Mexican ID cards have the support of police

They are not get-out-of-jail cards, nor can they be used by illegal immigrants as driver's licenses or as a means to obtain legal U.S. residency.

They are Mexican consular identification cards, and now a valid form of ID in the eyes of Sonoma County law enforcement officials. And for top brass like Sonoma County Sheriff Steve Freitas, Sebastopol Police Chief Jeff Weaver and Santa Rosa Police Chief Tom Schwedhelm, that's all they are.

"It's not about immigration, it's about identification," said Schwedhelm, the current president of the Sonoma County Law Enforcement Chiefs Association.

"Our goal is to be reasonably certain that the person being issued a citation is the person named on the citation," he said.

And if the person is accused of committing a crime that warrants arrest and booking in jail, that's where he or she is headed, he said, whether or not they have a consular ID.

For some, the decision by the chiefs to accept Mexican consular IDs represents a violation of the rule of law and an official acceptance of the growing presence of illegal immigrants in the community. But local police said it is the most sensible way to deal the hand dealt to them by ineffective federal lawmakers who have failed to address the issues surrounding illegal immigration.

The chiefs association in October approved an amendment to its county-wide policy for dealing with undocumented immigrants. The amendment states that "law enforcement personnel should accept matricular identification (ID) cards issued by the Mexican Consulate as valid ID" unless there's reason to believe that they are fake or have been tampered with.

The decision could keep some illegal immigrants from landing in jail for an offense that in most cases would be handled with a citation. Police officers in California have the authority to arrest drivers who cannot provide valid identification.

In jail, these immigrants most likely would be flagged by immigration officials under a federal program known as Secure Communities.

The practice of booking immigrants who did not have valid IDs had become a wedge driven between police and the local immigrant community, often leading to accusations of racial profiling and quiet cooperation with federal immigration officials.

Police officials said previous consular IDs were not reliable enough to be considered a valid form of ID. But they said the new cards are reliable.

Petaluma Police Chief Dan Fish said that the current consular card offers "our first chance at some identification method for some of these folks that would be reliable, above and beyond the previous methods that we've ever encountered."

The Mexican consular ID, or matricula consular as it is known in Spanish, is essentially a form of registration for Mexican nationals living within the jurisdiction of a particular consulate office.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, attempts were made by the Mexican government to make the cards a more secure form of ID, said Adriana Gonzalez, consul for legal affairs at the San Francisco Consulate, which includes Sonoma County in its jurisdiction.

The most significant security measures have been implemented since 2005, she said. These include the use of a national database that can track consular IDs issued from consulate offices in other states. The cards also include 20 different "security features," including holograms, similar to other forms of ID, such as passports.

Still some believe the consular IDs are still not reliable.

Jon Feere, a legal policy analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies, insists that a Mexican consular card is not a valid form of ID. Feere, a former Petaluma resident, cites 2003 testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims by Steven McCraw, the former assistant director of the FBI's office of intelligence.

At the time, McCraw raised a number of problems that he said made consular IDs unreliable. He said that the Mexican government "issues the card to anyone who can produce a Mexican birth certificate and one other form of identity, including documents of very low reliability."

"I think the FBI's testimony is still quite accurate," Feere said in an email sent Friday. "The card and the administration of it hasn't changed much, despite Mexico's claims."

Gonzalez said applicants must apply for and receive their consular IDs in person. The process, she said, is similar to that of obtaining a Mexican passport.

Weaver, the Sebastopol police chief, said that most people in his city have reacted positively to the policy change. He said that he's received only two phone calls from opponents.