New York Mayor Bill de Blasio launched a new program giving illegal immigrants free access to the city’s zoo, its museums, and other attractions in order to cajole them into signing up for a new city-wide ID program that would allow them to rent apartment, get city assistance, and other things.
Among other attractions, the city is opening the Bronx Zoo, the New York City Ballet, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Carnegie Hall for an entire year.
In June, the city council approved of a new municipal ID program that is intended to allow illegals access to schools, libraries, and public services at a cost of $8.4 million for fiscal 2014 and $5.6 million each year thereafter.
“The municipal ID is more than just a card — it provides New Yorkers who are currently living in the shadows with dignity and peace of mind. My administration is fully ready to develop this plan,” de Blasio said when the program passed in an overwhelming 43 to 3 vote.
The card was also set up to allow a “choice” of gender allowing transgendered people to “self-identify.”
“Trans people and undocumented people have a lot of crossover and commonalities,” <a href="said Sasha Buchert, an operative of the Transgender Law Center in Oakland, Calif. “Many of us have to live in the shadows as well.”
According to Reuters, New York joins such cities as Los Angeles and New Haven, Connecticut with municipal ID card programs.
“New York’s ID cards,” Reuters reported, “can be obtained with a foreign birth certificate, driver’s license or proof of residence such as a utility bill. The cards will include the holder’s photo, name, date of birth and address along with an expiration date.”
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