Undocumented Immigrants Will Receive Municipal NYC ID, Says Mayor De Blasio

Undocumented immigrants living in New York City will soon be able to obtain municipal ID cards which will allow them to open bank accounts, sign rental leases, file police reports, use libraries and other municipal services, and access social assistance programs, reported El Diario on Monday. Sources in the office of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told the paper the mayor would soon submit a proposal to create the municipal ID, which will not be valid as a driver’s license, for purchasing alcohol or tobacco, or for federal purposes.

The report came hours before New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s first State of the City speech, in which the mayor also said he would push state lawmakers to allow the city to set its own minimum wage, raise income taxes on New Yorkers who make more than $500,000 per year to pay for universal pre-kindergarten education, and build 200,000 units of affordable housing. “To all of my fellow New Yorkers who are undocumented, I say, ‘New York City is your home too, and we will not force any of our residents to live their lives in the shadows,'” said de Blasio in the speech.

De Blasio has long advocated for the creation of a municipal ID, pointing to New Haven, San Francisco, and Los Angeles – which also offer the IDs to undocumented immigrants – as models. In a May op-ed in the New York Daily News arguing for New York to join the list of states which grant driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, he called on cities and states to create local IDs. “Without government-issued identification, entire families are trapped in limbo. The lack of ID can shut the doors to doctors’ offices, banks, libraries, apartment rentals, charities — virtually anything you can think of,” he wrote then.

He added, “Nationally, this country is finally waking up to the notion that integrating undocumented immigrants into our society and legalizing their status will make us more secure. The old argument that providing a photo ID will compromise national security is absurd — if anything, the various checks required to get a license and the ability to more easily identify people who currently lack a government-issued ID will increase our collective security.”