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CNN Saturday Morning News

Mexican Immigrants Flood Consulate for ID

Aired December 22, 2001 - 09:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Britney Spears, that's what you listen to, right?

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah; oh yeah. Listen, or look at?

PHILLIPS: Oh!

HARRIS: You've got to be specific.

PHILLIPS: I'm going to leave that one alone. Here we go. You expect long lines at the mall this time of year, right? Well, not at the Mexican consultant's office.

HARRIS: Got you.

PHILLIPS: Steve -- I'm in shock right now. It's getting a little warm. I got to call my boss.

You know what? I'm just going to go straight to this story.

Steve Fiorina from KGTV in San Diego talks about -- You better roll that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE FIORINA, KGTV, SAN DIEGO (voice-over): It's standing room only at the Mexican consulate. Where they used to handle 50 or 60 people a day, it's now double, even quadruple that. Blame it first on September 11.

The international border has been made more secure. The waits are much longer. But those crossing also have to provide better identification. So they come to the consulate for new papers, ID cards.

ALFONSO NAVARRO, CONSUL OF MEXICO: And since most of these people have expired documents since two, three, or even more years.

FIORINA: The border is a concern. So is everyday life.

VALENTINE MORALES, CITIZEN OF MEXICO: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) identity is here in the United States is -- a lot of us were not so fortunate to be a resident of the United States or to be a citizen. Some of us, a lot of these people, need some type of ID to walk around here, and it's like if you don't have no type of ID, who are you in this country? You're nobody.

FIORINA: Mexican passports and ID cards have become invaluable.

(on camera): It's not just tighter security, it's the time of year. Christmas is extremely important to the Mexican people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, best time of the year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, we're -- we all sit on the table, have a nice cooked meal, share times and see -- talk about what we've done in the last year or so, what have we accomplished, and stuff like that.

FIORINA: Those holidays will be better for these folks because of these folks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And once again, that was Steve Fiorina of CNN affiliate KGTV in San Diego.

And just to give you an idea of how this is impacting California, a federal judge in San Diego has declared an emergency on the federal bench because of the border crackdown that's yielded so many new immigration and drug cases.

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