[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 67 (Wednesday, May 7, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H3738-H3739]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE MATRICULA CONSULAR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TANCREDO. Mr. Speaker, every year or so for the last several 
years there has been an attempt to bring something before the body and, 
in fact, it has come before the body and it is referred to as amnesty, 
sometimes an extension of 245(i), or that is the technical way of 
explaining it. But nonetheless, it is always a process, a desire on the 
part of people here and maybe even in the administration to grant 
amnesty to people who are living here illegally, that is, to reward 
people who have broken our laws by coming into the United States 
without our permission. It is a bad idea, and so far the Congress of 
the United States has failed to go along with it, thank goodness.
  So what has happened in the last several months really is that a new 
tactic has been applied here, a new strategy has been developed. 
Unfortunately, I think even with the agreement of the administration, 
something else is happening in order to accomplish exactly the same 
thing. Instead of now passing a bill through the House of 
Representatives simply granting amnesty to everyone who is living here 
illegally and rewarding them for that behavior, there is another thing 
that is going on, and what is happening is this: foreign nations hand 
out to their nationals something called the Matricula Consular. That is 
what it is referred to by

[[Page H3739]]

the State Department and by our government.

                              {time}  1600

  It is a card. It is an I.D. card. Foreign governments now have every 
right to give their nationals any kind of identification that they want 
to. But what is odd and what has happened in the last several months is 
that the government of Mexico has charged its consular officials here 
in the United States with the responsibility of going out and actually 
lobbying State and local governments to get them to accept this 
matricula consular card from their nationals who are living here 
illegally, because, of course, that card has only one purpose. If you 
are in the United States of America, if you are a national from a 
foreign country who is here and if you are here legally, you have some 
documentation to that effect. We have given you a green card. We have 
given you a passport. Whatever it is, you have documentation from the 
United States that you are here legally.
  If you are here illegally, you need some sort of identification, and 
that is what this card provides. Recognizing that, and recognizing that 
they cannot get amnesty through the Congress, they have begun to go to 
State and local governments all over the United States, lobbying them 
to get them to accept this card.
  They have done it to the banking industry, and the banks have been 
all too happy to go along with it, looking at their bottom line, 
looking at profits, even over the security of the Nation, because there 
is nothing secure about these cards. There is no way to guarantee that 
the person holding the card is who in fact that card says he is. In 
fact, we have already arrested people in this country carrying three or 
four of these identification cards. Their picture is on them, but 
different names on each card. They are easily fraudulently developed.
  So the idea that they have some sort of advantage because they have a 
secure card is ridiculous. Beyond that, it is again attempting to do 
exactly the same thing we did not do in the Congress, and that is to 
give everybody amnesty. Because if you can use this matricula consular 
card to obtain bank accounts, to get your kids in school, to get 
housing from the housing authority in their area, get your driver's 
license, get your library card, everything that a citizen of this 
country can use their own identification for, if you can do that using 
this matricula consular card given to you by a foreign government, then 
of course there is no reason to actually push for amnesty. You will 
have achieved it. Everyone living in the United States of America 
illegally, up to 20 million people, will have this card given to them 
by their government.
  By the way, it is now just Mexico and Honduras and I think there are 
five other countries in South and Central America providing this card 
now. What is to say that other countries would not demand exactly the 
same thing from the United States? Why would the government of Syria 
not say that they are going to give people living here in the United 
States illegally this card? How would we tell them that they cannot do 
that or we will not accept it?
  Not only that, we have found the administration, just a little bit 
ago, we found the regs that have been promulgated by the Department of 
Treasury now allow the banks to accept these cards. So our own 
administration, our own government is in league with the governments of 
these foreign countries who have given these cards to their nationals 
living illegally in the United States. Our own government is helping 
these people violate our own laws. That is the truth of the matter. 
That is an abomination, and that is something we should not allow to go 
forward.

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