09/13/07: County Id Card Gets Support - WNPJ group UTI urging this support

County Id Card Gets Support

Supervisor Is Pushing Legislation To Aid Undocumented Workers

The Capital Times :: METRO :: B1

Thursday, September 13, 2007
By PAT SCHNEIDER The Capital Times

Undocumented workers soon may be able to show an identification card issued by Dane County instead of state IDs for which they are no longer eligible.

"We want to create a way for people without IDs to get public services or open a bank account," campus-area Dane County Supervisor Ashok Kumar said Wednesday. Kumar said he is working with county attorneys to draft legislation to create a county ID card.

News that work was under way on such an ID, bandied about in immigrant circles since the imposition in April of a new law requiring proof of legal residency to obtain a state driver's license or ID, was announced Wednesday at the Capitol during a rally called by the Immigrant Workers Union.

A dozen workers at the rally - hastily called to coincide with a national day of action against a nationwide increase in raids on workplaces with undocumented workers - demanded change on several fronts.

"Basta!" Jorge Carrera shouted in Spanish on the Capitol steps. "Enough," translated Alex Gillis, a union organizer. "Stop the raids. Enough terror and aggression on the people."

Banners at the rally protested Real ID, a federal law barring undocumented workers from obtaining driver's licenses and the proposed fining of employers whose workers receive "No Match" letters when their Social Security numbers don't match government records.

Immigrant workers deserve to be treated like others, Carrera said.

The proposed Dane County ID will be modeled on one in New Haven, Conn., Kumar said in a later interview.

New Haven this summer launched the "Elm City ID," intended to make city services like the library available to undocumented immigrants. It's also being pitched to senior citizens who no longer have driver's licenses, college students and children.

The card has drawn opposition from Connecticut state legislators who say it opens the door to illegal voting by non-citizens.

APPROVAL LIKELY?

A Dane County card would also be available to everyone, Kumar said. The ability to convert the ID to a debit card usable at local businesses, as the Elm City ID can be, might be one way to make it more appealing to people other than undocumented workers, he said.

Given the County Board's embrace of legislation prohibiting sheriff's deputies from passing immigration status information to the federal government and good progress so far on an ordinance to ban discrimination in housing based on Social Security number disclosure, Kumar said the ID plan has a good chance of winning approval.

A bystander who stopped to watch the brief rally Wednesday at the Capitol said the idea of a Dane County ID at first struck him as an illegal circumvention of the law.

On second thought, however, he figured that since the federal government for decades has elected not to enforce immigration laws in order to allow businesses access to cheap labor, maybe a local ID to circumvent federal laws is no more objectionable.

"If another 5,000 counties do the same thing, maybe Washington will think about it," said the Madison man, who refused to give his name.

Another onlooker raised a concern about such an ID marking undocumented workers for federal authorities. "It's kind of like putting on the yellow star," said Ronaldo Parisi of Madison, referring to the emblem Jews were required to wear in Nazi Germany.

Kumar said that if enough protections are in place in local laws, being identified as an undocumented worker would not mean discrimination.

Legal opinions of the New Haven law have held that information about Elm City ID holders would not have to be disclosed to the federal government, he said.

"People at the grassroots are very anxious for this. They're willing to organize around it. We have to look at the legal ramifications," Kumar said.

pschneider@madison.com