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Chatsworth, Calif. - (March 27, 2009) Two bills being considered in the California Legislature would pose a serious threat to the current fraud-deterrent system protecting consumers and homeowners in the state by mandating that Notaries Public accept the Matricula Consular card as proof of a signer's identity -- a foreign identification document that the FBI has called "unreliable due to the non-existence of any means of verifying the true identity of the card holder."
The Matricula Consular card is issued by the Mexican government through its consular offices to Mexican nationals who are living and working abroad. Senate Bill 461 and Assembly Bill 442 call for the statutory recognition of the Mexican Matricula Consular card as an acceptable form of identity verification for notarizations, and compel California Notaries to honor it. The California-based National Notary Association strongly opposes the legislation because it mandates that Notaries accept a document of questionable validity for notarizations that often involve highly important transactions, such as mortgage title transfers.
"Allowing acceptance of the Matricula Consular will compromise the safety and security of California consumers and undermine the credibility of the state's Notaries Public," said Timothy S. Reiniger, Executive Director of the National Notary Association. "In this era of rampant document fraud and identity theft, requirements for establishing proof of identification should be tightened rather than compromised. Senate Bill 461 and Assembly Bill 442 will not accomplish this, and more importantly, will undermine our state's efforts and recent successes in fighting mortgage fraud," added Reiniger.
While the Matricula Consular card includes a photograph and signature, it does not include a physical description of the bearer, as required by the very statute the legislation seeks to amend. This reason alone is justification for questioning the reliability of the card. Additionally, enactment of this ill-advised legislation would present a direct conflict with a 2008 California state law which stipulates that Notaries can no longer rely on "personal knowledge" of the identity of document signers, and must instead verify their identities using documented evidence that meets specific criteria.
There is simply no need to expose Californians to additional, unnecessary risk when California Civil Code already allows the use of more secure forms of identification documents for immigrants and foreign travelers, including Mexican driver's licenses and passports. California Notaries are trained and tested to accept these documents from border nations, including Canada and Mexico.
"The enactment of the legislation requires Notaries to recognize a card of proven unreliability, weakening the California notarial system that protects the public from forged real property deeds and other important documentary transactions and identity crimes. Notaries in this state must not be forced to accept a card that the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation declare is not a trustworthy identifier," said Reiniger.
The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI cite the following major deficiencies of the Matricula Consular card:
-- The government of Mexico has no centralized database to coordinate the
issuance of consular ID cards. This allows multiple cards to be issued
under the same name, the same address, or with the same photograph.
-- 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.
-- The government issues the card to anyone who can produce a Mexican
birth certificate and one other form of identity, including documents of
very low reliability. Mexican birth certificates are easy to forge and
they are a major item on the product list of the fraudulent document trade
currently flourishing across the country and around the world.
-- In some locations, when an individual seeking a Matricula Consular is
unable to produce any documents whatsoever, he or she will still be issued
a Matricula Consular card by the Mexican consular official if a
questionnaire is completed and the individual satisfies the official that
the person is who he/she purports to be.
-- The Matricula Consular card is vulnerable to forgery and 90 percent of
the estimated 2 million in circulation are simply laminated cards without
security features.
SOURCE: National Notary Association
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