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Never leave home without it: City Councilman Hiram Monserrate is proposing a bill that would allow all NYC residents to have identification cards, regardless of legal status.
The NY Times reports that Monserrate was inspired by New Haven's ID program, which gives residents a card they can use as a proof of residency to open bank accounts, card to use on meters, library card, and more. Though the plan attracted much outside criticism, the plan was approved 25-1 by New Haven aldermen in June. However, two days after New Haven introduced the ID cards, federal agents raided the homes of immigrants and arrested 32 people.
A non-photo ID issued by NY State still requires a Social Security number. Monserrate told the Times, “I would hope that the federal government would not retaliate against the city of New York if we provided for a municipal identification card. The city of New York is home to eight million people, many of them immigrants and some of them, frankly, undocumented. Some of them have been residents of the city for many years, and to give them a basic ID card that’s valid within the city limits only makes sense for our municipality.”
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dumb idea.
I already have the ID card, its called a drivers license.
OH, I forget, we citizens are supposed to accommodate in anyway the illegal invaders.
Makes sense as the other half of Bloomie's surveillance system.
I want one!
Offer them, then when people apply for them drag them back to where they came from.
I predict that people who will be horrified by this are also just dandy with a citywide surveilance system as long as it's called "congestion charge".
free shuttle buses to new haven - the same way every state used to bus in the homeless to nyc. this guy should be censured for such a dumb idea.
Come take them.
molon labe.
Seeing as we have one in the form of a Non-Driver ID, Other than to pander to constituents: Why do we need to spend money on another??
Hiram's up for election in 2009.
Make sure to vote.
Not that I am cynical about politicians, but I wonder how much Hiram Monserrate will personally profit from such a scheme.
If it isn't with money, he would probably write some means of getting some patronage spots in the new city agency that would handle the cards, which will no doubt cost several million dollars to start up and run yearly, not to mention the millions for the pensions of the employees. That is tax money that could be going for parks, schools, infrastructure, police and the fire department.
Have you ever seen the deplorable condition of some of the reserve FDNY rigs? These are the rigs that pinch hit for equipment that is being serviced. I have personally seen some with little things missing, like windows. Why not take the money that would be wasted on this ID card scheme and put it towards buying some new fire apparatus so some better maintained vehicles can go into the reserve fleet - vehicles that aren't going to put those who need help and those who provide it at risk.
Ask yourself this:
How many bike lanes could be built for the cost of the ID card scheme?
How many parks could be fixed up for the cost of the ID card scheme?
How many books could be procured for school libraries for the cost of the ID card scheme?
Can we please get our priorities in order here and spend money on things that we need instead of some political capital gaining scheme of some political hack. Ask yourself this - Have you ever heard of Hiram Monserrate before today?
I think he means you need a social security card to get a non driver's id or drivers license.
something many illegals don't have.
Whether that's true or not I don't recall when I got my ID but I do remember for renewals all they needed was my expired ID and a Social Security card.
A big waste of time and money. Our city councilmen should be coming up with better ideas than this.
Yes, I've heard of hiram monserrate, same with eric adams.
God bless you two. You represent your constituents well. God Bless your fellow councilman Barron, too.
God bless you all.
so this id card is really to make identifying illegals easier:
"do u have id?"
-hands officer id card-
"this identifies u as an illegal, you're under arrest"
anyone who is presented with 1 of these things should immediately have 2 notify INS. y don't they just send INS the applications 4 these cards & cut out a few steps.
Brilliant ID
As long as the Feds don't act all gestappo as they did in New Haven
If you dont like the idea than you are a facist unamerican that should be strung up
EVERYONE DESERVES ALL RIGHTS
If you don't like it then get out.
I'm tired of all these Bigot Conservatives - Time to Drag them into the Street and Kill Em - You Want American
Its Me pure simple
Legitimacy for the illegitimate.
Reminds me of the free boat give away from The Simpsons. Oh Homer ... how you slay me with your antics.
#10 nailed the key point - money.
Where will the money to come from to pay for the ID cards? Not just to implement and administer the card system - but also to pay for the anticipated increase in the use of municipal services (since access to these services is one of the stated objectives).
I don't want to pile on the undocumented making minimum wage guarding the flowers outside the delis - or delivering grocies for Gristedes - but how much city taxes do they actually contribute?
Without a social security card, but with an ID what benefits are there? Can't get a job, can't drive, so basically to prove that you're over 21 when being carded? Most 21 year olds have government ID's. Those are not the illegals. So basically we will just be throwing away money that could be used elsewhere? This is ridiculous.
Immigrants documented and undocumented are a boon to this city economically and culturally. It is the city's obligation to at the very least do what it can do to increae the rights of undocumented new yorkers. This will allow people without papers to more easily open bank accounts, report crimes to the police and feel moreaccepted in a city that simultaneously rejects and relies on them.
The idea that a government officer would propose a course of action that condones (or even encourages) illegal immigration (i.e. BREAKING THE LAW) is ridiculous. There are procedures in place for documenting people who come to this country, either as visitors or immigrants, and they're there for a reason.
This ID card wouldn't just be for immigrants. To get ID you already need some form of ID. Most of my clients, who are homeless, have no identification when we start working with them. By the time we get a birth certificate, social security card, and welfare photo ID card for them, they STILL don't have enough ID to get a non-drivers license or even open a bank account. It's ridiculous.
I say the more ways to prove one's identity, the better.
I am obviously in the minority here.
I am totally against this, and will be lobbying my Congressional reps to outlaw this kind of behavior from assorted municipalities. How in the HELL can NYC gov require me to clean up my sidewalk, not smoke in a bar, or anything else they would have me do, when they themselves do not submit their will to a higher authority?
Maybe Congress can impose a fine per violation scheme much as we "enjoy" in NYC.
I'm not anti immigrant... I'm just anti illegals, and anti muslims.
Hey, #15, YOU are the one out of step with majority thought on this issue. So, if You don't like it, the GTFO. Pissant.
#10 said: Ask yourself this - Have you ever heard of Hiram Monserrate before today?
Unfortunately yes - he "serves" my neighborhood in Queens. I am not a fan of just about anything he does. As a politician, he seems to me one of the more obnoxious and self-serving. He routinely disrupts small, independently-run, neighborhood events to give himself a platform. His propaganda and my shredder are well-acquainted.
To commenter #15: I don't think you make very much sense, but I take issue with the idea that "everyone deserves all rights." Why does "everybody deserver all rights"? Not to rain on anyone's parade, but there is really no such thing as an inalienable right. Not that I am saying that people don't deserve them, just that they don't really exist. I mean, look at what the Patriot Act did for our supposedly inalienable rights.
To be a devil's advocate, if someone is here illegally, why are they entitled to the same benefits that a citizen is? If they don't pay taxes should they have access to all social services (which are funded through those taxes)? Doesn't the presence of illegal aliens make it more difficult for immigrants trying to enter this country legally?
It's really hard to take someone who says that all people who disagree should be or taken out in the streets and shot or "strung-up" (a rather sad and unintentionally ironic allusion to lynching and other violations of civil-rights) and then says that everybody deserves equal rights in the next breath seriously.
#15 Everyone deserves all rights? Ummm, what part of the word ILLEGAL don't you understand?
whitey up in arms again,
come take them,
molon labe.
Man, that's one ID card I'd be proud to carry around, more than my state driver's license and a hell of a lot more than my passport.
Immigrants documented and undocumented are a boon to this city economically and culturally.
Bullshit. They work as slaves to the liberal elites by cooking their food, cleaning their homes and offices, doing their laundry, and raising their kids. And landscaping their lawns for the Westchester and Fairfiled County liberals.
It isn't about doing jobs Americans won't do. It's doing jobs we don't need in the first place.
This has to be the most repulsive idea yet from NYC City Council.
Let me guess, "gain access to municipal services" means that the illegals will now have an easier time leeching off the rest of us, via easier access to welfare, city colleges, etc, all of which we pay for and they (mostly) don't. Isn't free health care via emergency rooms and maternity wards for their anchor babies and free schooling for their many children enough?
If he proposed we allow more legal immigrants from genuinely poor and politically repressive countries like North Korea, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Burma and China, I would support that.
We already let in 400,000 legal Mexicans a year, yet Mexico, home to the world's richest man and a relatively wealthy country, still demands an open border so they can export all their criminals and pretty much their entire uneducated, ignorant and surly underclass to us. This gringo thinks America and this city can do better. Hiram Monserrate is a traitor.
"anchor babies"?????????
where does gothamist get all these racists?
@18
There's no reason why these cards could not be
offered for sale at a profit.
#29 got it right. Read it again!
#29 "Immigrants documented and undocumented are a boon to this city economically and culturally.
Bullshit. They work as slaves to the liberal elites by cooking their food, cleaning their homes and offices, doing their laundry, and raising their kids. And landscaping their lawns for the Westchester and Fairfiled County liberals.
It isn't about doing jobs Americans won't do. It's doing jobs we don't need in the first place."
Sorry fool, but this ain't a liberal/conservative thing. It's an American thing. Secondly, the conswervatives LOVE illegals! They get to keep wages low so that they can reap big profits on their corporate investments. Illegals helped to break up unions, which conservatives hate! Illegals also landscape the lawns of NJ/Staten Island/and Queens conservatives, so shut the fuck up.
It's the American way, now I'm not for illegal alioens and I think they should all be thrown out of this country but I'd say the conservatives aqre the ones to blame more than the liberals, although both parties are fugged up!
Bloomberg/Schwartzenegger 2008!
ID cards for all NYC residents? As a NYC resident, I would like to propose intelligence tests for all NYC Council Members.
If this ID costs less than a Passport, I'm all for it and want one.
I only have one piece of "legitimate" ID and that's my state issued ID. Too many places want 2 pieces of ID nowadays and I don't know why. (and it's not in their policy, they just say so)
#31 Anchor Babies is a perfectly spot on term. These illegals come over the border ON PURPOSE to pump out their chihauhuas so that they become U.S. Citizens, then, when they turn 18, they petition to bring their entire brood over here. In the meantime, we give the little yipper free healthcare and schooling and the mother gets all kinds of free care too. Babies should not be given American Citizenship just because they are born within our borders. Especially not if the parents are here as illegals. We are one of the very few if not the ONLY country in the world that does this.
"liberal elites by cooking their food"?
As if "Conservatives" don;t do the same thing...