Evelin Quen couldn’t prove who she was and that meant she couldn’t sign her little brother out of school when he was sick.
Brought to the U.S. from Mexico as a toddler 17 years ago, Quen recounted frustrating episodes as an undocumented person, addressing Orange County commissioners this week as the board discussed a program to offer local photo IDs for people without one.
“I know that I’m not alone in my experiences,” she said. “A Community ID would have been enough to sign him out.”
The picture ID cards, available in an increasing number of cities and counties, would help people prove they live in Orange County, Florida, making them eligible to access county facilities and services like getting a library card or applying for rental assistance.
“Community IDs are needed by individuals experiencing housing instability, victims of domestic violence, the elderly, children in foster care, individuals seeking a name change or gender marker and refugee families,” said Orange County Commissioner Nicole Wilson, who initiated the board discussion.
The IDs wouldn’t allow people to vote, drive or travel in and out of the U.S. but they would be “a form of relief for thousands of Orange County residents who can’t get a state ID or Florida driver’s license,” said Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet, executive director of the Hope CommUnity Center.
The Apopka-based, not-for-profit organization provides services for immigrants and Central Florida’s working poor.
“Lack of access to a Florida ID can be dehumanizing,” said Sousa-Lazaballet, who came to the U.S. from Brazil at 14. “Not having an ID makes it really hard to do simple things like picking up your kid from school or visiting someone at the hospital or trying to open a bank account.”
“This for us is a lifesaver to feel that we are recognized, to feel we are human, to feel we are part of the community.”
Hope CommUnity Center has offered to serve as program administrator for a community ID program, a role filled by legal-aid groups in South Florida and a human-rights group in Gainesville. Sousa-Lazaballet has enlisted support for the IDs from a dozen community leaders, including Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, two school board members and Orange County Sheriff John Mina.
Thousands of people living in Orlando and Orange County lack simple forms of ID, Dyer said.
“This presents unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles to the unhoused, undocumented, returning citizens, the elderly, the precariously housed, the very poor and others,” he wrote. “A Community ID would offer cardholders a reliable form of identification that could be used by law enforcement, county and municipal departments, health centers, schools, businesses, cultural organizations, and social services agencies to better identify and serve all residents.”
School Board member Melissa Byrd said IDs would benefit children.
“The filter by which I make all my decisions as a school board member is asking ‘Is this good for kids?’ ” Byrd wrote. “A community ID program would absolutely be good for all our children because when a child’s parents feel welcome and a part of the school community or community, they can better support their children.”
While open to the concept, commissioners raised concerns about what information would appear on the ID, how card applicants can prove what they claim and how to convince organizations that require identification to accept nongovernment-issued cards.
Commissioner Emily Bonilla worried the cards wouldn’t be trusted without Orange County’s logo stamped on it.
“I’m just wondering … someone can be like, ‘Oh, you made this at home kind of thing,’ ” she said. “I just like it to look a little bit more official, I guess. So people take it more seriously.”
But Commissioner Victoria Siplin said the county should be careful about lending its name to a third-party ID.
Following their discussion Tuesday morning, Orange County commissioners agreed by consensus to direct county staff to study other ID programs, including how they are funded, for further board review next year. Mayor Jerry Demings was absent from Tuesday’s meeting because of a death in his family.
ID-card programs began in 2013 as an initiative of FaithAction International House, a North Carolina-based collective of nonprofits and faith groups that advocate for and serve immigrants. Its website describes the IDs as “a verifiable form of identification that can be used as a tool by law enforcement, health centers, schools, nonprofits, businesses, and cultural arts organizations to better identify, serve, and protect” the card-holders.
FaithAction has issued about 30,000 ID cards through its program, which is used as a model for others.
“The program has had tremendous success in some cities in Florida,” spokesperson Jasiel Bernal Muñoz said in an email.
Community IDs are used in Alachua, Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, some partially funded by public money.
In Gainesville, the Human Rights Coalition of Alachua County has issued about 1,000 IDs with funding from the city and county.
Program coordinator Veronica Robleto said IDs helped some immigrants prove residency to get COVID-19 tests and vaccines.
“The ID not only identifies you but identifies you as a community member who lives and works here,” she said.
Legal Aid groups run programs in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
“It is largely for undocumented people but it could be for everybody,” said Vanessa Coe, a lawyer and program coordinator for the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, which has issued about 4,200 IDs since launching in 2019. “We’ve had plenty of snowbirds and others — people who have been in house fires [and lost their ID], people like that who also need an ID to just get by temporarily.”
Coe said the program was not universally embraced.
“It was very political,” she said. “I’d say almost all the opposition came from the same old rhetoric that you’ve heard about everything that has to do with Brown people, which is, ‘My parents came here the right way. Why can’t they?’ Or, ‘I don’t want to give away a driver’s license to undocumented people,’ which is not, of course, what we’re doing. ‘How do we know they’re not criminals?'”
The city of West Palm Beach provided the program with a start-up grant of $45,000.
Legal Aid charges $20 for an ID. Palm Beach County provided $75,000 in funding last year.
Miami-Dade County set aside $200,000 for Branches, a not-for-profit group, to administer an ID program.
“This is a long-awaited solution for many of our residents who do not have an ID card that could make their lives easier on a daily basis,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in February after county commissioners approved an ID plan the board previously rejected. “Creating a community ID card not only gives access to basic services to residents who have been left out for not having a driver’s license, but it also makes our community safer by fostering a better relationship between the police and the community.”
In a letter to Orange County commissioners, Mina said he met with Sousa-Lazaballet and endorses the idea.
“Some of those who could benefit from this program include our residents who are experiencing homelessness, undocumented immigrants or transgender individuals just to name a few,” he wrote. “The safety of our residents and visitors is our top priority and the implementation of a Community Identification program aligns with that mission.”
shudak@orlandosentinel.com
