Only on ABC-7: Update on potential municipal ID

learned the city of el paso could start issuing i-d cards to undocumented immigrants. it’s meant to help those without unidentifiable documents. so what’s the hold-up? you’ll see this only on abc-7… reporter maria garcia is live tonight … research shows it’ll cost nearly a million bucks to start the program. and the deputy city manager leading the research – has retired – so we wanted to know what’s next? 08:27:04 “obviously we see this issue of the upfront cost as a hurdle and that’s why we’ve been working on it.” since the border network for human rights presented a petition asking city council to start a municipal id program. robert heyman says they’ve since learned it’d cost about 800-thousand dollars to get the program off the ground – so they’re trying to get private partners to minimize the hit to taxpayers. i don’t think we have a firm commitment yet. We’ve been talking to people and we have some distinct interest in helping to do that. 08:35:31 They say timing is everything and financially it’s a tough time for El Paso. Just a couple weeks ago, the City Manager told the Council the City of El Paso is not bringing in enough money to cover it’s costs.” 08:26:1 for taxpayers who say $800,000 that’s a lot of money. 08:28:38 I’m optimistic that we can minimize the expense, minimize the impact on taxpayers but i mean at a certain point government exists to provide services to the public and it takes money to do that. We’re not talking about a business. government has the responsibility to be good stewards of public tax dollars. Right but with a municipal id card, this allows people access to it. It’s an extension to provide an essential service. heyman says undocumented immigrants pay sales and property taxes, too. i requested an interview with the city to see why it’s taken so long to finish researching the topic. but i did