment slots filled up ahead of time. The consulate added
100 more the day of the event.

Mobile
consulates are heldonly rarely, so many clients must travel to Little Rock.
Before the Arkansas consulate opened, Mexicans had to travel to Kansas City,
Mo., Dallas or Atlanta.

On
a Thursday in August, the consulate’s lobby was busy. Martin Gomez and 10
relatives drove seven hours from Enid, Okla., to obtain Mexican passports to
visit family in the state of Jalisco. Passports are not required to enter
Mexico, but are required for re-entry to the United States.

Guadalupe
Barbosa of Springdale accompanied his wife to obtain a matricula that showed
her married name.

Levy
said Mexico is not the only country to register its citizens via a system like
the matricula consular. El Salvador and Guatemala, for instance, do the same.

The
consulate opened with a staff of eight and accepted only morning appointments.
In August, the Mexican government authorized a second shift, increasing the
number of daily appointments from 160 to 300. The staff now totals 21,
including four Americans.

Aside
from documentation, the consulate’s work involves two other areas: consular
protection and legal affairs, and community affairs. The purpose of the first
is “to ensure the rights of the Mexican nationals [who] are living here in
Arkansas,” Chao said. Article 36 of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular
Relations, of which the United States and Mexico are signatories, requires
American authorities to inform the Mexican consulate if a Mexican national who
is arrested requests it. Though the consulate can’t represent defendants in
court and has no lawyers on staff, it can consult on legal cases and offer
advicein hiring attorneys.

Leidermann
of LULAC said since the consulate has opened, detaining authorities have made
an increased effort to inform the consulate’s legal affairs division of such
arrests.

“Whenever
you have an immigration raid or anything like that, what they’re doing now is
making sure that the Arkansas authorities notify the consulate immediately when
they detain a Mexican citizen, which didn’t happen before,” he said. “One of
the things that the consulate has achieved is that the police departments,
sheriffs, state police and so on, know that immediately when they detain a
foreign citizen, they have to alert the consulate. So that’s an improvement in
civil rights.”

Consular
protection and legal affairs is also responsible for sending the remains of
deceased Mexicans to Mexico.

As
the Mexican government’s highest-ranking authority in the consulate’s
jurisdiction, Chao acts as a figurehead at cultural ceremonies such as last
month’s Grito de Independencia – Independence Day celebration in the River
Market – and Cincode Mayo in May. He meets with local, state and university
officials and American and Mexican entrepreneurs to promote business and
cultural relationships between the two. In June, he accompanied 11
representatives from Arkansas government and businesses on a trade mission to
Mexico City and Pachuca, Little Rock’s Sister City.

Chao
said that state industries, particularly air and space, can benefit from the
consulate’s commercial networking. He is working with Little Rock National
Airport, Adams Field, to establish a direct flight to Mexico, which would be
the airport’s first international flight. Airport spokesman T.J. Williams said
the airport is working with Customs and Border Protection to determine a
location for a customs and security inspection area by the end of the year,
although talks are only preliminary.

“Before,
[Arkansas businesses] didn’t have this opportunity, just to give you an
example, with the trade mission,” Chao said. “If we are not here, it is
probably more difficult for different businesses to open the door, have the
contacts and the recommendations and have meetings as productive as they were
with the states of Jalisco and Chiapas.”

The
consulate also organizes events to benefit the local Mexican community, such as
an annual health week at the consulate. Chao has helped install two photography
exhibits showcasing Mexico at the Statehouse Convention Center. He and the
consul for documentation affairs, Alejandro Leon Vargas, spend an hour each
Friday on Springdale and Fort Smith Spanish radio stations answering listeners’
questions on consular services.

Soon,
Mexico may not have the only consulate in Arkansas. The Marshall Islands’
4,000-8,000 population in Springdale has been estimated to be the largest
Marshallese population outside the Pacific island nation. The community is
making plans to open a consul’s office of its own. The Marshall Islands’ Public
Service Commission posted a job advertisement for a consul in May and
Marshallese President Litokwa Tomeing visited Northwest Arkansas in June.

Style, Pages 27, 32 on 10/14/2008

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