Immigration Article of the Day: "Documenting the Undocumented: A Review of the United States' First Municipal ID Program"

"Documenting the Undocumented: A Review of the United States' First Municipal ID Program" RUTH K. DITLMANN, Yale University PAUL LAGUNES, Yale University - Department of Political Science BRIAN LEVIN, Yale University  ABSTRACT: There are over 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States and yet, for several years, the federal government has failed to pass a comprehensive immigration reform. This has led cities across the country to enact policies that either try to repel or integrate the undocumented in their midst. With the issuance of the Elm City Resident Card, New Haven, CT, sought to promote the assimilation of its migrants by becoming the first city in the country to provide them with a government-backed ID. This article uses qualitative and empirical strategies, including a rigorous field experiment, to test the policy’s effectiveness in one significant dimension. We found that Hispanics/Latinos are carded more frequently in common commercial interactions than Whites/Anglos. This shows that Hispanics/Latinos, regardless of their citizenship status, are in greater need of documentation. We also found that, because of weaknesses in the card’s design, New Haven’s ID was not always perceived as legitimate. When a Hispanic/Latino presented the Elm City Resident Card to a cashier, the municipal identification fared only as well as the non-government-backed ID it was tested against. Thus we conclude that the Elm City Resident Card’s marginal utility as a form of documentation is currently negligible.

KJ