Historic Wave Fills City Hall

City workers brought out free pizza to handle an unanticipated wave of immigrants standing on line for as long as 12 hours to get their new municipal ID cards. Staffers spread the word: ​“Not everyone has to come this week!”

Thursday saw hundreds of people — adults and children alike — waiting from dawn until dark to obtain the immigrant-friendly ID, which helps people open bank accounts, borrow library books, access city parks, and buy goods at local shops. Hundreds more were turned away. City Hall opened a new first-floor office Tuesday to start issuing the controversial cards.

It was an historic and exhausting day, full of improvisation and inspiring stories of hope from immigrants receiving a formal invitation to take part in the life of their city.

City Hall’s processing center stayed open late Thursday evening to accommodate 200 more immigrants who are too busy working during the day to come during the usual 9 a.m. — 2 p.m. hours. Father Jim Manship and Nadia Minor, leaders from St. Rose of Lima Church in Fair Haven, led the 200 immigrants to Green at around 6 p.m. It was both a moment of celebration as well as crunch time for City Hall staff. Hundreds of other applicants were already waiting on line inside.

And some of these had been on line from 6 a.m.! Plus the office was scheduled to be open only until 7:30. What was to be done?

City staffers were both overjoyed at the response but also overwhelmed at the numbers. Yet Emily Byrne (right foreground in the picture above), the mayor’s policy assistant, and many dedicated others were determined to get everyone on line either processed or ​“vouchered.” The latter term meant reviewing and verifying their documents while they waited on line (the time-consuming aspect of the process). Then they could go home and return in two weeks for the next part of the process: being photographed for the actual ID card. Staffers were also going to feed people.

As Father Jim’s troops entered and lined up, Emily Byrne and Renee Coppola, the city’s director of vital statistics, dipped into their own pockets. They brought pizza and water to people like Jesus Ventura, among the last of those who had already been waiting since early Thursday morning literally without food and drink. Ventura, of Fair Haven, works in the nursery business. He comes from Mexico. He said he wanted a card so he can open a bank account.

Byrne said she was impressed with the patience of the people, including many young kids, who waited nearly 12 hours. ​“Very little trouble of any kind,” she said, ​“with only a small handful of people trying to move ahead in the line when they shouldn’t. They really are terrific.”

Among the young stalwarts was Kevin Vidales, a second-grader at the Nathan Hale School in Morris Cove. He dutifully waited with his grandfather Francisco Vidales. ​“I want to get a license to open a food cart,” said the elder Vidales, who has been in New Haven for 12 years from Michoacan, Mexico. ​“The ID card will help.”

Vidales, who said through his son that he works in construction, showed a reporter a social security card. He also proudly showed a certificate of achievement for Kevin, born in New Haven, from his teachers at Nathan Hale/ The teachers complimented Kevin on his reading. Of the pizza, Kevin said it was good, but he’d had better.

In the meantime Sean Matteson, the mayor’s chief of staff, was among those who presided over the line-up of the St. Lima parishioners. The parishioners praised the achievement of the creation of the card, while expressing concern that the city had under-prepared for its popularity in this the first week of its issuance.

“There’s a myth out there,” Matteson said, ​“that if people don’t come out this week, that the card won’t be available. That’s so wrong. There’s absolutely no plan to close this office. It’s ongoing. And not only that; we’re also going to be going out into the schools in the fall. I can think of a lot of reasons 16-year-old kids could use the card — and to the neighborhoods. So people don’t all have to come in today! Please pass the word.”

Matteson, Jessica Mayorga, the mayor’s press secretary, and her husband Hector Rivera (and anyone else who could speak Spanish on the staff) helped people fill out the form while waiting on line. Matteson said, he had been tremendously impressed by the eagerness and patience of the people waiting. ​“I moved up some pregnant women,” he said, ​“because we don’t want people giving birth on line. Otherwise, these people are so incredibly patient. It’s very moving. The protesters were here for a few hours the first days, but these people have so much desire for this card, it is tremendously impressive.”

By prior arrangement, the St. Lima parishioners, many of whom work until 5 and could only arrive at this late hour, were expecting to receive vouchers expeditiously. They had worked to carefully prepare the applications and documents required.

Before they entered, they heard Father Manship and David Carter of ECCO (Elm City Congregations Organized) praise them, and report that the atmosphere in the community was excellent.

“Not only was this community courageous,” Manship said, ​“but others are seeing us as leaders. I got a call today from a staffer at the New York state legislature. They wanted to make contact. They’re considering a municipal ID in New York. I think Milwaukee is too.”

“The card is not a solution to the national immigration issue,” he reminded parishioners, ​“but it will help locally with banks and with public safety. Most of all it is a recognition of our dignity as neighbors.”

Then the 200 neighbors walked across the street and entered City Hall. They were, by previous plan, going to receive vouchers. Only those signed by Renee Coppola, the director of vital statistics (and one of the pizza contributors), would be official.

“The way it’ll work,” said Paul Nunez (pictured below), the mayor’s deputy chief of staff, ​“we verify the documents, so these people can get into the system. Then they come back with the voucher we give them in two weeks. Then, hopefully the line will have thinned out. In any event they won’t have to wait in a line like this but a voucher line, and they can be photographed expeditiously. Then we mail them the card two weeks later.”

But it didn’t always work so well this morning, he said, when some 500 people were on line by 9, with some 40 or 50 having been on line at 6 (the last of whom Byrne and Coppola had fed). ​“We had to send many home, as many as 200, and tell them to come back another time because we couldn’t process all of them, and do the St. Lima folks as well. Not everyone has to come this week!”

A good number were turned away, temporarily, Nunez said, also because the ID verifying residence, for example, didn’t have their name on it. ​“For example, lots of these people” Nunez said, ​“share apartments with several others and their own name is not on a utility or rent bill. The very problems the ID card is aimed at solving is slowing down the process. I urged these people to open a cell phone account, or something of their own. For the integrity of the process, we are being scrupulous about the ID”

In this instance he was verifying that the address on Bertha Govea’s utility bill had the same address as her rent receipt. It did, and she went on to receive a voucher.

But would they be able to get through the hundreds still waiting in the atrium at 7:15 on Thursday night, when the office was supposed to close at 7:30?”

“Oh, yes, everyone’s going to get a voucher or get told what is missing from their documentation,” said Mayorga. ​“But, please,” she urged members of the press, ​“get the word out there that this is no emergency. People don’t have to come immediately. We’re here to stay.”

Pat Spear, in the green shirt, is a lead organizer for ECCO). His members accompanied the St. Rose parishioners. ​“This is a nice problem to have,” Spear said. ​“Still there needs to be a better system.”

“We’ll be here until midnight if we have to,” said Mayorga.