Forum: Documenting the undocumented

What is green and red, includes a photograph, is needed only by illegal aliens and is issued here in the U.S. — by a foreign government?

No idea? A hint — it’s a photo ID card.

More clues.

What is printed in Spanish, is deemed to be a “criminal threat” and a “potential terror threat” to the U.S. by the FBI Office of Intelligence — but is accepted by many American banks and local and state governments?

More?

What has been labeled as an “unreliable form of identification” by the U.S. Department of Justice, but can be used to board an airplane in America… amidst a War on Terror? (www.fbi.gov/congress/congress03/mccraw062603.htm)

Give up?

It’s a Mexican “matricula consular” photo identification card.

Don’t feel bad if you didn’t know the answer: Most Americans haven’t a clue what a matricula consular is either. That is not an accident.

A brief history and some insight into the little-known Mexican government issued matricula consular:

On Aug. 29, 2001, in a speech to both Houses of the U.S. Congress, Mexico’s President Vicente Fox said the Mexicans illegally present in the U.S. at the time were “entitled to legalized status” and later demanded that President Bush “solve the problem before the year ends”.

Even before the horror of September 11, 2001, vocal public opinion worked against the impending amnesty — er, “guest-worker” — proposal for millions of illegal aliens already here.

Following September 11, and because of the resulting now obvious Homeland Security issues, the plan to repeat the “one-time amnesty” of 1986 and “legalize” the millions of illegal aliens in the U.S. was taken off the table.

Several other things however, did not change.

Here, the unrelenting demand from “willing employers” for taxpayer subsidized labor continued — as did the craving of American banks for the highly profitable business of the enormous illegal alien market.

Story Continues →