July 10, 2015

Mayor Emanuel Announces Municipal ID Working Group

New Working Group Will Explore the Creation of a Municipal ID Program That Can Be Used to Benefit All of Chicago Residents, Regardless of Immigration Status, Homeless Status, or Gender Identify

Mayor's Press Office    312.744.3334

Mayor Rahm Emanuel today announced the formation of a Working Group that will explore whether to create a Municipal ID program that can be used to connect Chicago residents with City services, programs, and benefits, regardless of immigration status, homeless status, or gender identify. The first Municipal ID Working Group meeting will take place on Friday, July 10, 2015, and the Working Group will submit recommendations by September.

“My goal is to make sure that every resident in Chicago feels welcome and included, and we will never be satisfied until the benefits that the City provides are felt in every corner of our City,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “This working group will explore the creation of a Municipal ID program with the goal of increasing the quality and reliability of City services, making it easier for all Chicago residents to navigate the resources and programs available to them no matter what neighborhood they live in or where they come from.”

The Working Group will develop recommendations that will focus on increasing access to services for underserved communities. The Mayor asked that the group study other Municipal ID programs pursued by other cities, as well as provide feedback regarding the services that are most utilized and needed by Chicago residents and community-based organizations that serve the immigrant, homeless, LGBTQ, and other populations across the city.

The members of the Municipal ID Working Group include:

1. Sol Flores, La Casa Norte
2. Clemencia Garnica, City Colleges of Chicago Student
3. Nakisha Hobbs, Village Leadership Academy
4. Alie Kabba, United African Organization
5. Reema Kapur, South Asian American Policy & Research Institute
6. Victor Lagroon, City of Chicago Advisory Council on Veterans
7. Anthony Lowery, Safer Foundation
8. Ernesto Martinez, Illinois Secretary of State
9. Mary Meg McCarthy, National Immigrant Justice Center
10. Dennis Mondero, Chinese Mutual Aid Association
11. Theresa Paucar, Office of Representative Luis V. Gutierrez
12. Maria Pesqueira, Mujeres Latinas en Accion
13. Eva Prokop, Polish American Association
14. Sylvia Puente, Latino Policy Forum
15. Julio Rodriguez, The Association of Latinos/as Motivating Action
16. Juan Salgado, Instituto Del Progreso Latino
17. Aaron Siebert-Llera, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Foundation
18. Fred Tsao, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Since taking office, Mayor Emanuel has launched a series of initiatives that improve the immigrant community’s access to services, including developing the City’s first Language Access Ordinance, ensuring that immigrants and limited-English-proficient residents have meaningful access to City services, resources, and programs in the top five language spoken in Chicago; working with Congressman Luis Gutierrez and the IL is Ready Campaign to assist as many people as possible in taking advantage of President Obama’s Administrative Relief; launching the Cities for Citizenship Campaign with Mayors of New York City and Los Angeles and securing $250,000 in funding from Citi Community Development to fund community-based organizations that will provide naturalization workshops at Chicago Public Library branches; and investing $325,000 in funding for immigrant-serving institutions to increase enrollment of immigrant families in early learning programs.


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