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Article Lo, the emperor's Mexican ID card - Boulder would be wrong to recognize it by Mike McGarry Boulder Daily Camera November 17, 2002 And the swindlers pretended to put the new suit upon him, and the emperor looked at himself in the glass from every side. "That is a magnificent suit of clothes." The Boulder City Council soon will decide if it will accept the Mexican government-issued "matricula consular" card as valid proof of identification. The council should reject the card. The card is a fake and a threat to security. Accepting it would be an invidious abdication of sovereignty and legally problematic. It would be dismissive of majority opinion against such actions, while deferring to a corrupt foreign government. It would reward lawbreakers and sucker-punch the law-abiding. One day two swindlers came to this city; they made people believe that they were weavers, but the clothes made of their material possessed the wonderful quality of being invisible. A confirmation-of-residence letter from a supposed landlord and a Mexican birth certificate are two of the unverified documents the Mexican consulate accepts to issue the matricula cards to its nationals illegally living in Colorado. Among the documents now found by police agencies at false-document factories are Mexican birth certificates. The matricula cards are being issued on the strength of false and at best dubious "documents." Immigration agents now encounter Mexican nationals with multiple matricula cards. In a Denver Post story, Scott Weber, deputy director for the INS in Denver, said, "One guy we just arrested had three different matriculas with three different names. It was his picture, issued through the same (Mexican) consulate." "That must be wonderful cloth," thought the emperor. Allowing agents of the Mexican government to issue IDs in Colorado is a dangerous abdication of sovereignty. Graft and corruption are deeply woven into everyday Mexican political life. Travel south of the border, and you will find Mexican border towns with federal and state officials eager to sell false documents, including the matricula card. The World Bank estimates corruption drains a full 9 percent annually from Mexico's GDP, and a corruption index from Transparency International puts Mexico comfortably between Egypt and Colombia. Federal authorities worry the cards give those with evil intentions a piece of identification that, if accepted, act as "breeder documents" to access other, more legitimate documentation, the real reason for Mexico's brazen meddling into matters that are the exclusive prerogative of the citizens of Colorado. Immigration officials caution police departments not to trust these cards fashioned and issued by swindlers and which disarmingly create the illusion of valid identification. "But he has nothing on at all" said a little child at last. Guatemala and Poland are among the countries reportedly pushing for similar ID schemes for their illegals living in the United States. If they succeed in getting cities to accept their cards too, expect the rest of the world's countries to unveil their versions of farcical IDs. Is there anyone reading this who really believes accepting the Mexican ID is a good idea? America generously admits more legal immigrants yearly than do all the countries of the world combined. There are millions of would-be Americans respectfully and patiently waiting in lines around the world, some for many years. Yet we snub them while we coddle those who break into our country and commit multiple misdemeanors and felonies to perpetuate themselves here. (It is a felony, for example, to use false documents.) Local resident Marlene Guerrero is a naturalized U.S. citizen. Drawing on her personal experience, she plaintively asks, "Can you imagine how hurtful and disheartening it is when people play by the rules only to see those who illegally jumped the line and bullied their way to the front now being rewarded with what amounts to a de facto amnesty?" A growing body of legal opinion and analysis suggests accepting the matricula card may violate federal law in part by infringing on federal authority to set immigration and foreign policy. The Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform (www.cairco.org) will soon be filing a formal complaint with the U.S. attorney against Denver's Mayor Webb for ordering his city departments to accept the card. Polls show Coloradans overwhelming oppose local governments' accommodating the presence of illegals. There is no reason to believe the citizens and legal residents of Boulder are any more inclined to want their security compromised, their city put in legal jeopardy, their City Council acting incautiously. Nor are they necessarily more likely to want to embrace lawbreakers while rejecting those who faithfully did all we asked of them. The Republic of Boulder has traditionally distinguished itself as a promoter of progressive ideas. Accepting the bogus matricula card would not be progressive, prudent, ethical or compassionate. Indeed, it would be a reckless, dangerous game of pretend, and the emperor's clothes would never have been so admired. Mike McGarry is a spokesman for the Lakewood-based Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform. Articles Home |