Immigration Committee Hearing investigates challenges
facing immigrants lacking ID
By Donna Lamb
For most US-born people,
it’s hard to even conceive of the problems immigrants face when they
don’t possess proper identification because, upon birth, US citizens
receive a birth certificate and are assigned a social security number.
Later in life, these IDs and the many more that are easily obtainable
open doors for them everywhere they go.
For many immigrants, however, it’s a very different
story. They lack what is considered "proper" identification, which makes
it hard to open a bank account, cash checks, or conduct other basic
financial transactions even as simple as buying a Greyhound Bus ticket.
It’s also difficult to acquire a library card, drive a car, rent an
apartment, pass through checkpoints, obtain crucial official documents,
or buy products that impose a minimum age requirement.
And
this is just the tip of the iceberg. This could be seen at the recent
City Council Committee on Immigration oversight hearing to investigate
the challenges facing immigrants lacking identification. As Arturo
Sarukhan, Consul General of Mexico testified, "Chores and errands of
daily life taken for granted by any average New Yorker are off-limits
for these hard-working people: entering a high security building, using
public transportation or even trying to obtain medical services have
become a daily battle for survival for an immigrant that has no way to
prove his identity."
At
the beginning of the hearing, Guillermo Linares, Commissioner of the
Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA), testified that he was
"mindful of the problem." Yet he seemed somewhat cavalier, giving the
impression that in issuing Executive Order 41 - which commits the City
to providing services to all New Yorkers entitled to services,
regardless of their immigration status - MOIA had met its obligations
and shouldn’t be expected to do much more about this issue.
This
prompted the Immigration Committee’s Chair, Council Member Kendall
Stewart, to respond with some intensity, "You say you’re concerned, but
I want you to take into consideration how urgent this matter is.
I would like for you to at least commit to us that you will take the
message back to the Mayor that something needs to be done as soon as
possible to improve these people’s situation. Even the services
you’re talking about from Executive Order 41 are very difficult to
access without ID."
The
testimony provided by others was dramatic, sometimes shocking, and very
much to the point. Much of it focused on the fact that in the near
future, due to changes in the documentation required to get a drivers
license, tens of thousands of the City’s immigrants will face suspension
of their licenses and countless others will be unable to obtain one. As
Amy Sugimori, attorney with the National Employment Law Project, made
clear, the consequences of this are devastating. It will leave thousands
of hard-working immigrants unable to take care of their family
responsibilities or to get to work. It will put some, such as taxi and
car service drivers, delivery workers and truck drivers, out of a job,
which will, in turn, cause some immigrants to lose their homes because
they won’t be able to pay their rent.
Sugimori and others argued that immigration status
has no bearing on identity or the ability to drive, and that the
enforcement of immigration law is beyond the scope of the Department of
Motor Vehicle’s (DMV) authority. The DMV should accept safe and reliable
methods to prove identity such as foreign passports, consular
identification cards and other documents that securely establish
identity and date of birth. They could also make licenses and other IDs
more fraud-proof by using holograms, signatures and tamper resistant
paper.
The
committee also heard from Deborah Notkin, President-Elect of the
American Immigration Lawyers Association who stated, "It’s ironic that
the government has no problem issuing anyone tax identification numbers
to pay taxes, but refuses to issue traditional valid state
identification." Francisco Javier Guzman, speaking on behalf of
Asociacion Tepeyac de New York, laid out the many disadvantages to the
City itself of not providing a New York City ID and what it would gain
by establishing one.
Kavita
Pawria, Monica Chawdaiy and Fefat Doza, members of the community-based
organization Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), shared some real horror
stories about people caught in the identity quagmire. For example,
Pawria read a statement from Thakur, a green card holder, whose family
lived in the US for 13 years. Their children are citizens. Their
nightmare began when his wife was asked to come to the DMV office to
verify her Social Security number. She ended up being arrested, jailed
and deported. "Now our family has been torn apart," Thakur said. "My
wife and children are in Bangladesh. We do not understand why going to
the DMV caused such problems."
And
this is just the tip of the iceberg. This could be seen at the recent
City Council Committee on Immigration oversight hearing to investigate
the challenges facing immigrants lacking identification. As Arturo
Sarukhan, Consul General of Mexico testified, "Chores and errands of
daily life taken for granted by any average New Yorker are off-limits
for these hard-working people: entering a high security building, using
public transportation or even trying to obtain medical services have
become a daily battle for survival for an immigrant that has no way to
prove his identity."
At
the beginning of the hearing, Guillermo Linares, Commissioner of the
Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA), testified that he was
"mindful of the problem." Yet he seemed somewhat cavalier, giving the
impression that in issuing Executive Order 41 - which commits the City
to providing services to all New Yorkers entitled to services,
regardless of their immigration status - MOIA had met its obligations
and shouldn’t be expected to do much more about this issue.
This
prompted the Immigration Committee’s Chair, Council Member Kendall
Stewart, to respond with some intensity, "You say you’re concerned, but
I want you to take into consideration how urgent this matter is.
I would like for you to at least commit to us that you will take the
message back to the Mayor that something needs to be done as soon as
possible to improve these people’s situation. Even the services
you’re talking about from Executive Order 41 are very difficult to
access without ID."
The
testimony provided by others was dramatic, sometimes shocking, and very
much to the point. Much of it focused on the fact that in the near
future, due to changes in the documentation required to get a drivers
license, tens of thousands of the City’s immigrants will face suspension
of their licenses and countless others will be unable to obtain one. As
Amy Sugimori, attorney with the National Employment Law Project, made
clear, the consequences of this are devastating. It will leave thousands
of hard-working immigrants unable to take care of their family
responsibilities or to get to work. It will put some, such as taxi and
car service drivers, delivery workers and truck drivers, out of a job,
which will, in turn, cause some immigrants to lose their homes because
they won’t be able to pay their rent.
The
committee also heard from Deborah Notkin, President-Elect of the
American Immigration Lawyers Association who stated, "It’s ironic that
the government has no problem issuing anyone tax identification numbers
to pay taxes, but refuses to issue traditional valid state
identification." Francisco Javier Guzman, speaking on behalf of
Asociacion Tepeyac de New York, laid out the many disadvantages to the
City itself of not providing a New York City ID and what it would gain
by establishing one.
Kavita
Pawria, Monica Chawdaiy and Fefat Doza, members of the community-based
organization Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), shared some real horror
stories about people caught in the identity quagmire. For example,
Pawria read a statement from Thakur, a green card holder, whose family
lived in the US for 13 years. Their children are citizens. Their
nightmare began when his wife was asked to come to the DMV office to
verify her Social Security number. She ended up being arrested, jailed
and deported. "Now our family has been torn apart," Thakur said. "My
wife and children are in Bangladesh. We do not understand why going to
the DMV caused such problems."
