Elm City Resident Card
The Elm City Resident Card is an identification (ID) card used in New Haven, Connecticut in the United States. The card was originally designed to protect the estimated 10,000 to 15,000 undocumented immigrants in New Haven from being robbed or assaulted. All city residents can receive the card, which serves as a form of identification, debit card with a capacity of $150, library card, and a way to pay for parking meters. The cards were first issued in July 2007, and were the first municipal identification cards issued in the United States. The card costs $5 for children or $10 for adults. Background Illegal immigration, especially from Mexico and other Latin American countries, has been a controversial political issue in the US for many years. Undocumented immigrants in New Haven were often targets of robbery, and sometimes murder because they were less likely to go to police due to their immigration status. It is also harder for undocumented immigrants to get bank accounts, causing some to carry around larger sums of cash. New Haven has historically had a favorable policy toward immigrants. In December 2006, the New Haven police instituted a policy of not asking crime victims or witnesses about