Issuing municipal identification cards to undocumented resident immigrants is an inexpensive and effective method by which the City of San Francisco can improve public safety and immigrants’ ability to engage positively and productively in the City’s civic life. 
   
Under current law, undocumented immigrants in San Francisco have no access to official forms of identification.  Without such identification, undocumented immigrants cannot prove their residence, which puts them in significant personal danger and poses a threat to the City’s general public safety.  Many banks do not allow undocumented immigrants to open a bank account, leaving immigrants with no choice but to carry large amounts of cash on their person or hidden in their homes.  As a result, immigrant communities are prone to suffer from disproportionately high rates of theft in their homes and upon returning from work [1].  This kind of theft is particularly threatening to public safety because undocumented immigrants under-report crimes to the police for fear of contact with law enforcement and due to their general sense of insecurity [2].  When these thefts go unreported, perpetrators’ incentive to prey on undocumented immigrants increases.  There are an estimated 2,500,000 undocumented immigrants in California who lack access to official identification [3], and every one of San Francisco’s 744,041 total residents’ safety is compromised by the current situation [4].  A municipal ID program is a relatively simple, inexpensive, and effective solution to this problem.
  
Municipal identification cards would also benefit all residents who do not qualify for or have easy access to existing government-issued identification cards.  Municipal identification cards have been welcomed by advocates for the elderly. Because applications can be processed quickly and applicants do not have to travel to specific centers or wait in long lines, municipal identification cards provide a simpler alternative for elderly individuals who no longer drive. Students who live part-time in other states could also benefit from municipal ID cards. According to a fact sheet issued by the City of New Haven, which already issues such cards, municipal identification cards are likely to offer particular advantages to “young children, elderly citizens, students and immigrants (both documented and undocumented) [5].”
   
Contrary to what many might think, it is legal under both federal and state law for San Francisco to issue municipal identification cards to every type of resident—regardless of immigration status.  In addition, the City of New Haven has implemented such a program and provides a model for how San Francisco could do so.  As a municipality, the City of San Francisco is in a unique position to provide undocumented immigrants with official identification establishing residency.  Consular identification cards, issued by foreign governments to citizens living abroad, do not establish residency and frequently are not accepted because they are not U.S.-issued [6].   Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) lack photo identification and are explicitly invalid for identification purposes [7].  Federal law neither offers any identification options to undocumented immigrants, nor permits states to do so.  In 2006, President Bush signed the REAL ID Act, which prohibits states from issuing identification cards to undocumented immigrants. This Act federally mandates that states require proof of lawful immigration status as a condition for issuing a drivers license or state identification card [8].  But the REAL ID Act does not establish or regulate comparable federal regulations for how non-state jurisdictions, such as cities, issue identification cards.

The passage of the REAL ID Act confirms that there is no federal obstacle to issuance of a municipal identification card: no other federal immigration, criminal or other statute bars issuance of state or local government documents without regard to immigration status.  If such a provision already existed, the REAL ID Act would have been superfluous.  The REAL ID Act was meaningful, however, because no other federal provision impeded states from establishing their own document requirements.  In short, the Act casts no doubt on, and by its very narrowness re-affirms, the longstanding authority of non-state jurisdictions to issue documents such as residential parking, beach or park access, or other identification records, without regard to immigration status.   Therefore, the City of San Francisco can issue municipal identification cards to undocumented immigrants that establish residency and identity that are legal under federal and state law.  In fact, after REAL ID, cities are one of very few jurisdictions that can help the undocumented immigrant community in this way. 
   
The City of New Haven recently seized on this opening in federal law.  New Haven, like San Francisco, has a large undocumented immigrant community.  In July of this year, the City of New Haven began issuing municipal identification cards that are available to undocumented immigrants [9].  The history and contours of New Haven’s municipal identification program can serve as a model for San Francisco in establishing its own identification program. 
   
In New Haven, immigrants’ rights organizations and other activist groups advocated for the introduction of a municipal identification card and argued that it would promote the safety, security, and civic participation of all of the city’s residents.  Represented by students and faculty at Yale Law School, local community groups invested a great deal of time and research to ensure that the program would be lawful and good policy for the city [10].  These community groups, and ultimately the City itself, concluded that the program would not jeopardize residents’ privacy concerns, and that the City could withhold municipal identification information from disclosure under state law.  The City also researched the potential impact upon the popularity of the ID card if the City were not able to fully guarantee that the municipal identification information would not be disclosed to the federal government.  In doing so, the City considered the enduring popularity of ITINs and consular identification cards.  There are law enforcement exceptions to Internal Revenue Code 6103 (the general confidentiality statute governing federal tax information) which might allow federal agencies to obtain copies of tax returns containing ITINs - yet demand for ITINs remains high.  Similarly, although the federal authorities cannot get consular ID records directly from consulates, it would be theoretically possible for the federal government to subpoena banks for records of all accounts opened with consular IDs - but nonetheless consular IDs remain popular.  The City therefore concluded that even if it could not completely guarantee its residents non-disclosure of their information to federal immigration authorities, demand for the identification cards would remain high. As a result of this careful work, the New Haven Board of Aldermen eventually approved the Mayor’s request to accept a grant to fund the municipal identification measure with a large margin of support [11]. 

Municipal identification cards are now available to all New Haven residents, irrespective of age or immigration status.  To obtain the card, applicants can show, among other things, passports, U.S. and foreign drivers licenses, birth certificates, consular identification cards, visas, and ITINs.  Residency can be established by showing library cards, rental or purchase agreements, employment pay stubs, utility bills, school enrollment records, or statements by social service providers [12].  New Haven makes no demands for recognition from other state or municipal governments for New Haven ID cards [13]. 

New Haven is the first city to issue a general-purpose municipal ID.  However, a number of other cities across the country issue other kinds of identification cards.  These cities laid the groundwork for New Haven’s general-purpose municipal ID and can be used in developing a San Francisco ID as well.  Washington D.C., for example, provides identification cards for its residents.  Applicants must prove that they are over the age of 15 and residents of the District. They must also provide proof of identity, proof of current residency, and a Social Security number [14].  The special distinction of D.C. as a city without a state may make it an anomaly, for it has to assume the duties of both city and state.  No other cities, apart from New Haven, issue such identification cards to residents.

A number of other cities do provide identification for particular purposes.  A city may provide identification to its employees, for residential parking permits, or the use of municipal parks and beaches.  Through the legitimacy of the city government, each identification system indicates that the card-holder is either a city resident or employee [15].  The City of Florissant, Missouri, issues a Resident Card so that residents may have access to community centers, pools, an ice rink, and all other recreation facilities.  In order to obtain a card, the resident must provide a valid photo ID and an unpaid utility bill from the previous month or a monthly business statement [16].  In Aventura, Florida, residents may obtain Identification Cards from the city in order to access city parks, events, and programs for free [17].  In order to obtain a card, a resident must provide a proof of residency when they apply for the card at the government center.  Individuals can prove residency with a Florida drivers license, Florida identification card, voter’s registration card, passport, electric, telephone or utility bill, or mortgage, deed or lease.  Last month, Governor Spitzer announced his decision to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain New York drivers licenses [18].  The New York Department of Motor Vehicles will accept foreign passports as proof of identification, and will not require documentation of legal status [19].  

Most relevantly, the City of San Francisco itself used to issue special-use IDs where federal and state law offered no options to a marginalized and vulnerable community.  In 1996, California Proposition 215 legalized marijuana possession for medical purposes by patients who have a doctor’s recommendation.  However, between 1996 and February 2005, California had no standard way to identify which patients had such a recommendation.  During this time, the City of San Francisco filled the void in state law by issuing identification cards to City residents who qualified under the law [20].  Eventually, the state began issuing its own medical marijuana identification card to patients [21].  Before the state filled this void, however, the San Francisco medical marijuana card helped patients secure access to the medicine they needed.   Now, as then, the City can issue identification cards that will mitigate the harm caused when federal and state law do not provide for official identification. 

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Emma Andersson, Stella Burch, Margot Mendelson and Marisol Orihuela are students of Prof. Michael Wishnie’s at Yale University. Prof. Wishnie has been involved with New Haven’s municipal ID program.