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Excerpt
Mexican ID Card Measure Goes to Senate
Assembly approves bill that would require all cities and counties in the state to accept Mexican consulate documents as valid identification.
By Nancy Vogel
Times Staff WriterApril 29, 2003
SACRAMENTO - Identification cards issued by Mexico, already accepted by Los Angeles and 14 other local governments in California, would have to be honored by all cities and counties under a bill that cleared the Assembly on Monday.
Proponents say widespread acceptance of the cards would make it easier for Mexican citizens living in California to open bank accounts, get marriage licenses, use libraries and respond to routine traffic stops by police.
"This bill will benefit thousands of Mexican nationals," said Assemblyman Manny Diaz (D-San Jose), author of AB 522.
The bill passed 53 to 7, and goes next to the Senate Public Safety Committee. Only Republicans voted against it, but six Republicans joined Democrats in endorsing the bill.
Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy (R-Monrovia) urged a no vote, calling the bill "another way of giving amnesty to illegal aliens in California."
But Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia (R-Cathedral City) said: "It doesn't matter how they got here."
Identification cards, she said, will help police figure out who they have stopped, spare people from having to use check-cashing companies and grant a measure of dignity to people who otherwise live in society's shadows..... (Article continues)
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