Kudos to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, for following in New York City's footsteps and creating a municipal ID program that will help unauthorized immigrants and others live their lives.
Modeled on the program New York Mayor Bill de Blasio created last year, it will benefit any person without a drivers' license or other government-issued ID. This includes not only immigrants, but also the homeless or elderly, who don't drive and often have trouble getting to a state motor vehicle office to apply for an ID.
Will the pitchfork brigade please note: This is not an end run around immigration law or state law. The photo ID card doesn't make you eligible for anything you wouldn't be otherwise. It can't be used to vote. It can't be used to drive. It simply gives people a way to prove their own identities.
We don't want witnesses to be afraid of reporting crimes to the police because they don't have an official ID. And we do want cops to be able to keep track of the homeless, and connect them to city services. This card will also allow transgender people to self-designate a gender, without having to out themselves and endure humiliating questions from a government bureaucrat.
Newark is the first city in New Jersey to start issuing its own ID cards, but hopefully won't be the last. As immigration reform remains stalled, this is a stop-gap measure to help cities integrate and promote civic engagement in their immigrant communities.
Thousands of unauthorized immigrants are living and working in our state, including in cities like Newark. It's a popular soundbite to say we should tell them all they shouldn't be here. But the reality is, they are here. Many are staying with family members who are U.S. citizens, raising children and holding down jobs, just like everyone else. Denying them identification cards will not make them go away.
The right place to enforce our immigration laws is at the point of employment -- not when an immigrant is reporting a crime to police, or visiting a child's school, and asked for ID. By launching this program, Baraka is doing what's best for Newark. It does the city no good to force large pockets of its people to remain invisible.