Brooklyn, N.Y. – Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke released the following statement on the New York City Council’s vote today to issue municipal identification cards that will allow Americans who currently lack legal status to access critical services at city agencies and school buildings. There are more than half of million people in New York City who lack legal status.

To obtain a municipal identification card, individuals will have to demonstrate both their identity (for example, with a foreign birth certificate) and their residency in New York City (for example with a utility bill or a paycheck).

“I commend the members of the New York City Council, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, and Mayor Bill de Blasio on this initiative, which will allow parents to visit their children’s schools, families to access services that are available to them, and prevent people stopped by the police from spending a night in jail only because they could not provide proper identification,” said Congresswoman Clarke. “As has historically occurred on other issues of civil rights, New York City has been a leader in supporting the full participation of its people in their society. I urge my colleagues in Congress to remember this example in developing a program of comprehensive immigration reform that establishes the personal dignity of each individual person and protects their right to due process under law.”

U.S. Representative Yvette D. Clarke is a member of the House Committee on Small Business, Ethics, and Homeland Security, where she is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies. She represents many neighborhoods in central and southern Brooklyn, NY which include Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Gerritsen Beach, Madison, Midwood, parts of Park Slope and Flatlands, Prospect Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Sheepshead Bay, and Windsor Terrace.