Goodbye Matrícula!

México del Norte
Jorge Mújica Murias
mexicodelnorte@yahoo.com.mx

It was born over 100 years ago, as a document to certify that a Mexican lived somewhere else instead of living in México. For over a century it wasn’t good for anything else and now, at least in North Carolina, it might also become a worthless document.

The Mexican Matrícula Consular had a short Golden era alter the infamously famous September 11th 2001. It became the favorite item of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Mexicans who did not have any paper to show they were Mexicans they were Juan Pérez and not Osama Bin Laden. Today, some four or five million Mexicans have a Matrícula.

Until about 2004, the document was issued in “good faith”, based on a picture less birth certificate, a baptism certificate or a “neighborhood acquaintance” letter, commonly issued by a Presidente Municipal to any resident of the neighboring ranchos. Its best use was as a companion document to the ITIN, Individual Tax Payer Identification number, issued by the U.S. Treasury to undocumented immigrants to ease their paying taxes.

Then thing got complicated. People like Lou Dobbs and other anti immigrants started attacking the Matrícula as a document which “legalized Mexicans in the United States” and “easy to forge”, and the Mexican government reacted promoting it and meeting with bankers and government officials, and finally issuing the “High Security Consular Matrícula”, with 13 security measures, from holograms to magnetic bar codes. So secure that it was highly praised by the U.S. Secretary of State.

On the Mexican side, the Matrícula was almost worthless, not recognized by anyone until November of 2004, when it was formally stated in Article 3 of the Nationality Act that it is “a document which proves Mexican nationally.”
In general, all Matrículas (Mexican, American, Guatemalan and all others,) are recognized by the Vienna Convention of Consular Relations.


“Not Worth The Paper They Are Printed On…


Not withstanding all the above, Republican representative Mike Hager, Rutherford, North Carolina, is pushing for a law disallowing the Matrícula and “all consular or embassy documents” in the state, to “certify identity or residence.” Hager says his law in “very simple” and it targets “IDs who are known to be distributed among illegals.”

“The Matrícula Consular”, according to his colleague George Cleveland, is “Not worth the paper or plastic is printed on”, and it is a document “developed by the Mexican government to “legalize its citizens who live north of the border.”

An immediate effect, if this law is approved, would be that some parents could not pick up their kids at school, according to local rules who make mandatory to present IDs to do so. Hager says that “teachers should not be allowed to release a kid to someone they may or may not know but is has a potentially forged document.”

Some Democrats tried to defend the Matrícula, like Diane Parfitt, Cumberland, skating the she google-searched “Fake Matrícula Consular” and got 13 thousand result, but that she also google-searched “Fake N.C. IDs,” and got over 700 thousand results. That is not surprising, since everyone knows that most documents in the U.S. are owned and used by underage students to buy alcohol and get access to discos and party like crazy.

The law, obviously, will not solve any problem and it seems to me that it violates international agreements about official documents. Trying to attack the Mexican Matrícula, it disallows even passports. I wonder what a German tourist will think when he tries to rent a car in North Carolina and he is told his passport is not good in the whole state.

On the other hand, Hager and his cronies have some reason. The real reality is that Matrículas are not real IDs, but only “proof.” or a “receipt” issued to a person who registered in his/her consulate as a national residing abroad. To recognize and use them as IDs is optional, just like a driving document, a driver license, is recognized to cash checks at a local bank.

But Hager should not worry. The worst enemy of the Matrícula is the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Despite the fact that they turned consulates into supermarkets for documents, their efforts to serve first the interests of paranoid individuals like Hager and Cleveland has made impossible for most Mexicans in the U.S. to obtain a Matrícula. They have to present “proof of nationality”, “proof of identity” and “proof of residency;” in the case of minor, even “proof of vaccination”, plus permits from parents and legal guardians, and just in case, is always good to present the green copy of the yellow paper.

It seems to me Foreign Affairs should sue North Carolina if they approve their law, and then issue Matrículas to all, including Salvadorans and what not, just for the sake of it…