CNS STORY: Rochester Catholic parish helps provide Mexicans with ID cards

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CNS Story:

PARISH-IDCARDS Oct-28-2004 (490 words) With photo. xxxn

Rochester Catholic parish helps provide Mexicans with ID cards

By Rob Cullivan
Catholic News Service

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (CNS) -- Hundreds of Mexican migrants living throughout the Rochester Diocese came to the Church of the Epiphany one day this fall to obtain Mexican consular identification cards.

The Mexicans obtained the cards with the assistance of several consulate representatives who traveled to the church from their office in New York City.

The cards identify the bearers as Mexican citizens who are residing in the United States and will allow them to more easily travel from the United States to Mexico, according to Norberto Terrazas, consul for legal protection of Mexican citizens. He added that the cards contain security features that make it extremely difficult for them to be duplicated.

Sandra Rojas, coordinator of the Diocese of Rochester's Hispanic Migrant Ministry in Monroe County, said many of the Mexicans have no form of official identification, which can create legal difficulties both in the United States and Mexico.

"They are invisible in this country," Rojas said of the Mexicans, many of whom are employed as farmworkers.

"They need identification to prove who they are to open a bank account, to cash a check, (or) when the police stop them," she told the Catholic Courier, Rochester's diocesan newspaper.

Rojas noted that the registration effort was a cooperative venture between the Mexican consulate and several diocesan officials, including Father Jesus Flores, diocesan coordinator for migrant ministry and sacramental minister at St. Mary's of the Lake in Ontario, and Carmelite Sister Luci Romero and Xochitil Palacios, who are both county coordinators of the diocese's Hispanic Migrant Ministry.

Father Lance Gonyo, pastor of the Church of the Epiphany, noted that many migrants attend a Spanish Mass at the parish. "Our community has always been very supportive of the migrant community," he said.

Rodrigo Gomez, 16, came to obtain the cards with members of his family who are registered aliens and have been farmworkers in Brockport for the past five years "We're mostly working to get a better life," he said, noting his mother and aunt were formerly employed as domestic workers in Mexico.

"The pay was better here," he added.

His mother said she wanted the Mexican ID card so she could open a U.S. bank account. The family members eventually want to become U.S. citizens, Rodrigo said.

Librada Paz, who holds dual U.S.-Mexican citizenship, said that even after 15 years of going back and forth between her two countries she still needed the Mexican consular ID card. Having it will make it easier for her to travel to Mexico to see family members, she said.

Paz likened the card to a passport, and said she appreciated the fact that consulate representatives traveled so far to aid her and other Mexicans.

"It takes time to go to New York City," she said. "Now that (consulate representatives) are here, it's great for us."

Sister Romero called the migrants a "community of hope" being served by the church.

END

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