Broward County to offer ID cards to undocumented immigrants, the homeless
Program aims to boost public service access
A new program backed by Broward County will offer identification cards to undocumented immigrants, the homeless and people recently out of jail or prison. The cards could make it easier for them to get the COVID19 vaccine, gain access to shelters during hurricanes or help them register their children for school.
Broward Commissioner Dale Holness proposed using the cards to help the disadvantaged in the county. He said he expects to have details in place by May for the cards, which are expected to cost $20 each. “It will help us build a more prosperous Broward County for all our people,” he said.
The ID card program is part of a national initiative called the FaithAction ID card. About 20,000 cards have been issued across the U.S. since the program began eight years ago in North Carolina. The identification cards give people “a face, name and community,” said the Rev. David Fraccaro, the executive director of FaithAction International House, a collection of nonprofits and faith groups that issue and manage the cards.
The non-government ID card, which will help people prove they live in Florida, would include a photo, date of birth and address. It will be accepted to receive county services, such as a library card, as well as county social services, such as rental assistance and housing programs. It also could be provided to law enforcement to prove one’s identity.
Broward wouldn’t be the first to use them in South Florida: The cards are already used in West Palm Beach. Fraccaro said “a few thousand” people already have the cards. He said a vote to start using the cards in Miami-Dade County is expected “in the coming months.”
In Broward, the program will be run by Legal Aid Service of Broward County, said agency spokeswoman Andrea Montavon-McKillip, who supervises the immigration unit. Legal Aid is expecting to enroll people, hundreds at a time, with volunteers at ID drives at places such as churches that are off limits to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The delay now in distributing the cards is first hiring staff to manage the program, as well as
coming up with the funding. Faith Action will pay $5,000 in startup costs, and it will cost another $60,000 to $75,000 for staff to run the program.
There are other options for identification cards, although it’s not always easy to get an official one. For example, a state ID card requires people to show proof of their full name, gender, Social Security card number, and county of birth.
Although it also requires two forms of proof of a residential address, one of them can be a letter from a homeless shelter or a halfway house.
Fraccaro said this community ID card will only require one proof of identification, such as an expired driver’s license, passport of a home country, or a national ID card from another country, as well as proof of address, such as a current lease agreement, health record, bank or utility statement.
“We’ve already gotten calls from people in South Florida who are desperate for this ID,” he said.