Program was started by New Haven in Connecticut.
By Raif Karerat
A program created to aid unauthorized immigrants by granting them municipal identity cards is continuing to gain acceptance in New Jersey and throughout the rest of the U.S. as well.
The cards, which provide an individual’s basic identity points — name, date of birth, photograph, signature line and more — are critical to individuals who, for a variety of reasons, cannot get a driver’s license, passport or other government issued ID, according to NJ Advance Media:
Roselle is poised to become the latest community to adopt the cards, and in Perth Amboy, Highland Park and other communities in New Jersey, they are in some stage of consideration. Municipal ID cards are already available in Newark, Asbury Park, Trenton, Freehold and Mercer and Morris counties, among other places.
Proponents claim the ID cards could benefit any residents in communities that issue cards, but would help primarily those on the fringes of society, including the homeless, runaways and recently released convicts.
Without an ID, individuals often cannot open a bank account, access government services or, in some cases, receive commercial discounts for which they are eligible, said Sara Cullinane of Make The Road New Jersey, an immigration and civil rights organization.
The city of New Haven, Conn., became the first community in the United States to start a municipal ID program in 2007 after officials there recognized that unauthorized immigrants, unable to keep their money in a bank, were targeted as “walking ATMs” by muggers, said Lisa Wilson, registrar of Vital Statistics.
“With our card, the people who get it are more than likely the people who are just trying to start a good life and get into the system and start paying into the system,” she said.
However, not everyone agrees. When New York was considering its ID card program, state Sen. Terrence Murphy told The Yorktown Daily Voice that issuing cards to unauthorized immigrants was “incentivizing lawbreaking.”
It also was the “perfect feeder program” for future terrorists to get established in a community, he said.
Support for municipal IDs turned out to be fairly significant in New York, which has long provided a haven for immigrants to the United States. Six months into its municipal ID card program, New York City had issued 400,000 cards, officials announced this summer.