Calling it a move towards “social justice,” aldermen overwhelmingly approved a plan to issue identification cards for all city residents regardless of immigration status. Click on the play arrow to watch the emphatic applause for the plan, the first of its kind in the nation.
The so-called Elm City Resident Card has drawn boiling condemnation from outsider activists but overwhelming support inside city limits — click here, here and here for background on the card, introduced by Mayor DeStefano.
In a 25 to 1 vote Monday, aldermen approved acceptance of $250,359 in private funds from the First City Fund Corporation to support the mayor’s plan. The Elm City Resident Card, originally designed to help undocumented immigrants avoid getting robbed or assaulted, will be a combination of identification, debit card, library card, and a way to pay the parking meter, for all city residents young and old. The city plans to roll out the new cards in July.
The city will also start working towards the ID card’s main public safety goal — allowing immigrants to use the ID to open bank accounts and therefore not get robbed while carrying around large amounts of cash — by reaching out to area banks.
“This is a social justice issue,” said Hill Alderman Jorge Perez on the aldermanic floor. Like others, he’s been inundated with emails lashing out against the city, from outsiders who maintain that “millions of people are going to come to America through New Haven because we’re offering an ID.” Perez refuted that claim and thanked the mayor and Kica Matos “for the leadership they have shown and the heat they have taken” in proposing the ID.
Republican East Shore Alderwoman Arlene DePino cast the sole “nay” vote.
The new card will cost $10 for adults and $5 for children. It would have a debit card capacity of $150.
A small group of out-of-town protesters, who maintain undocumented workers should not be given the same services as legal citizens, gathered outside City Hall before the vote, but did not enter the chambers, where about 250 union members, immigrant families and grassroots activists brimmed with such enthusiasm that they were repeatedly asked to quiet down.
Indira Pedriza, who moved here seven years ago from Mexico, jumped to her feet in applause when the item passed. (Click on the play arrow at the top of the story to watch.) “We needed that — this is good for me!” she said.
“It brings tears to my eyes,” said Marieah Viviel, who at this hearing told a harrowing tale of how her El Salvadoran housekeeper, Elena, and her son were robbed in their Fair Haven apartment by people who knew they were undocumented and stored large amounts of cash. Viviel found them lying on the kitchen floor, bound by electric cords, their home plundered.
“This will be not just a decloaker for those who are invisible, but a deterrent to those who do what they did to Elena,” said Viviel after the vote, wiping her tears. “I’m so glad!”
Time to buy a house. Prices around here are about to go through the roof.