Leaders pitch ID cards for all undocumented

IMMIGRATION

The effort calls on the California Legislature to pass a bill that aims at closing gaps that keep many vulnerable immigrants from vital services

Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo, far left, touts proposed legislation that would grant California identification cards for unauthorized immigrants during a press conference on Friday in Pasadena. COURTESY OF ASIAN AMERICANS ADVANCING JUSTICE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

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By Saumya Gupta

sgupta@scng.com

For Yanet Martinez and other undocumented California residents, not having access to an identification card means not having access to many services and needs.

“I cannot get a phone service because I don’t have an ID,” Martinez said. “I cannot rent somewhere to live if I don’t have an ID. I cannot purchase a car because I don’t have an ID … I can’t go to the clinic, because I don’t have an ID.”

There are about 1.6 million undocumented California residents who do not have access to an identification card.

And those kind of numbers brought advocates, lawmakers and immigrants themselves to the Pasadena Job Center on Friday to call for ways to close the gap.

Currently, California residents who can prove a legal presence — which includes citizens, green card holders and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients — in the United States can receive a state identification card. Additionally, California residents, including undocumented residents who are able to take a driving test or have access to a car, are able to receive a driver’s license.

Assembly Bill 1766 would expand who is eligible to receive a state identification card to all California residents, regardless of their immigration status.

Authors and supporters of the legislation gathered outside the Job Center on Friday to express their support for the bill and to call on lawmakers to do the same.

Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo said his family worked hard to establish their life and identity in California, and that it would not have been possible if they weren’t accepted as human beings with an identity.

“You can’t succeed in this country without a name, a voice, and without an ID, you really have no voice,” Gordo said.

He urged the governor and legislator to ensure that AB 1766 passes.

State Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-South Los Angeles, who co-authored the bill, said AB1766 would help address a gap in current law that prevents undocumented women, undocumented people with a disability and undocumented elderly from doing tasks that many people take for granted, such as renting a home or opening a bank account.

“This bill is about ensuring a baseline quality of life for every person living in this state regardless of their legal status,” he said.

Many people are affected by not having IDs, said Joana Reyes, a policy manager at CARECEN, a Central American immigrants rights organization.

Some carry around their passports from their homelands as identification, but exposing that they are foreign born puts them at risk and negatively impacts them when that information is put in the wrong hands, she said.

People who are undocumented are excluded from accessing many life essentials and that are many barriers for economic mobility and social inclusions for immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, said Andrew Menor, community and civic engagement specialist at the Thai Community Development Center.

Vanessa Terán, director of policy at Mixteco/Indígena Community Organizing Project — a group supporting indigenous migrants in the Central Coast — added that there is still a lot of discrimination affecting their community because they don’t have a California ID.

“The lack of documentation definitely affects me personally, my community and it’s about time that we’re able to access the same documentation as everyone else, as a human being,” Terán said.

Having an identification card allows individuals to access services and opportunities they would not have had without it.

Tue Huynh said after he was released from incarceration, he didn’t have an identification card, which made it hard for him to get a job. He added that the Marine Corps hired him, but had to let him go because he didn’t have an ID.

He went to the DMV 36 times and hoped each time that he would get an ID card.

Last year, he was able to get his driver’s license, which opened up many opportunities for him, he said.

Huynh now works, started a nonprofit organization and goes to school.

“With an ID, you can be able to do anything,” he said.

AB 1766’s next hearing in the Legislature is Thursday.