Other Cities Look to New York on ID Cards

Wall Street Journal

By Mara Gay

May 17, 2015

Other Cities Look to New York on ID Cards 

Back from trips around the country, Mayor Bill de Blasio is set to host a conference Monday on municipal identification programs for immigrants and others, another event aimed at pushing his liberal policies beyond New York City.

Senior officials from more than a dozen cities will meet at City Hall to talk about implementing programs that offer city identification cards, New York City officials said.

Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat who has cut a more prominent national profile in recent months by talking about his signature policies in states like Wisconsin and Iowa, said the municipal identification conference was meant to “provide an effective blueprint for other cities nationwide.”

“While immigration reform is stalled in Washington, we are showing that cities are taking action,” he said in a statement.

At least 350,000 people had begun the application process, and more than 100,000 cards had been issued by the end of March, according to city officials. New York City’s program began in January.

The cards are meant to ease access to city services for illegal immigrants, but in New York City have been linked to other benefits, like free admission to a substantial list of museums and cultural institutions, in the hopes of broadening the card’s appeal to more residents. The New York Police Department also accepts the card as identification.

New York City’s program is the largest in the country, but it isn’t the first. Programs in New Haven, Conn., Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland, Calif., all preceded New York’s.

City officials said they had been in touch with Chicago, St. Louis and Atlanta about New York City’s program. All three cities will send representatives to Monday’s conference. Other cities scheduled to have officials attend include Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington and Jersey City.

Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra said his city was considering legislation that would implement a similar program by September, and had looked to Mr. de Blasio for advice.

“We turned to New York City to learn from them because their population is very similar to the population we have in Hartford,” he said.

Mr. Segarra, a Democrat who signed Mr. de Blasio’s “Progressive Agenda” pledge this month supporting a host of liberal policies, said he hoped to attach benefits to Hartford’s identification card similar to those linked to the card in New York, like free admission to cultural institutions.

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