US Cities Issue IDs to Protect Undocumented Immigrants
NOVANEWS
People wait in line to be processed for their New York City municipal ID cards January 14, 2015, at a midtown library in New York.DON EMMERT / AFP / GETTY IMAGES
BY: Liz Brazile
YES! Magazine
When Nate and his sister were children, their grandparents brought them to the US from a rural farm town in Belize. They were fleeing domestic violence: Their father was a powerful government official who often threatened them.
“We came over here legally at first,” Nate recalled. “We flew over on a plane and met my mother in Oklahoma, where she already had a home and a job.”
He and his family had visas and passports, and were cleared to set foot on US soil. But when he turned 18, his visa expired and he hadn’t been naturalized. Going back to Belize wasn’t a safe or feasi...