Mike Huckabee

Congressman tells DHS that consular ID cards should not be used to board airplanes

The primary function of Mexico’s many consulates in the United States is to provide illegal aliens with consular ID cards as a means to circumvent our passport requirements for foreign visitors. Those cards are not attached to a secure database and if an applicant has no birth certificate, they can present a letter from virtually anyone attesting to the fact the applicant was born in Mexico as “proof” of citizenship there. Yet most consular ID cards (known as Matricula ID cards) are cheaply purchased on street corners around our nation.

It gets worse. Our Department of Homeland Security says a consular ID card is sufficient photo ID to board an airplane.

In 2003, then Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee:

…went to Mexico … to urge the Mexican government to open a consulate in Arkansas. He leased the consulate state office space for $1 per year (obligating Arkansans to subsidize the rest of the costs of nearly $600 a month). And he put together a sweetheart deal for Mexico to enjoy a permanent facility in Little Rock without having to pay rent for three years.

Elton Gallegly of Simi Valley is a member of the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee and chairman of the 1995 Congressional Task Force on Immigration Reform. He wrote this morning in a commentary that:

Consular cards are issued by foreign governments to their nationals in the United States. There is no attempt to determine whether the person obtaining the card is legally in the United States and, in fact, the only people who need these cards are illegal immigrants, criminals and terrorists. No one denies this fact.

In testimony before a congressional committee, FBI Director Robert Mueller said the FBI had identified a route through Brazil that illegal immigrants from al-Qaida nations use to obtain false identities — including assuming Hispanic surnames — before heading for Mexico and the U.S. border. While no one in the intelligence community will say publicly whether or not any terrorists have been captured along our southern border, all warn it is a serious loophole in our Homeland Security net.

It is clear terrorists have the means and the motive to come here, obtain a consular card and use it to kill Americans.

Consular cards are easily obtained with no proof of true identity and are easily forged. Debra Burlingame, sister of the pilot of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, made that point when she presented consular cards to members of the House Homeland Security Committee with their names, addresses and photos.

Representative Bennie Thompson's Matricula ID card

Congressman Gallegly continued:

REAL ID regulations will make America much safer by taking from terrorists a key piece of their arsenal — the ability to move freely and anonymously about the United States.

When it’s implemented.

In the meantime, we don’t have to wait until REAL ID is in place to close other security loopholes. With that in mind, I’ve once again asked Secretary Chertoff to eliminate consular cards from the list of acceptable forms of identification used to board airplanes. It’s just common sense, and the time is now.

In the following YouTube video, you’ll hear that Governor Huckabee dodges when asked about his providing Mexico a place to pass out their phony consular ID cards:

I wonder if Mexico issued Governor Mike Huckabee a consular ID as a souvenir.

Michael Huckabee's Matricula ID card