Matrícula Consular

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The Matrícula Consular (Consular Registration) is an identification card issued by the Government of Mexico through its consulate offices. The official purpose of the card is to demonstrate that the bearer is a Mexican national living outside of Mexico. It includes an official Government of Mexico issued ID number and bears a photograph and address of the Mexican National to whom it is issued.

Similar consulate identification cards are issued to citizens of Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, and Peru. Poland is the first nation outside of Latin America to consider issuing the cards.[1]

In the United States, several states, municipalities, and businesses accept the Matrícula Consular as an official form of identification. On September 14, 2004 Congress voted down a motion to prevent financial institutions from accepting consular IDs.[2] Representative Tom Price announced that the Committee on Financial Services will be convening hearings on the methods permitted by the Treasury Department applying to the use of the Matrícula Consular by banking institutions for the purposes of verification of identity.[3]

[edit] Security issues

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U.S. law enforcement officials also cite that Matrícula Consular cards are issued by Mexican Consulate without checking the authenticity of the applicant's supporting documentation. In testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the FBI disclosed and reported that the Matrícula Consular card is inherently unreliable and unverifiable as an identification card and is highly vulnerable to fraud, regardless of its security features.[4] U.S. Federal and local drug enforcement agents have discovered that numerous illegal alien, Mexican national narcotics traffickers obtain Matrícula Consular cards under the names of aliases and that their use in the United States presents the U.S. with a serious criminal threat.[4]

D.A. King, an anti-illegal immigration activist and a U.S. citizen, obtained three Matrículas with his picture, and widely publicized one of them across the internet to illustrate the problems he sees with the document. The card in question bears the name "Al Qaida Gonzalez."[5]

Bruce DeCell, a retired New York City police officer who lost a son-in-law in 9/11, obtained a forged Matrícula with his name, and successfully used it as identification to enter the headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security. DeCell's card, which he obtained from a street vendor in California, gives his address as "123 Fraud Blvd." in "Staton Island", New York, and his birthplace as "Tijiuna", B.C.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ James A. Cooley on the Matricula Consular on National Review Online
  2. ^ Anti-matrícula proposal defeated[1]
  3. ^ Congressional Committee [2]
  4. ^ a b FBI Testimony Before Congress
  5. ^ D.A. King (2006-02-20). "Me, The Matricula, and The Internet.". VDARE.com. Retrieved on 2006-09-02.
  6. ^ Chris Francescani and Kelly Hart, "123 Fraud Blvd.: Ex-Cop's Experiment in Homeland Security", ABC News, June 15, 2006.

[edit] External links