Activist toolkit on the Mexican matricula consular (illegal alien) ID card

This activist toolkit is designed to help you expose and halt the Mexican government's meddling in the political affairs of U.S. cities and municipalities.

The Mexican consulate operates by quietly lobbying cities to adopt the matricula consular ID card without public discussion and citizen input.

We have had great successes in Colorado opposing the Mexican government's attempts to have the matricula counsular ID card accepted as legitimate ID. This activist toolkit is an outline of our efforts in Colorado. We encourage you to adapt our approach to your circumstances, where applicable.

Please let us know what you have found to work in your own states.

In a nutshell:

Here are detailed action items:

1. Speak to your local governmental entities
    
   Call your city and county to find out if the matricula card is a pending issue. If it is, speak to your council members, supervisors and commissioner at their regularly scheduled meetings. Council meetings typically occur every two weeks. Citizens generally are allowed three to five minutes each to speak to the council, and often the proceedings are televised. It is helpful have 2 to 4 speakers, each presenting a slightly different aspect of the topic.
    
   Respectfully demand the city or county not accept this and other non-secure ID cards. (See our talking points). Point out that there are serious legal consequences to accepting this card, including the fact that they can be individually sued for personal assets. Give them each a handout stating:
   • Colorado passed a state law HB03-1224 against accepting the cards.
   • A summary of our talking points.
   • Public opinion polls show that a majority of Americans are against giving accommodations to illegals.
   • The Center for Immigration Studies backgrounder IDs for Illegals - The 'Matricula Consular' Advances Mexico's Immigration Agenda.
   • Very important: copy and edit the substantial letter, listed in the next section, that explains how accepting the matricula card has serious legal consequences.

   You can also mail your city and county public officials a letter explaining possible violations of the law if they were to officially accept the ID card. Below, in the next section, is a substantial letter that explains how accepting the card has significant legal consequences.
    
   Also check surrounding cities to see if the card is pending and if so, speak to their city councils. Contact your local politicians, including the Mayor, Chief of Police, Governor, and District Attorney. Tell them about the Matricula section of the CAIRCO website and that Colorado has set a precedent making accepting the cards illegal.
    
   Most Chiefs of Police belong to a Police Association. Tell your Chief of Police about the website and what Colorado has done. That will help spread information through the association network.

2. File legal documents
    
   "Nothing succeeds like success!" Please copy our letters, substitute the names of recipients and mail them out on your own letterhead to your own city. You can do this in 10 minutes.
    
   U.S. Code Title 8, says that it is clearly a felony and illegal in every state to hire, harbor, or transport illegal aliens.
    
3. A substantial and very powerful letter of objection was filed with the Denver INS Director and Denver U.S. Attorney asking for an investigation of the City and County of Boulder's acceptance of the Mexican ID card and other activities.
    
   This letter documents the legal consequences of accepting non-secure ID cards for illegal aliens, including Federal statutory violation, constitutional grounds, and civil liability exposure.
    
   Copy and edit this letter and send it to your local officials who are considering accepting the bogus, non-secure matricula consular ID card.
    
   See our legal section for a full listing of letters and legal documents.
4. File an open records request for information
    
   Many states have open records laws patterned after the federal Freedom of Information Act. (In Colorado it is known as the Open Records Act, Colorado Revised Statute 24-72-201) Generally, the law will require production of all information from a governmental entity that is not privileged information. Here is an example of one of the open records request submitted by CAIRCO, in this case to the City and County of Denver.
    
   The value of open record requests is manifold. It puts officials on notice that you know your rights and you are watching the actions of public officials. All too often they have been getting away with doing anything they please, behind closed doors and out of citizen earshot. You might find documents showing your local politicians are acting illegally or unethically. Results from our open record requests have produced embarrassing emails between public officials that make for interesting letters to the editor. You never know what you will turn up. File a request every month if necessary.
5. Hold a press conference
    
   Let the press know what is going on and that you represent the majority opinion on the issue as shown in numerous polls. Schedule a press conference on the steps of your city hall. Send a press release to your newspapers, TV and radio stations a day before your conference and then ask if they received the release and if they will be sending someone to cover the event.
    
   Very important: give them something to "sound bite" and photograph. We got broad TV and print coverage when we held our press conference on the steps of the City and Country Building of Denver. We told the press we would be reading our letter to the Mayor of Denver citing criminal and civil violations of U.S. Code for the Mayor's action of officially ordering city departments to accept the matricula card. We also told the press that we would be handing the Mayor our letter as part of the press conference.
6. Call in to talk radio shows
    
   Contact your local talk radio hosts. Ask them to do a segment on the matricula consular ID card. Ask if you may be an in-studio guest. When you talk, mention www.CAIRCO.org (several times) and tell people to see the "matricula toolkit" section of the website.
    
   If you can't get a dedicated time segment, organize call-ins at opportune times to raise the issue and alert listeners to what is happening in your area and state.
7. Arrange a public debate
    
   If you are willing to put in some hard work, you can organize a public debate on the card. We were particularly successful with our debate: The Mexican "matricula consular" ID card: Safe or Sorry?. Be sure that you contact the media and issue press releases well in advance of the debate.
    
   Send the press release to all your key cities and counties, inviting their council and board members along with their police chiefs and sheriffs. Send notices to all your state representatives. (We were lucky to have had in attendance at our debate the assistant to the president of the Colorado Senate along with a Representative of the Colorado House. Those elected officials are now sponsoring a bill, HB-1224, the Secure and Verifiable Identity Document Act, in the Colorado legislature to make it illegal to accept the matricula. We are very optimistic it will become law.) Feel free to contact CAIRCO for more information on how to organize a public debate.
8. Use our video
    
   CAIRCO edited and produced a 57 minute video of our important, timely and provocative debate on the matricula consular ID card with guest columnist Michelle Malkin. We distributed the video to public access and government access television stations across Colorado. In doing so, we gained much more exposure to the issue than the debate alone could have obtained.
    
   This video is applicable to all cities and states, not just Colorado. Show the video to others in your area, including elected officials, and to distribute it to your public access TV stations. (If you would like a professional quality format of this video for broadcast, please contact us).
9. Take aggressive action
   • An independent group of citizens in Boulder, Colorado has taken strong action against that city's possible action to accept matricula consular ID cards.
      
   • A substantial letter of objection was filed with the Denver INS Director and Denver U.S. Attorney asking for an investigation of the City and County of Boulder's acceptance of the Mexican ID card and other activities.
      
   • A letter of objection was filed with the Mayor and City Council of Boulder, Colorado at the November 19, 2002 City Council meeting, stating "Your actions may possibly put you, and elected and appointed officials, and public servants, in legal jeopardy both personally and professionally."
      
   • A substantial letter of objection was filed with the Denver INS Director and Denver U.S. Attorney asking for an investigation of the City and County of Boulder's acceptance of the Mexican ID card and other activities.
      
   • And most interesting, a letter was filed with the city's liability insurance company, since it is likely that the city's policy does not cover liability arising from accepting the matricula consular ID card. In other words, if the city accepts the matricula consular card and a citizen is injured by an illegal alien, the citizen can sue the city and individual city council members. This is because the city's liability policy specifically excludes protection from illegal actions on the part of insured parties.
10. Coordinate with other organizations
     
    Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) can also offer advice on how to deal with the card.
     
    NumbersUSA.com has periodic faxes that you can send to elected officials on the card and is also a resource on the issue.
11. Work to get a state law passed

    We did it in Colorado! Colorado Representative Don Lee and Senator John Andrews sponsored a bill (the Colorado Secure and Verifiable Identity Document Act) that made illegal the accepting of the Mexican matricula consular ID card and other "unsecured" IDs.  
    Call your state senators and representatives to discuss the issue and encourage them to initiate legislation to halt acceptance of the matricula consular ID card.
     
    When the bill enters committee, appear before the committee and give public testimony.