LAT, June 27, 2003
WASHINGTON — The Mexican identification cards that
have eased access to financial and local government services for more than 1
million immigrants in California and elsewhere are prone to fraud and misuse by
criminals and possibly terrorists, the FBI told a congressional panel
Thursday.
"The Department of Justice and the FBI have concluded that the
matricula consular is not a reliable form of identification," said Steven
McCraw, assistant director of the FBI's intelligence office. "There are major
criminal threats posed by the cards and [a] potential terrorist
threat."
Resembling a driver's license and displaying the bearer's
address in the United States, the cards are issued by Mexican consulates to
Mexican citizens, whether or not they are legally in this country.
The
cards are accepted as identification by more than 70 U.S. banks, 800 police
departments and numerous local governments, including in Los Angeles. In
Sacramento, lawmakers are considering legislation that would require acceptance
by state agencies.
McCraw's testimony brought into the open a debate
within the Bush administration. Several agencies are struggling to craft a
government-wide policy on consular IDs, even as half a dozen other countries are
considering issuing similar cards for their citizens in the United
States.
Currently, consular IDs are
not valid for admittance to federal buildings, but
the Transportation Security Administration accepts them for air
travelers.
Within the Bush administration, the State
and Treasury departments have taken a tolerant view, while the FBI is raising
strong concerns, and Homeland Security has staked out a middle
ground.
Many local law enforcement agencies have embraced the cards,
saying acceptance has made it easier to police immigrant communities and has
made low-income workers less vulnerable to crime by allowing them to open bank
accounts instead of keeping their savings in cash. Thirteen states accept the
cards as identification for issuing driver's licenses, usually with additional
documentation.
Proponents of reducing immigration have criticized the
matriculas as providing an incentive for illegal migration.
"The
fact that so many localities have made the decision to accept consular cards for
domestic identification purposes, without guidance from the federal government,
is a source of concern," said Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.), chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee. "No background checks are
run No investigation is undertaken to assess the possible risk that an alien
poses to the American people."
Mexican Embassy spokesman Miguel
Monterrubio said his government, which has encouraged acceptance of the cards,
wants to cooperate with U.S. authorities to resolve any specific concerns about
them.
"We have been working hard to improve the process of security under
which we give out these consular IDs, precisely with the intention of avoiding
forgery," he said.
McCraw said extensive research by the FBI determined
that the Mexican IDs can be fraudulently obtained by presenting false documents
at a Mexican consulate, or can be forged. "Even the newest version can be easily
replicated, despite its security features," he said.
The Mexican
government has no central database that can be used to track recipients of the
cards, he added. Monterrubio said such a database is under
development.
Criminals can use the cards to facilitate money laundering
and immigrant smuggling, McCraw said. One smuggler was arrested with seven of
the IDs, each with his picture and a different name.
The apprehension of
an Iranian man trying to cross the border from Mexico earlier this year, with a
consular ID identifying him as a citizen of Mexico, exposed another
vulnerability, McCraw added.
There was no indication that the man was a
terrorist, he said, but "the ability of foreign nationals to use the
matricula consular to create a fictitious identity in the United States
provides an opportunity for terrorists." They could "move freely within the
United States without triggering name-based watch lists that are disseminated to
local officials."
Mexican authorities say they are constantly on the
lookout for non-Mexicans trying to obtain the consular IDs. "We are a very
homogeneous country," said Edgardo Flores Rivas, consul general in Washington.
"It would be very difficult for someone to trick us."
McCraw said the
Iranian had obtained the Mexican ID with the help of a girlfriend in the United
States.
Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-North Hollywood) urged lawmakers not to
move precipitously to cut off acceptance of Mexican IDs.
"Mexico is in
the process of substantially strengthening the security of these cards," he
said. "As long as the identification truly reflects who the bearer is, [security
agencies] don't have a problem with the card."
McCraw conceded that state
driver's licenses, Social Security cards and other U.S.-issued documents can
also be forged. And as a former Texas state trooper, he said, he can sympathize
with local law enforcement officials who endorse acceptance of the IDs. Some
identification "is always better than nothing," he said.
A Latino civil
rights organization described the real issue as the lack of a federal policy to
grant official status to more than 7 million illegal immigrants, most of them
workers.
"We have a system that is clearly broken, and the federal
government has done nothing, so state and local government have to come up with
solutions," said Michele Waslin, a policy analyst with the National Council of
La Raza.
Resolving the controversy will require balancing security and
social concerns, said Demetrios Papademetriou, co-director of the Migration
Policy Institute, a Washington think tank.
"This is just an ID document;
it doesn't grant the bearer any immigration status," Papademetriou said. "It
merely makes it a little bit easier for people who live here and contribute to
our economy to be able to function at the lowest possible level of our
society."
Hostettler said he is considering legislation to limit
acceptance of the cards, but prefers to first see what the administration will
do.