South Bend ID cards aim to ease life for undocumented immigrants

SOUTH BEND — A nonprofit Latino advocacy group Thursday unveiled a new identification card it hopes will make life easier for undocumented immigrants who live in the city.

The South Bend Community Resident Card, or “SB ID,” won’t qualify as legal identification issued by the United States, Indiana or South Bend governments, but La Casa de Amistad Inc. hopes area businesses will agree to accept it for things such as picking up children from school or day care, or obtaining college transcripts, bank statements and pharmacy prescriptions, said Sam Centellas, La Casa’s executive director.

Centellas said the card will appeal to the estimated 4,000 undocumented immigrants in the city who can’t obtain state ID cards or driver’s licenses because they lack needed documentation of their legal residency in the United States.

“That’s a large population and I think a lot of people don’t realize that,” Centellas said. “I would love to see those people, that as long as they’re abiding by our laws and following the rules, that they should be put on a pathway to citizenship … we want to see immigration reform come that will help people become documented so they don’t have to do things like this.”

South Bend Common Council vice-president Oliver Davis, in whose 6th District La Casa’s 746 S. Meade St. headquarters lies, said he was frustrated to be without his driver’s license Wednesday night after leaving it at a Wendy’s restaurant. So he can imagine what it must be like for people to worry about having identification all the time.

“We have to make sure that all of our citizens, and those who are here working on citizenship, can feel comfortable living here and are welcomed,” Davis said, “especially with all of the climate that we have had to deal with over this year, where people are frightened to see what’s going to happen in the future.”

Centellas said the group has been working on the project for about a year, so it didn’t result from the presidential campaign and Nov. 8 election of Republican Donald Trump, who pledged in his campaign to round up and deport undocumented immigrants and build a wall along the U.S.- Mexican border.

Democratic Mayor Pete Buttigieg posed for a picture to have his SB ID card made Thursday. He said the initiative is consistent with the values that guide his administration: excellence, innovation, accountability, inclusion and empowerment.

“Something like a municipal ID or city ID, that allows you to be a card-carrying member of the city of South Bend, is an important thing that allows people to be better included and to be more empowered,” Buttigieg said. “We have got to make sure that the city is supporting everyone who lives here.”

The mayor said he will sign an executive order Friday morning requiring city departments, such as police, fire and parks, to recognize the ID.

Centellas said he believes La Casa is the nation’s first nonprofit to issue such an ID. The organization initially asked the city to do it, and the common council earmarked $18,000 in this year’s budget to pay for the program.

But this summer, La Casa became concerned that if the city issued the cards, the names of people who obtain them could be disclosable as public records, putting them at increased risk of harassment or trouble with immigration authorities, Centellas said.

The cards will cost $25 and $10 for seniors and youths. The public can start obtaining the cards Jan. 3 at La Casa’s Meade Street location. Proof of address requirements will be less stringent than those required by the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles. For example, when verifying someone’s address, La Casa will accept utility bills and expired forms of identification, things the BMV won’t accept.

La Casa is contracting with Oakland, Calif.-based SF Global to produce the cards, which will be printed with hologram security features. SF Global is managing municipal IDs for several cities, including Detroit, which launched its program last week.

Centellas said he didn’t yet have a list of businesses and organizations that have agreed to accept the SB ID, but such a list ultimately will be posted on La Casa’s website. He said  La Casa has asked South Bend Community School Corp. to accept the SB ID from parents.

Sue Coney, SBCSC spokeswoman, said the corporation has sought advice from its legal counsel "to ensure that this form of identification meets all legal requirements we have to protect minor children. Once we have all of the necessary information, we will certainly do what is in the best interest of our students."