The NYC Council’s woke majority passed legislation this week making it simpler for illegal migrants to score already-easy-to-get, city-issued residency ID cards for free benefits — in a move one critic slammed as “legislating against [President] Trump.”
Brooklyn Democratic socialist Shahana Hanif’s bill requires the Department of Social Services to make IDNYC photo-ID cards more accessible, including allowing walk-in appointments at designated centers in each borough and implementing an appeal process for rare cases where applicants are denied.
The Council voted 39-7 in favor of the measure Wednesday.
Critics slammed the bill as nothing more than a direct slap at Donald Trump’s ongoing crackdown on criminal migrants.
“At a time of rising migrant crime and national security threats, it’s reckless — and it just seems like we’re legislating against Trump rather than doing what’s right for New Yorkers,” said Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens).
“The Access to IDNYC Act guarantees dignity for every New Yorker, especially as federal policies target our transgender, non-binary, and immigrant communities,” said Hanif.
Illegal migrants and others can show more than 120 types of IDs, including expired foreign passports and driver’s licenses, or other papers to obtain an IDNYC card. Applications are rarely rejected and demand is rising.
The city issued cards to 183,682 — or 91.4% — of 200,922 applicants during the fiscal year ending June 30, according to the annual Mayor’s Management Report released in January. From July through October, it issued another 64,265 cards, up 14% from the same period a year earlier.
Former-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration first offered the cards in 2015 to help migrants more easily access free healthcare in city public hospitals, open bank accounts, sign leases and enroll in school, among other things. More than 2.3 million cards have been issued since then, records show.
The IDNYC program is “essentially government-sanctioned fraud” to “obtained taxpayer-funded benefits, ” insisted Council Minority Leader Joann Ariola (R-Queens).
“We should scrap this program and incentivize them to go through the proper, lawful process of obtaining citizenship,” said Ariola.
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