In April 2007, the Mexican government formally opened its 47 th 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 illegal aliens, 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 marriage licenses, 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 for them 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 the United 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 held only 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 advice in 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 Cinco de 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.
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