March 13, 2010

by Robert Friedman

Many state­side Puerto Ricans are hav­ing iden­tity prob­lems because of the island’s recent birth cer­tifi­cate law.
Sev­eral states, includ­ing Cal­i­for­nia, Ohio and Nevada, report­edly have stopped accept­ing birth cer­tifi­cates of island-born boricuas as proof of iden­tity for driver’s licenses and other doc­u­ments.
Sto­ries have been appear­ing in the state­side media about the con­fu­sion rain­ing down on many Puerto Ricans on the U.S. main­land over the law, meant to tackle iden­tity theft sparked by whole­sale pil­fer­ing of Puerto Rico-issued birth cer­tifi­cates.
Under the law, every sin­gle birth cer­tifi­cate issued in Puerto Rico will become invalid start­ing July 1. After that date, those want­ing proof that they were born on the island must apply to the com­mon­wealth gov­ern­ment for a new birth cer­tifi­cate, which sup­pos­edly will be theft-resistant.
But the afore­men­tioned states already have blocked the use of birth cer­tifi­cates from the island.
More than 1 mil­lion of the 4 mil­lion Puerto Ricans now liv­ing in the states were born on the island.
The mis­un­der­stand­ing has sparked the civil rights group Lati­no­Jus­tice PRLDF to ask the local gov­ern­ment to change the law, which the orga­ni­za­tion says threat­ens to make Puerto Ricans tar­gets of the anti-Latino feel­ing preva­lent in parts of the states over immi­gra­tion.
In a let­ter to Gov. For­tuño, Lati­no­Jus­tice Pres­i­dent César Perales said the law “cre­ates seri­ous prob­lems for more than 1 mil­lion Puerto Rican-born res­i­dents of the main­land United States … I ask that you amend and/or imple­ment it in such a way so as to min­i­mize the harm it will oth­er­wise inflict on Puerto Ricans across the main­land.”
He said this harm “may very well be mas­sive.”
Perales said the “immense and very intense anti-Latino cli­mate” spurred by the immi­gra­tion mess and “the esca­lat­ing man­date to doc­u­ment one’s iden­tity” brought on by ter­ror­ist fears has made this “the worst pos­si­ble time for the gov­ern­ment of Puerto Rico to ques­tion the valid­ity of Puerto Rican birth cer­tifi­cates.”
He said later: “Every­one will now begin ques­tion­ing all doc­u­ments from Puerto Rico.“
The head of Lati­no­Jus­tice, which used to be called the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Edu­ca­tion Fund, asked the gov­er­nor to put off hav­ing the island-issued birth cer­tifi­cates inval­i­dated until Dec. 31, to allow fed­eral and local agen­cies more time to get their acts together in adapt­ing to the new law.
Com­mon­wealth Sec­re­tary of State Ken­neth McClin­tock opposes putting off the date, not­ing that the island gov­ern­ment intends to roll out a “multi-pronged” media blitz on the island and the states from April 1 through June 30 on the new Puerto Rico birth cer­tifi­cate rules.
McClin­tock said Fri­day that Orlando, Fla., and New York City, where the state­side Puerto Rican pop­u­la­tions are the largest, will be espe­cially tar­geted. Let­ters will be going out next week from For­tuño, the island Trans­porta­tion Depart­ment and him­self to all state gov­er­nors, motor vehi­cle bureaus and lieu­tenant gov­er­nors explain­ing the new pol­icy, McClin­tock said.
He acknowl­edged that “I don’t know exactly” what the U.S. State Depart­ment is going to do, in the case of pass­port requests, but added that ongo­ing talks with the feds are under way on how to imple­ment the new pol­icy on the fed­eral front.
Since all the island-born are U.S. cit­i­zens, the birth cer­tifi­cates have been a prime object for iden­tity thieves. Sup­pos­edly, some 40 per­cent of all birth cer­tifi­cate thefts involve those issued from the island. The law now bars island pub­lic schools, which required an offi­cial copy of a student’s birth cer­tifi­cate, from keep­ing copies of the cer­tifi­cates. Thou­sands of schools had been bro­ken into over the last few years by identity-theft rings to steal birth cer­tifi­cates. The cer­tifi­cates sell in the states for any­where from $5,000 to $10,000 each, accord­ing to McClin­tock.
He esti­mates that some 20 mil­lion Puerto Rico-issued birth cer­tifi­cates are lying around in the files of island schools, homes, gov­ern­ment offices, camps, ath­letic leagues, etc. McClin­tock said deals have been made on the island using birth cer­tifi­cates “as legal ten­der” to buy drugs.