Phony Mexican IDs  for sale in Los Angeles park

E.J. Tamara

Los Angeles, U.S., July 23, 2003 (EFE) - A burgeoning black market here frequented by illegal immigrants has a new product: the forged "matricula consular," an official Mexican document some states accept for opening a bank account or getting a driver's license.

The fake registration cards are sold in broad daylight just two blocks from the Mexican Consulate at MacArthur Park, where interested parties can also buy phony Social Security cards, driver licenses, work permits and green cards.

The phony registration cards fetch double the price of their legal counterparts, haggling aside, as confirmed by this EFE correspondent.

"For $60, I'll make you Mexican and for $80, I'll make you a gringo," one of the sellers told EFE, referring to the going prices for phony registration cards and U.S. residency cards, respectively.

According to Agustin Pradillo, spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles, the buyers are most likely non-Mexican Hispanics who want to take advantage of the benefits provided by the identification card.

"Those who are Mexican have no problem obtaining a registration card; they know they can get a real one for $29," said Pradillo.

LAwatchdog.com COMMENT: Many Mexicans come from small villages where it is common not to have a birth certificate. And many Mexicans simply don't have their birth certificate handy. To these Mexicans (or Latinos from other countries), there is value to purchasing a phony Matricula ID. As far as price is concerned, Que Pasa didn't shop around.

The spokesman, who said he had seen the fake registration cards, stressed the security mechanisms used in the real document.

"The fake registration cards, to the naked eye, lack many elements ... The copies are so crude that you immediately notice," said Pradillo.

"The legal registration card has a series of visible and invisible mechanisms that are impossible to duplicate," he added.

LAwatchdog.com COMMENT: The LAPD cops wouldn't know the difference between the real and the phony ID anyway. I know of an illegal alien man who had a fake California driver license made. Whenever he displayed it, no one ever noticed that the sex on the license was checked off as female.

Several weeks ago, the consulate notified authorities about the sale of the fake identification cards at the park.

Los Angeles police spokesman Sgt. John Pasquariello called the sale of false documents in MacArthur Park "a difficult problem."

Even if police arrest those selling the phony cards at the park, Pasquariello said, they are just the tip of the iceberg in a sophisticated black market trade in false documents.

Pasquariello said that since authorities found out about the sale of false registration cards, they have sent additional equipment to banks and police stations to more easily detect phonies.

He also said Los Angeles police have not received any complaints about the false cards.

LAwatchdog.com COMMENT: That's because the LAPD accepts any card, forged or real. What's there to complain about? During the six month pilot program, the ID was never tested.

The sale of fake registration cards comes at a time when Congress is debating how these documents should be issued.

Authorities have proposed setting up a centralized database to prevent duplicates, requiring users to notify the consulate of any change of address and asking the Mexican government to share the identities of cardholders with the State Department.

The measures were approved within a single initiative last week by the House of Representatives, but must still go before the Senate.

Meanwhile, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez told EFE that Mexico is willing to improve the registration card, if necessary, although he said the quality of the new cards meets the same security requirements as his country's driver licenses and social security cards. EFE