May 12, 2003
Memo From Mexico, By
Allan Wall
Good News And Bad News On The Matricula Consular
My November 2001 VDARE.Com
article on the Mexican consular card - the
“ matricula consular” – was one of the first on
the Mexican government’s outrageous campaign to subvert
American immigration law by promoting the acceptance
of this form of ID for its citizens illegally in the U.S.
Eighteen months later, there is
both good news and bad news.
The good news: more Americans are
becoming aware of the card, a lot more material has been
written on it, and things are being done, both
politically and legally, to combat it. Some local
governments have actually been brave enough to reject
it.
The bad news: the matricula
consular is marching forward, accepted in city after
city, aggressively promoted by the Mexican government
and its
brazen consulate officials. Other countries have
followed suit and are
issuing their own cards.
The Bush Administration, of course,
has done nothing.
At the rate things are going,
someday every country in the world will be issuing its
own ID card. Only
American citizens will have to worry about being
stopped by the cops!
In the midst of a lot of misleading
rhetoric floating around, it’s important to make several
points crystal clear.
* What It Is—What It Isn’t.
The
matricula consular
is not a Mexican passport. Mexican passports are
obtained here in Mexico, before a legal Mexican
border-crosser goes to the U.S. A
matricula consular
is issued in Mexican consulates in the U.S. specifically
to Mexicans who are
already in the U.S.
In other words, Mexicans who legally enter the U.S. and
have all their papers in order (like my wife, for
example) have no need of a matricula consular. And here
in Mexico, most banks don’t even accept it! That
should tell you something. Nearly all the applicants for
the
matricula consular
are illegal aliens.
That’s why the courageous congressman Tom Tancredo
contacted immigration authorities asking them to
detain illegal aliens lined up in front of Mexico’s
Denver consulate for their consular cards.
Nothing was done of course. Nowadays, the
burden of proof is on those who want our immigration
laws enforced, not on those who flout them.
Mexican officials are working hard to issue as many
of the matricula cards as possible, even going so
far as sending “mobile consulates” to remote regions not
yet blessed with a Mexican consulate. When a local
government is debating whether or not to accept them, a
Mexican consul arrives, with illegal aliens in tow, to
make the case for it. The locals (with courageous
exceptions) usually cave in and accept it. One such
local official stated that, although he had planned to
vote no, when he saw the faces of those illegal aliens,
he changed his mind and voted yes.
The Mexican government is utilizing the matricula
consular to subvert U.S. immigration policy. As
usual, they have plenty of collaborators among U.S.
officials throughout the land.
* Lame Justifications
All sorts of lame justifications are given by the
defenders of the cards.
It’s been called a matter of public safety. It’s been
said that the cards give “dignity” to illegal aliens. An
editorial in the Indianapolis Star (Feb. 10th,
2003) reassured us that “The Mexican ID card is not a
threat to national security, but a tool for facilitating
communication.” It went on to attack those who
question the matricula: “Concern that Mexican ID
cards issued by the Indianapolis consulate pose a threat
to national security should be dismissed for what it is:
prejudice against Mexican immigrants.”
Fall into line, in other words, or be branded a
racist.
How many times have we heard this tired excuse for an
argument?
Another common justification: the pseudo-humanitarian
argument that the card makes the lives of (illegal)
immigrants easier.
Well, here in Mexico, where I live and work, there is
no political constituency for making my life easier. And
I’m here legally.
Matricula Consular defenders even have the
gall to argue that the cards are secure. But all the
applicant has to do is show up at the consulate, show a
Mexican birth certificate, pay the money and get the
card. An INS deputy director reported last year that
“One guy we arrested recently had three different
matriculas with three different names. It was his
picture, issued through the consulate.” (Denver
Post, Oct. 10th, 2002).
In other words, the matricula consular
functions pretty much like the “Get Out Of Jail Free”
card in the “Monopoly” game. But at least in Monopoly,
the card is an authorized part of the rules. The
matricula consular is an unauthorized foreign
document worming its way successfully into our legal
system.
* The Matricula
Consular And The Rule Of Law
The acceptance of the matricula consular by
U.S. local authorities is inconsistent with the rule of
law and American sovereignty. Furthermore, its promoters
utilize a disturbing form of “mobocracy,” something the
Founding Fathers wanted to avoid at all costs. Mexican
consuls do this by bringing illegal aliens to policy
meetings discussing the cards.
Consider, for example, how the cards’ promotion has
affected the rule of law in the city of Waukegan,
Illinois. (Chicago Tribune, Sept. 15th,
2002,
“Hispanics are flexing their political muscle” Pay
archive). There, several aldermen opposed the acceptance
of the matricula consular. How did the pro-matricular
forces (which included a Mexican consul) deal with it?
“The Hispanic community
rallied 1,000-strong outside City Hall, chanting and
waving signs that read, ‘Stop the Racism’....that Aug.
19th protest ....ended with the mayor
ordering police to accept the cards as valid
identification.... ”
[Send Waukegan
Mayor Richard H. Hyde
email at
mayor@ci.waukegan.il.us]
(The aldermen didn’t even get to vote on the
question, by the way).
* The Matricula
Consular And Deception
As surrealistic as it is, you still hear defenders of
the cards say they have nothing to do with immigration!
According to Maria Elena Salinas,
Jorge Ramos’ co-anchor on the Spanish-language TV
network Univision: “...it is not an illegal-alien ID
card...”
Roberto Rodriguez, director general of the Bureau for
Protection and Consular Services
“The consular ID’s purpose is to provide
identification for nationals. It has nothing to do with
immigration.”
Mexico’s Deputy Consul for North and South Carolina:
“This is not about immigration...This is about the
safety of our citizens.”
(Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 29th,
2002,
“For illegal immigrants, new mobile ID service”
Well, they’re propagandists and diplomats, what do
you expect?
But the Mexican media is a little more truthful:
"The
frequent deportation of Mexicans for lack of an ID card
can become a thing of the past, with the approval of an
initiative that proposes the acceptance of the matricula
consular (issued by the Mexican government through its
consulates in the entire country), as an official
identification document for police authorities when they
detain or intercept Mexicans."
(Monica
Solis, the “Siglo,” November 5th,
2001).
Mexican pundit Sergio
Aguayo Quezada wrote of “....the matricula consular,
an ID with photo that our consulates present to Mexican
illegal aliens in the United States.”
(“México-Estados
Unidos: El costo de disentir”, Feb. 19th, 2003,
Reforma, Sergio Aguayo Qezada
“...la Matrícula Consular, una credencial con foto que
nuestros consulados entregan a mexicanos indocumentados
en Estados Unidos.”)
Commentator Rafael
Fernández de Castro (director of the Foreign Affair’s
Spanish edition) wrote that the “matriculas...permitted
a great number of Mexicans living without documents in
the United States improve their situation.”
(Reforma Rafael Fernández de Castro, “Costos y
Beneficios Del Voto En La ONU,” March 3rd, 2003
“matrículas, lo cual permitió a un
elevado numero de mexicanos que viven sin documentos en
Estados Unidos mejora su situación...”)
A “Reforma” headline
plainly calls the matricula consular a “beneficio
para indocumentados”–a “benefit for illegal aliens”.
(Promueven
beneficio para indocumentados, Sept. 8th, 2002)
Then there are the recent statements by Mexican
Foreign Secretary
Luis Ernesto Derbez. Visiting Washington on May 7th,
2003, he outlined the Mexican government’s incremental
approach to achieving the equivalent of a migration
accord. This strategy involves Mexican consulate
activism (meddling) in favor of driver’s licenses,
in-state tuition and matricula consular cards for
illegal aliens.
And Derbez added “We are following very closely
debates at the local level.” Ain’t that the truth?
(“Mexico Seeks Higher Profile For Issue Of
Immigrants”, May 8th, 2003,
Copley News Service).
* The Real Problem and the Real Solution
Does the Mexican
government have the right to issue cards to its
nationals living in the U.S.? Of course it does.
The real problem is that
U.S. local governments are accepting these cards. They
are, in effect, allowing Mexico to control our
immigration policy, telling us Mexican illegal aliens
cannot be deported. It’s outrageous.
The real solution is more
cooperation between U.S. immigration authorities and law
enforcement. It’s authorized, it’s feasible, and it’s
the way things ought to be.
And that is the real fear
of the Mexican government–that U.S. law enforcement
would be enabled to enforce immigration law.
This was made clear in a
strategy meeting in Sacramento, California, reported in
La Opinion, June 4th, 2002, in which
five Latino California state legislators met in the
state capitol with five Mexican consuls general based in
California. (Consider that—American, make that
“American,” legislators planning
common strategy with Mexican diplomats!) The
meeting’s agenda included driver’s licenses for illegals
and the matricula consular.
Gustavo Mohr, a
representative of the SRE - Mexican Secretariat of
Foreign Relations - addressed the meeting on the
importance of a bilateral migratory accord. He
criticized the proposal that
local police in the U.S. enforce immigration law–a
proposal which Mohr termed “worrying”.
Exactly! It certainly is
“worrying” to the Mexican government and the open
borders crowd that U.S. police officers could actually
enforce immigration law.
It might mean that the
sleeping giant was waking, and about to brush his
Lilliputian would-be captors away.
American citizen Allan Wall lives and works legally in
Mexico, where he holds an FM-2 residency and work
permit, but serves six weeks a year with the Texas Army
National Guard, in a unit composed almost entirely of
Americans of Mexican ancestry. His VDARE.COM articles
are archived
here; his
FRONTPAGEMAG.COM articles are archived
here; his
website is
here. Readers
can contact Allan Wall at
allan39@prodigy.net.mx.
