Arkansas: IDs for Aliens Draw Fire

http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2144

Many Arkansas police departments, banks and businesses are accepting the membership card of a nonprofit organization that works with Hispanic immigrants as a form of valid identification.

Founders of the organization say the card is helping 3,000 Arkansas immigrants gain access to important services.

Critics, however, say illegal aliens are the only immigrants benefiting from the card. They are buying the card in droves, some say, not knowing that it carries no more legal standing than a membership card at their local video store.

Officials with the Arkansas attorney general’s office are investigating the Latin Community Organization of Malvern, the nonprofit that issues the cards.

“Some [illegal aliens think it’s an official, governmentsponsored card,” said Charles Cervantes, state director of the Arkansas League of United Latin American Citizens. “It’s misleading a lot of them. “They should stop issuing these cards.” The cards first sparked public debate in early December at a city board meeting in Hope in Hempstead County.

Angelo Zambrano, who helped found the Latin Community Organization, asked the Hope Board of Directors’ permission to expand his group’s outreach efforts to Hope.

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/210936/

2007-12-17