BILL ANALYSIS
AB 442
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 442 (Arambula)
As Amended April 1, 2009
Majority vote
JUDICIARY 6-3
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|Ayes:|Feuer, Brownley, Evans, | | |
| |Jones, Lieu, Monning | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Tran, Knight, Nielsen | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Adds the Matricula Consular de Alta Seguridad (MCAS or
Matricula Consular), an identification card issued by the Mexican
government, to the list of documents that notaries public may accept
as proof of a person's identity for the purpose of acknowledging a
written instrument. Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes a notary public to take acknowledgment of a written
instrument in reasonable reliance upon the presentation of a
Matricula Consular by the person making the acknowledgment, as
satisfactory evidence that person is the same individual described
in and executing the instrument.
2)Requires that the notary public may only reasonably rely upon
presentation of a Matricula Consular if it is current or has been
issued within the past five years.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS : This bill seeks to authorize notaries public to
reasonably rely on presentation of a Matricula Consular, a personal
identification card issued by the Mexican government through its
consulate offices, to establish the identity of a person attempting
to have a document notarized. The Matricula Consular means "High
Security Consular Registration Document" in English and serves as
the official record for Mexican citizens living outside of Mexico.
The bill permits the notary public to accept the Matricula Consular
only if it is current or has been issued within the past five years.
According to the author:
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Lack of identification prevents individuals from accessing
many services, including having their documents notarized.
Powers of Attorney, general or living wills, grant deeds,
and all documents to be recorded require notarization. It
is critical that people can identify themselves for
notarization purposes. Documents that are notarized add
verification and authenticity that the people who signed a
document are who they say they are. Additionally,
notarized documents protect families from litigation and
fraud, and help families preserve what is lawfully theirs.
Supporters emphasize that this bill will help solve the problem
faced by certain individuals who cannot get documents notarized
because of the lack of acceptable identification under current law
governing notaries public. For example, Gilbert Zavalas, a notary
public in Fresno, writes that, on an almost daily basis, he has to
turn away people from having their documents notarized because their
only available form of identification is the Matricula Consular.
The California Catholic Conference also writes that allowing
notaries to accept the Matricula Consular as a form of
identification will help facilitate oaths, documents, and sworn
statements of citizens of Mexican nationality. The Central Valley
Partnership for Citizenship (CVP) concurs, stating that it is
critical to permit the Matricula Consular to be accepted for
notarization because it would help people access vital services that
require notarization on documents.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME) writes in support of the bill because it would help ease
the current housing market crisis, stating:
When selling or buying properties or real estate, it is
important to know who you are selling to or buying from.
What is not necessary is blocking someone with a
government issued identification card from the ability to
buy real estate in California. This bill would free up
the real estate market in a time when home sales are
exceptionally low.
Although this bill pertains only to use of the Matricula Consular to
establish one's identity for the purpose of having a document
notarized, supporters of the bill accurately point out that the
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Matricula Consular is already recognized in California as valid
identification for some local governmental purposes. For example,
in some jurisdictions the Matricula Consular can be used to identify
oneself to law enforcement agencies, to apply for public utilities,
and to identify oneself at schools and public libraries as a parent
or user. In 2003, at least 12 counties, 25 cities, and dozens of
police and sheriff's departments in California were accepting the
Matricula Consular as a form of identification. (Senate Floor
Analysis of AB 25 (N??ez), of 2003-04, dated 8/27/2003.)
Anecdotal evidence indicates increasing acceptance of the Matricula
Consular by United States (U.S.) banking institutions for the
purpose of opening new accounts. According to figures provided by
the Mexican Consulate, as of July 2004, over 175 banks in the U.S.
accepted the Matricula Consular as a form of identification. The
trend includes banks in California. On March 24, 2009, the City of
Los Angeles announced a new program to help at least 10,000
low-income households open bank accounts every year. Banks
participating in the program, including Bank of America and
Citibank, will not require new applicants to produce a Social
Security number and will accept other forms of recognized
identification, including the Matricula Consular. ("Program Aims to
Help Low-Income Angelenos Open Bank Accounts," Los Angeles Times,
March 24, 2009.)
The National Notary Association (NNA), a non-profit professional
association of notaries public, is strongly opposed to this bill
because of security concerns, stating:
The enactment of this legislation would require Notaries
to recognize a card of proven unreliability, . . . will
compromise the safety and security of California
consumers, and undermine the credibility of the state's
Notaries Public. Notaries in this state must not be
forced to accept a card that the U.S. Department of
Justice and the FBI declare is not a trustworthy
identifier.
The NNA then cites government research that concluded the following:
1)The Mexican government has no centralized database to coordinate
the issuance of consular ID cards to prevent multiple cards from
being issued with the same name, address, or photograph;
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2)The Mexican government has no interconnected databases to provide
inter-consular communication to be able to verify who has or has
not applied for or received a consular ID card;
3)The Matricula Consular card is vulnerable to forgery and 90% of
the estimated two million in circulation are simply laminated
cards without security features. (Testimony of Steve McCraw,
Assistant Director of the Office of Intelligence, FBI, before U.S.
House Judiciary Subcommittee on June 26, 2003 (See
http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress03/ mccraw062603.htm).)
The author and supporters of the bill acknowledge that security
concerns surrounding the Matricula Consular are indeed important.
To address some of the specific concerns raised by FBI
representative McCraw's 2003 testimony, the author has provided
materials published by the Consulate of Mexico in July 2007, that
reflect recent procedural safeguards and improved security features
of the Matricula Consular card. These materials state:
1)The Mexican government has developed a national database in which
consulates can verify if there are homonyms and if the applicant
has previously received a Matricula Consular.
2)The consulates also check the applicant's identity against a
Mexican government "stop list" containing approximately 13,000
records of persons who are not allowed to obtain documents issued
by the Mexican government.
3)All Matricula Consulares are issued for a period of five years.
As of March 2002, the MCAS incorporates cutting-edge technology,
holograms, and other embedded designs to prevent its forgery.
(Thus) by 2007, all the old matriculas will have been replaced by
the MCAS.
The materials describe, in some detail, 13 security features built
into the Matricula Consular since 2002, including technology used by
the U.S. government in its own high security documents like Visas
and FBI badges.
In short, it appears that the Mexican government has taken
substantial steps since 2002, to improve the security features of
the Matricula Consular to prevent forgery, and to implement database
procedures that safeguard against issuance of duplicate cards.
However, there remain valid concerns about the documents that
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applicants may submit to consulate offices to verify their
identification when applying for a Matricula Consular, particularly
if these supporting documents are easily forged or if the
identification of the person named upon them cannot be independently
and reliably verified.
According to the author, the bill would result in more business to
notaries. Notaries public would be trained to properly accept the
Matricula Consular via the mandatory course required under current
law (Government Code Section 8201). The course examination would
certify that notaries public are aware of all new or modified laws
and regulations affecting their practice, including regulations on
the Matricula Consular.
Analysis Prepared by : Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916) 319-2334
FN: 0000235