Illegal Immigrants’ Best Form of ID Is Ingenuity

Gustavo Rodriguez holds a job, paid for a car on the installment plan and even owns a home filled with furniture bought on credit.

None of this comes easy for illegal immigrants such as Rodriguez, who use their ingenuity to find their place in American life without identification or credit.

Credit agencies have no history on them. Insurance companies cannot insure their cars because they can’t get a driver’s license. Even a trip to the video store can be a challenge.

The issue is in the forefront of official debate these days, as Gov. Gray Davis reconsiders AB 60, the bill that would give driver’s licenses to some illegal immigrants, and as cities and even some banks throughout the state are beginning to accept a Mexican identification card, the matricula consular, as valid ID. The Los Angeles City Council will consider Tuesday whether its police should accept the cards.

“I could contribute more to the U.S. economy if I had [identification],” said Rodriguez, a 27-year-old Anaheim resident with a wife and two children. He could pay taxes or open a business.

In the meantime, necessity has bred inventiveness. Many of California’s estimated 1.5 million illegal immigrants have developed a repertoire of ways to gain a piece of the good life. They rely on an extended community of family and friends. Without credit histories, they coax stores into offering credit nonetheless. They find employers who will hire without work papers.

The Rodriguezes’ situation affords a peek into how one family manages to establish themselves while, in the eyes of the U.S. government and mainstream economy, they don’t exist.

Gustavo Rodriguez immigrated to Santa Ana alone, 10 years ago. There, he met his future wife, whose parents are living here legally, though she remains undocumented after living outside the United States intermittently. She declined to allow her name to be used.

The couple, whose children are 3 years and 18 months, eke out a modest but comfortable living.

The father works full time for a company that makes equipment for carwashes. The boss is willing to overlook his lack of legal work authorization. He is paid in cash, which skirts the need for a Social Security number. That also means, though, that the federal and state governments collect no taxes on his pay.

The cash--$560 a week from his job and a side business selling jewelry--also means he can avoid check-cashing services, which most immigrants use because they don’t open bank accounts. The service costs about 1% of the check.

His wife, 26, a 1993 graduate of Santa Ana High School, hoped to become a secretary, but without documents, she works as a maid. She makes about $300 a week and also pays no income taxes.

Unlike many illegal immigrants, she is lucky enough to have a Bank of America account obtained years ago under a former bank policy that allowed minors to have accounts if the bank knew the family. That account has sustained the family with the ability to write checks for bills, and with debit cards that can be used at many stores.

Without ID, Gustavo Rodriguez cannot open an account, so he regularly uses his wife’s debit card at any store that doesn’t check the name on the card.

Bank of America and several other banks recently changed their policies to allow Mexican nationals with official Mexican identification to open accounts. Tax on any interest is withheld and sent to the federal government. Rodriguez hopes to get one of those ID cards soon.

But renting videos at the local Blockbuster is out. Blockbuster spokesman Randy Hargrove said the chain requires renters to have two forms of identification, including a driver’s license, a military identification or state identification, to gain membership. So the Rodriguez family uses two small video stores that don’t have such requirements.

The family has always managed to find housing. Several years ago, Gustavo Rodriguez found a studio apartment in Santa Ana whose landlord didn’t require a credit check. His wife’s relatives knew the manager.

The setup worked until the couple had two children and wanted a house.

So they decided to buy a home with his in-laws as co-owners. The couple and their children live with the wife’s parents in a yellow three-bedroom house in Anaheim that cost $241,000. He and his wife make half of the monthly mortgage payment, handing over $1,100. Their names are on the deed but not on the mortgage.

Spending what remains is often a headache. He has been rejected for credit at several stores, including Sam’s Club. He often must bring needs to bring wads of cash for shopping.

But when he bought his living room furniture set, he was able to get credit from La Canasta Furniture Store in Santa Ana, part of a chain that extends credit to many illegal immigrants.

Rodriguez put down $50 for the powder-blue love seat and matching sectional sofa that cost $800. He probably paid about $1,100 for the set because he was likely charged 16.85% annual interest on the balance, said Canasta President Javier Ramirez.

Ramirez said his eight stores offer credit to illegal immigrants because “we trust them.” He acknowledges that if they defaulted, he would have little way to find them. Still, he said, the delinquency rate is no different from that of customers with a traditional credit history, and his flexibility let him to tap into a big market.

When Gustavo Rodriguez wanted a car, he bought a 1985 Chevrolet Caprice from a friend who allowed him to pay him the $1,200 in installments. He registered the car--that’s allowed for illegal immigrants--but couldn’t insure it because he has no driver’s license. He’s afraid to drive it, though. If he is stopped by police for a traffic infraction or an accident, he would be arrested for driving without a license and then the case might be referred to immigration officials. Most days, a friend picks him up to go to work.

A vacation presented another challenge. The family recently went to Las Vegas, where Rodriguez was peeved when security guards at Circus Circus asked him for photo identification. When he could not provide any, he was told he could not play roulette. Rodriguez assumed illegal immigrants could not play. But a casino supervisor who would identify himself only as Gary said the casino is not interested in gamblers’ immigration status. More likely, Rodriguez, who is young-looking for his age, was stopped in a routine check for underage gamblers. “If someone looks between 21 and 30, they will be carded,” the supervisor said.

Rodriguez would like to be able to escape such embarrassing episodes while bettering his lot. He wanted to open a business, but a business permit requires a Social Security number, so he sells his jewelry where he can, on the streets and to friends.

He and other illegal immigrants have become more nervous recently about their lack of identification, with recent publicity about immigrants being deported after being stopped by police on minor matters.

But Anaheim police and all police departments in Orange County, Sacramento, Oakland and San Francisco recently agreed to accept the Mexican identification card.

About the same time, Wells Fargo and Bank of America began accepting the matriculas to open accounts. Airlines will accept them as identification for domestic flights and trips to Mexico. Now the Mexican Consulate is working to get the card widely accepted by government agencies and businesses throughout the nation.

Such moves anger activists opposed to illegal immigration.

Barbara Coe, founder of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, said big business benefits from hiring low-wage workers like Rodriguez while taxpayers pick up the tab for social services and education they may need.

Illegal immigrants “are criminals,” she said. “End of discussion. They are here in violation of federal law.”

To Coe’s dismay, a proposed state bill would allow illegal immigrants to qualify for a driver’s license if they can show they are seeking citizenship or permanent residency and meet other requirements.

The author, Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), said he does not know how many people are on the roads without licenses--and thus without auto insurance.

“By allowing immigrants in the process of legalizing their status to drive, we acknowledge two factors,” he said. “First, this is a public safety issue that affects all Californians. Second, immigrants are deeply embedded in our economy.”

Davis vetoed the bill last year but is negotiating with Cedillo to see how the licenses could be granted. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund recently sued the state, saying the bill inadvertently became law last year because of a clerical error and should be implemented.

Without the ability to get a license, illegal immigrants turn to matriculas as a last resort. Rodriguez took off a day of work recently to obtain his at the consulate office in Santa Ana. He was there by 4 a.m.--but found himself behind a line of people who had shown up even earlier.

By 9 a.m., more than 200 people waited. Still in line six hours after arriving, Rodriguez got the bad news from a guard. He would have to return another day. Too many people getting matriculas today. But he was given an appointment for this week.