The Santa Cruz Sentinel article "ID card gives immigrants more opportunity" describes a visit of the Mexican consul to Watsonville, CA to pass out Matricula Consular cards, aka "IDs for illegals." Those ID cards are only of use to illegal aliens, and the Mexican government travels between their outposts in our country passing them out to its citizens who are here illegally. The Bush administration supports the use of the cards.

The article starts out in the "standard" way, but then includes some downsides of the cards:

To the Mexican immigrant, especially the one who is in the United States illegally, the card is the key to opening bank accounts, obtaining credit with credit card companies, even paying income taxes to the U.S. government.

Yet to the state of California and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, issuing such a card is of big concern.

Not only has the card been criticized for lending legitimacy to illegal immigration in California, it has come under fire for being the end-round for terrorists in a post-9/11 era...

As pointed out at the second link above, the Bush administration fought to allow banks to accept these cards. The only official criticism has come from the FBI, the GAO, and some pro-America congressmen and other elected officials. If this article's reporter has evidence of the DHS leadership opposing the card, I'd like to see it.

"Obviously, Mexico isn't our number one concern, but open borders are always a problem, and we're not entirely convinced that the background process to determine identity and criminal background (for acquiring the national cards) are being done satisfactorily," said Gary Winuck, chief deputy director for California's Office of Homeland Security in Sacramento.

Perhaps the report is confused that agency with the federal DHS.

The fact of the matter, he said, is that the United States has no jurisdiction over the matter.

Strictly speaking, that's wrong. If a country's consulate really does something wrong, we can always ask them to leave. Of course, that's a very rare occurence. But, there's always the possibility of a formal complaint from the State Dep't to their opposite numbers. That needn't be a rare occurence, but for some reason or other the Bush administration refuses to do anything about Mexico repeatedly stepping over the line. And, a consulate passing out the cards wouldn't do it any good if they were considered to be the Mickey Mouse IDs that they are. Unfortunately, that's not the case: the Bush administration fought to allow banks to accept the cards, and the Mexican government has gone to cities throughout the land and convinced gullible, racist, corrupt, or just "liberal" local officials to accept the cards (an example from Napa).

"Whether they’re here illegally or legally, it is not our job to determine," [Jose Loreto, San Diego's deputy general consul] said.

Loreto said 70 percent of the people who apply for the card... are here illegally...