Personal I.D.’s Only Valid By Houston and Other Cities

The main users of community identification cards will be the homeless and immigrants, though they should be available to all citizens, but whatever happens they must not bear any close resemblance to a shameful scarlet letter. As immigrants in most states are obliged to prove their legal residence in the country, the practice of issuing them driver's licenses, which does exist in the states of Delaware and Texas, has not gained much popularity. For Clean America, an organization that is totally against giving legal status to illegal immigrants has made a statement through its spokesperson, Graham Strand, in which it branded ID card programs for their encouraging people not to leave their communities, which would ruin U.S. immigration laws. The Dallas Translation Services company have translated and provided some important statistics according to which most of the Latinos living in the country cannot prove their legal status. Being extremely marginalized and not being given the opportunity to lead some sort of normal life, these people are determined to change the situation.

The ID program that was launched in March 2008, has not met with any resistance among city officials ever since, says Detective Ron Benet of the Office of Rural Affairs at the San Antonio Police Department. Citizens shall not be asked about their immigration status unless there is a suspicion of a criminal act, city and police officials have been ordered. And even though there have been promises that all the information provided by immigrants would be kept in strict confidentiality, a very small number of San Antonio citizens have stepped forward to receive their cards as most of them have been suspicious. Federal agents have started a series of arrests and as a result twenty immigrants have been sent to detention centers, although the Miami Translator agency have translated quite a lot of informative leaflets free of charge, in which the residents are informed that no harm will be done to them. Apparently, the immigrants did not come forward in order to collect their identification cards because they felt threatened.

The community ID cards are only valid within the city in which they were issued. And although some ID cards have been confiscated for suspicions of being fakes, the program has been a success, say the organizers who are trying to gain support from other municipalities. A part-time worker at the Houston Translator service, and an illegal alien from Costa Rica, 28-year-old Osvaldo Morientes explained when he went to pick up his paychecks at the company where he works, or when he entered the guarded buildings where he is assigned interpretation jobs, the ID card helped him a great deal. A fortnight ago, he accompanied Juan Marin Serra to the local Police Department where he was supposed to assist him in a police interrogation as part of a interpretation assignment by his company. A police officer stopped his car in order to check why his rear lights were not functioning. The officer asked for his insurance card, his registration and his driver’s license. Unluckily, he had not taken his driver's license, and the only thing could present was his ID card, so the police officer let him go unpunished. So, the police officer, though knowing perfectly that it is a punishable offence not to carry a driver's license. Juan Marin can do nothing else but smile and thank to God for his stroke of good luck.