Illegal aliens issued community ID Cards

Arizona may have recently come under national scrutiny for passing a law cracking down on illegal immigration, but an initiative in Princeton that has the opposite effect has attracted its own share of controversy.

Last May, Princeton Borough and Princeton Township agreed to accept community identification cards issued by the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a nonprofit organization with an office in Princeton, to people without documented proof of legal immigration. All that is required to receive a card are a passport or consular documents from another country and proof of residency, such as utility bills.

Around 500 community identification cards have been issued since May, said sociology professor and LALDEF trustee Patricia Fernandez-Kelly.

Though the card is not a form of official government identification, various public and private entities have agreed to accept the identification card, including the Trenton and Princeton police departments, the Mercer County prosecutor’s office and sheriff’s office, and several local schools and clinics. The cards cost $10 for adults and $5 for minors.

“The police don’t like the problems caused by an invisible and vulnerable population,” Fernandez-Kelly said. Without the cards, she added, health care for illegal immigrants becomes almost impossible.

Community groups “don’t want sick people with or without documents in the streets,” she explained.

In addition to health care, other basic services will now be accessible for holders of community identification cards.

LALDEF has also issued around 2,000 cards in Trenton, the other site of the program, Fernandez-Kelly said. The number of Princeton residents requesting cards has been decreasing, she noted, possibly due a fear of being deported after coming forward as illegal immigrants.

Borough Police Captain Nicholas Sutter said that he did not have any direct information about the usefulness of the identification cards. Still, he emphasized that the police department has found the program effective.

“We’re absolutely in support,” Sutter said. “100 percent, and you can quote me on that.”

The project has been getting some attention from University students, like Alicia Corona ’13, who first heard about the plan during her freshman writing seminar, “Refugees, Immigrants, and Social Justice.” Corona is the president of the DREAM Team, a group that was formed last year at the University in support of the DREAM Act, which seeks to help illegal immigrant children in the United States become permanent residents after receiving a bachelor’s degree or completing two years of military service.

More students found out about the initiative in Fernandez-Kelly’s class this semester, SOC 227: Race and Ethnicity. A Community-Based Learning Initiative project, stemming from the course, is also compiling demographic information on illegal immigrants in the Princeton area this semester.

Micah Joselow ’12, president of the College Democrats, said that the group had not specifically discussed the project.

“[But] I learned this summer about how difficult the [immigration] process is,” Joselow added, “so programs like this are a great step.”

Not everyone supports the LALDEF project, however.

“We do get a substantial amount of hate mail, [mostly] concerned about aiding and abetting,” Fernandez-Kelly said, adding that opponents “just don’t like immigrants without papers to be treated like human beings.”

A common fallacy is the idea that LALDEF is issuing government documents. But the community identification cards are not government-sponsored, she explained, and currently are only valid in Trenton and Princeton.

“I’ve seen the cards,” Corona said. “They’re not easily confused with a driver’s license, so it’s not like [people] can just pawn it off.”

Corona explained that she thought the cards simply gave people a “sense of identity.”

But Gayle Kesselman, co-chair of the organization New Jersey Citizens for Immigration Control, has raised concerns that the cards could be sending the wrong message.

“It sounds like Princeton is basically setting up its own immigration policy separate from the United States,” Kesselman told The Star-Ledger in May. “They may think they have a wonderful motive doing what they’re doing, the good people of Princeton, but they’re just encouraging something that should not be encouraged.”

New Jersey Citizens for Immigration Control could not be reached by The Daily Princetonian for comment.

Fernandez-Kelly criticized opponents of projects like the LALDEF’s.

The immigration problem in the United States came about because the number of jobs available in the country exceeds the number of visas and work permits issued, Fernandez-Kelly said.

She added that she believes the United States creates many jobs for semi-skilled workers. Since immigrants are only trying to satisfy this demand, she argued, the United States should increase the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country.

“There’s just a bunch of idiots out there who are just demonizing these folks and making it impossible to have immigration reform,” Fernandez-Kelly said.

Addressing the country’s illegal immigration policies is becoming increasingly important. According to the 2006 estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau, the population of Mercer County grew by 4 percent since 2000. Over the same period, the county’s immigrant population by 48 percent. Based on national and state trends, an estimated 18,000 illegal immigrants — mostly Latinos — reside in Mercer County, LALDEF figures say.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, four out of five illegal immigrants are Latinos, and 1 in 20 workers is an illegal immigrant.

LALDEF cards are issued in both Trenton and Princeton. The cards are distributed in Princeton on Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. at the Nassau Presbyterian Church.

Correction: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article misidentified the rank of Borough Police Captain Nicholas Sutter.

Source - http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2010/10/11/26530/