Mexican ID cards welcomed in Utah

For a particular group of Utahns, it's not the 2,100-mile U.S.-Mexico border that matters most these days. Rather, it's the 250-mile divider between the Beehive State and Colorado. There might as well be a sign saying "abierto" on the Utah side, with "cerrado" — closed — on the opposite side of the line.

Last month Colorado Gov. Bill Owens signed into law a bill to ban state and local governments from recognizing the Mexican identification cards commonly used by immigrants. The ID, called a matricula consular, is issued by Mexican consulates and helps Mexicans obtain drivers' licenses, open bank accounts and enroll themselves or their children in school.

Colorado Senate President John Andrews, a Republican sponsor of the bill, told Denver's Rocky Mountain News that the bill makes his the "first of any state to close the door on these bogus ID cards that attempt to blur the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants. . . . We need to do this for homeland security."

Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, by contrast, fully supports honoring the Mexican ID. He also endorsed the recently implemented policy of permitting undocumented immigrant students to pay in-state tuition at Utah universities.

Owens, for his part, signed another bill banning such a tuition break.

During his February trade mission to Mexico City, Leavitt told Mexican journalists that he considered the matricula cards a boon to homeland security.

"All of us need to be worried about terrorism and who can be found on our borders. So it's important that they have an identification so they can be recognized. The matricula is the first step toward that identification," Leavitt was quoted as saying in El Heraldo de Mexico, a daily newspaper.

He has since said that the ID cards could help track migrant workers' children in Utah's schools and help families obtain health care, said Leavitt spokeswoman Natalie Gochnour.

Martin Torres, Mexican consul for Utah, Montana, Idaho and western Wyoming, has remarked on Utah's openness to immigrants. "I am really proud of the fact that Utah is an example" to the rest of the country, he said. "It is one of a handful of states issuing drivers' licenses to undocumented workers. And it is only the third state," after Texas and California, "to allow foreign students to pay in-state tuition at institutions of higher learning."

Issuing drivers' licenses to those who can provide valid ID and pass the driving test — regardless of status — is a boon to public safety, law enforcement officials say