Junta for Progressive Action
By WILLIAM YARDLEY (NYT)
Published: October 8, 2005
It seems nearly everyone was caught off guard the day John DeStefano Jr., the Democratic mayor of this city and a candidate for governor, said he wanted to allow thousands of illegal immigrants here to apply for new municipal identification cards.
The reaction, from pleasant surprise and requests for applications to immediate outrage on radio talk shows, has been loud and persistent among those engaged with the increasingly tender issue of how illegal immigration is affecting smaller cities across the country.
And for at least a little while from the mayor's office, there also seemed to be a reversal.
''The city is not issuing such cards nor is there a plan to do so,'' said a news release Mr. DeStefano's office issued on Tuesday, the day after he mentioned the identification cards while announcing a new program, ''Hablamos Español,'' intended to increase bilingual city services.
In the days since, Mr. DeStefano has said that initial reports that a plan was in place to issue identification cards were inaccurate, but that so was his news release.
He said it was issued by his staff on a day he was out of town campaigning and that his spokesman, Derek Slap, was on vacation.
''What we were trying to figure out is whether we could legally do it,'' Mr. DeStefano said of the identification cards during a phone interview on Thursday. ''That's where we were Monday. That's where we are today.''
Yet while Mr. DeStefano navigates the mixed reaction from his constituents in New Haven, a heavily Democratic college town, he also faces a much broader audience. He is a leading Democratic contender for governor at a time when illegal immigration has become a divisive topic across the state and the nation.
Just 35 miles away, in Danbury, Mayor Mark D. Boughton, a Republican, has drawn attention for his attempts to crack down on the impact of illegal immigrants in that city's neighborhoods.
Nationwide, local officials have complained that the failure of the federal government to enforce border controls and immigration laws has put enormous pressures on smaller cities where illegal immigrants have arrived.
Mr. DeStefano, serving his sixth two-year term, says he did not intend to prompt a larger debate, one that expanded after the Associated Press and CNN picked up a report from an article in The New Haven Register on Tuesday about the identification cards.
The mayor said that some stories mischaracterized the cards as already approved, as opposed to under consideration, but he also said he and his office had made missteps.
''I think what happened on Tuesday was this was becoming a metaphor for a much larger set of issues,'' the mayor said. ''We missed that. And because we created some confusion we were getting advocates on both sides upset around an emotional issue. It was a Government 101 thing that we failed at, that a mature administration shouldn't fail at.''
Mr. DeStefano, who had raised more than $2 million for his 2006 campaign for governor as of June 30, more than any other candidate, said he realized some voters would think he had reversed himself, only to reverse himself again.
''It looked like we were being pushed around,'' he said on Thursday. ''I hate being perceived as being cute. You know what I mean by being cute?''
A day later, he said he was less concerned about perceptions.
''I don't think this is something I'm going to worry about the politics on,'' he said on Friday. ''If it's the right thing to do we're going to do it.''
Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control, a group that has emerged this year in immigration debates in Danbury, West Hartford and elsewhere, opposes identification cards.
''It's all inducing someone to reside in the United States, and that is illegal,'' said Paul Streitz, the director of the group, who lives in Darien. ''If people in Mexico got word that New Haven was giving out ID cards, what's going to happen? More people are going to come.''
Advocates for the cards say otherwise.
Echoing Mr. DeStefano and the New Haven police chief, Francisco Ortiz Jr., they say the cards would help integrate immigrants into community life, allow them to get library cards, sign leases and open bank accounts and deposit money, leaving them less vulnerable to robbery.
They say the cards would give immigrants a comfort level with the police in discussing crime, rather than fearing deportation.
Mike Wishnie, a professor at New York University School of Law's Immigrant Rights Clinic who advised immigrant rights groups in New Haven on the idea of the cards while he was a visiting professor at Yale University this spring, said no state or federal law prohibited the cards.
He said the city could request a birth certificate or other form of identification from an immigrant's home country and require fingerprints.
''We're not saying everyone has an entitlement to this at all,'' he said.
Kica Matos, executive director of Junta for Progressive Action, was among those who recommended the cards to the mayor earlier this year.
Ms. Matos did not attend the ''Hablamos Español'' announcement on Monday but said two of her colleagues did and were surprised and pleased that the mayor said he wanted to create the cards.
On Tuesday, after first being told by the mayor's staff that news accounts had incorrectly reported the mayor's comments, she spoke with Mr. DeStefano.
''He told me that the city still intended to go ahead with this initiative,'' Ms. Matos said. ''He was surprised to learn that the press release stated that the city had no intention to go through with this initiative.''
The mayor said it remained unclear whether the city would legally be able to issue the cards, in part because he was uncertain whether the federal government could demand access to information the city collects.
It is also unclear what impact the issue may have on the governor's race.
Mr. DeStefano's leading Democratic opponent, Mayor Dannel P. Malloy of Stamford, has created a ''no-hassle zone'' and installed portable toilets for day laborers waiting for work in some areas, generating criticism from some, including Mr. Streitz, who said the city was ''accommodating illegals.''
Mr. Malloy said, ''We don't ask status questions when it comes to provision of service.''
When he was asked what he thought of Mr. DeStefano's handling of the identification card issue, he said, ''I'm not really sure what the proposal is out of New Haven anymore.
''It's important in public life to be consistent, concise and to be correct and not to propose policies until you can be consistent, concise and correct.''