Matricula Consular Banned from Use by NC Legislation

Yesterday during the house session House Bill 33 was brought up for vote and passed 64-53. HB 33

a bill to be entitled an act to provide that certain consulate or embassy douments may not be used to determine a person's identification or residence for governmental and law enforcement purposes.

came under considerable discussion.

It seems, according to certain members of the NC House, that the Mexican government is issuing Matricula Consular cards to illegal aliens to provide them with some sort of ID here in the United States. However, on the Mexican US consulate page it says that anyone who is a Mexican citizen living in the US can obtain one of these cards.

The rationale for not accepting these cards is that there is no other country in the world that lets you enter without first receiving an okay and documentation from them, i.e. visas. Concern was voiced that these cards are being used at schools to pick up children, and if they are not allowed, what will happen to the children. There ere a few schools in Wake County that do require a photo ID in order to pick up a child from school. An amendment made by Representative Luebke to add "...may be used for identification purposes by parents when interacting with school personnel and officials failed.

This bill will have one more reading in the house and will then be sent to the Senate.

My only wonderment is why this bill was originally titled

an act to provide that only identifications approved by the state may be used to determine the reliability of a person's identification for governmental and law enforcement purposes.

The rest of the bill does not mention at all the Matricula Conulsar. It isn't until the third version that the wording of the entire bill is changed. Since I am a neophyte to house and senate bills this is a learning curve for me.