SPRINGDALE : Hispanics queue up to get ID cards
Posted on Sunday, September 9, 2007
SPRINGDALE — Esmaralda Fuentes, 16, hopes she will never need a matricula consular identification card.
The high school sophomore, who moved with her family from Mexico to Siloam Springs when she was an infant, hopes she’ll be a naturalized U. S. citizen by the time she turns 18 and otherwise would need an official picture ID from the Mexican government.
The process to become a U. S. citizen can take years.
“My mom is working on it,” Fuentes said Saturday while at the Jones Center for Families with relatives who were getting matricula consular cards. The Mexican government issues the photo ID cards, which can be used for such tasks as opening accounts at some banks or flying on some airlines.
The Mexican Consulate of Little Rock, which opened in April, set up a mobile consulate Saturday at the Jones Center after some Northwest Arkansas residents said traveling to the state capital during the week is a hardship.
A handful of consulate employees and local volunteers worked Saturday to provide 250 people with the ID cards. Demand from the growing Hispanic population in this part of the state is high, so Saturday’s service was by appointment only.
Arkansas was home to 130, 846 Hispanics in 2006, according to a U. S. Census Bureau estimate. Springdale’s population was 33 percent Hispanic in 2005, and Rogers’ population was 31 percent Hispanic in 2006, according to special censuses.
The green and red ID cards can be issued to Mexican nationals living abroad — regardless of their immigration status. Mexicans need an original birth certificate, proof of address and photo identification such as a passport or school ID to purchase the cards. The cost is about $ 30.
“From the U. S. perspective, it is not supposed to smooth the way for [immigration purposes ],” said Alejandro Leon Vargas, the consul for documentation affairs. “That’s what detractors say. For us, it’s to provide a valid and official ID to our citizens.”
Critics say the cards can be abused and make it too easy for illegal aliens to assimilate.
The cards have 13 visual and hidden security features, including encrypted photos, a hologram and the government seal, Vargas said.
He also said it makes it easier for law enforcement to notify the consulate when a Mexican national is arrested — something the consulate monitors to ensure Mexican citizens are treated fairly.
The cards also help the Mexican government track its citizens for tax and census purposes.
Since opening in Little Rock, the consulate has provided more than 4, 000 matricula cards. The consulate serves people in Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
Teresa Perez, 39, a mother of seven, said the card will allow her to open an account with one of the area banks that accepts the cards.
It also will mean fewer headaches at the border when she travels to and from her home in Guanajuato, Mexico, where three of her children live.
“It’s easier,” she said in Spanish through Fuentes, who translated for her at the Jones Center.
The mobile consulate followed Consul Andres Chao’s meeting Friday with the mayors and police chiefs of Springdale and Rogers, in which they discussed a federal program that allows local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws. Four law enforcement agencies in Benton and Washington counties have applied to be a part of the program, and 19 area officers are training in Boston until later this month. That program has prompted concern from Hispanics who fear it will cause racial profiling and discourage Hispanic victims of crime from contacting police for fear of being deported.
To contact this reporter: glaroe@arkansasonline. com
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