Mexican ID Becomes Valid ID in Sonoma County

[The Northerner]

In Sonoma County, a California driver's license is accepted as valid identification -- but so is a card issued by the Mexican consulate.

Mexican nationals will be able to give their country's state-issued identification cards as valid ID to Santa Rosa police officers and Sonoma County sheriffs, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported.

The idea is to reduce the immigration-related duties of local cops, the newspaper reported. Accepting Mexican consulate-issued cards will reduce the number of people booked into jail for lacking ID, and ergo, will reduce deportations from Santa Rosa County Jail, the newspaper reported.

"Today is a great day," Sonoma County Assistant Sheriff Lorenzo Dueñas said. "We're now going to accept the matriculár consular ID."

Read more: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Sonoma-Sheriff-Santa-Rosa-Police-Recognize-Mexican-IDs-132465578.html

[NYC_SKP]

1. It seems fair, as my California Drivers License seems to work fine in say, Akumal or Cozumel...

:party:

[Lasher]

2. Your California drivers license is not accepted in Mexico as proof of legal residency.

This Matricula Consular bullshit is not the same thing at all. Not by a long shot.

[mitchtv]

4. does it say that it is accepted as proof of residency?

I think not. "Identification" is the operative word.

[Lasher]

6. If a person has permission to be in the US, they will have US documents that say so.

Who else would benefit from acceptance of the matricula consular other than illegal aliens? It is being used to establish quasi-legal status. People arrested should be taken to a police station and fingerprinted if they have no valid form of identification. But the matricula consular is being used in lieu of US issued identification or valid passports to shield illegal aliens from such scrutiny, thereby allowing them to remain in the country even if their deportation had been previously ordered.

'Identification' is the operative word only if you wish to deceive. The US government has no control over these documents and the Mexican government has an interest in preventing deportation of its citizens who are living illegally in US.

[mitchtv]

7. in sonoma , the police/sheriff are not looking

to deport these workers. They are needed and valuable to the local economy ,vinyards.when you are asked for ID it is not necessarily to check immigration status, It might be to cash a check orget into a bar or buy a pack of cigarettes.

[Lasher]

10. I understand.

That's fucked up.

[saras]

11. I don't. But then I'm white. I don't have to.

[Lasher]

14. I guess you've never filled out a form I-9 to legally apply for a job.

For that you have to furnish documentation that verifies your identity and proves you are eligible to work in the US. This applies to everybody. Your race baiting does not apply.

[UTUSN]

3. So the thrust of this o.p. is?!1 n/t

[Lasher]

9. For the past decade Mexico's foreign ministry has been pushing for matricula acceptance in the US.

When a US municipality accepts the card it is celebrated and announced to the local media. Mexican consulates keep a running score, so that a “win” with a local police chief in California can be cited by the consulate office in Georgia as evidence of the growing momentum to accept the matricula throughout the United States.

That is the thrust of this OP.

[mitchtv]

15. Meanwhile Sonoma's grapes get picked and groomed

GA sits there, with crops rotting on the vine, trying to force probationers and prisoners to do field work.

[Lasher]

16. Illegally imported pickers and groomers working for slave wages while winery owners are living large

Georgia tomato growers are getting what they deserve for doing the same thing Sonoma grape growers are doing right now. Next season Georgia growers will learn to mechanize and start paying decent wages and some will switch to crops that are less labor intensive.

Sonoma growers, aided by their sheriff and proponents just like you, will continue to do their part to ensure none of their workers are ever paid a living wage. This recurring meme where the US cannot survive without illegally imported slave labor is total bullshit.

[mitchtv]

17. I think you got the wrong impression of working conditions

in sonoma, it's not like GA. No slavery conditions, living conditions are low, but they send much of their money home, and don't spend it on themselves.BTW the probationers in GA quit.

[Lasher]

18. How much are Sonoma grape pickers paid?

Do they pay for their own housing? At one time there was a discussion of housing to be provided by the State of California but I don't know how that turned out.

I'm glad the people in Georgia quit. Here in WV at the farmers market I can buy tomatoes that are priced competitively with any other that I buy in the store. And we don't use slave labor to grow them.

[mitchtv]

19. 10 years ago when I lived there

it was $10-12 per hr for itinerent pickers, winery workers got more

[Lasher]

20. That's much better than I expected.

The US minimum wage was $5.15 per hour during the first half of 2007. The California minimum wage was $7.50 that year.

You are right, wages paid to these particular workers are not as low as I had envisioned. This being so, I wonder why (or if) legal residents won't take these jobs.

[mitchtv]

21. they get the better jobs involving some skills

as the pay increases, It is still very tough in the hot sun

[RB TexLa]

5. "becomes"?? when was it not a valid ID?

:shrug:

[EFerrari]

8. Very smart. Good for Sonoma. n/t

[Selatius]

12. It's an issue of practicality really. Enforcement against illegal immigration is a national issue.

Sonoma County shouldn't be forced to go it alone on enforcement of federal laws or even state laws against illegal immigration if there is no help coming from the state or federal level.

[Jim Warren]

13. Pure horseshit it what it is.

My wife is Mexican. She cannot board a plane or legally enter the US without her current, valid Mexican passport and resident alien card nor enter or board a plane to leave Mexico with the same documents.