NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio Headed to Jail for Issuing Fake IDs- Mostly Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
New York City Mayor Bill De blasio is headed to jail for supplying fake IDs to illegal or undocumented immigrants.
The Truth:
Reports that NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio is headed to jail for issuing fake IDs to illegal immigrants are false.
The rumor appears to have started at the Conservative Daily Post website with a story that appeared under the clickbait headline “NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio Headed to Jail for Supplying Fake IDs” that doesn’t actually back up that claim.
Instead, the article argues in favor of voter ID laws and concludes that De Blasio has “problems” with the Trump Administration over a New York law that supposedly supplied “fake” IDs “to illegals” that will now be destroyed to avoid prosecution under a Republican president:
Let’s take stock: not only is De Blasio and much of the New York political establishment guilty of potentially thousands of felony counts for issuing these I.D.’s, but they will be guilty of thousands more if they destroy them! A classic catch-22.
Not surprisingly, the NYC City Council member who wrote the illegal I.D. law, Carlos Menchaca, has admitted that the law was written to allow for the destruction of the I.D.s (even though allowing that is illegal). “Protecting it from a possible Republican president was just one of the reasons” for the provision to destroy the I.D.’s, Menchaca said.
This is a devastating admission by Menchaca [email him], because it provides evidence of intent in any investigation. The new Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, “now has all the evidence he needs to charge NYC and its employees with multiple violations of Federal law.”
Again, that doesn’t back up the article’s “breaking” claim that De Blasio is “headed to jail.” And the article used a 2013 photo of De Blasio getting arrested for civil disobedience while protesting with a nurses union to further mislead readers.
The article refers to New York City’s IDNYC program. DeBlasio launched the initiative, which allows all New Yorkers over the age of 14 to apply for an ID card, in 2015. The card can be used to access city programs and services, and in interactions with police:
IDNYC is the new, free identification card for all New York City residents, which gives all of us the opportunity to show who we are—New Yorkers. As a government-issued photo identification card, IDNYC secures the peace of mind and access to City services that come from having recognized identification. IDNYC benefits every city resident, including the most vulnerable communities—the homeless, youth, the elderly, undocumented immigrants, the formerly incarcerated and others who may have difficulty obtaining other government-issued ID.
IDNYC cardholders can access services and programs offered by the City as well as by businesses. IDNYC helps enhance public safety, by serving as a recognized ID for interacting with NYPD. It also helps New Yorkers gain access to all City buildings that provide services to the public and is accepted as a form of identification for accessing numerous City programs and services. IDNYC also provides a dynamic series of benefits to cardholders, including a free one-year membership at many of the City’s leading museums, zoos, concert halls, and botanical gardens.
The idea that New York City officials could erase or destroy data from the IDNYC program emerged after President-elect Donald Trump won the presidency on a platform that promised to deport millions of illegal immigrants.
Fox News reported that New York City officials were considering erasing data over concerns that it would make it easier for the federal government to track down and deport illegal immigrants who registered:
Alberto Saldivia got his “IDNYC” card this year after spending 15 years in the country without legal authorization.
“It did cause me considerable concern, because they have my information, also the information of my son,” the 53-year-old Mexico native said through an interpreter.
But he felt reassured when Mayor Bill de Blasio said last week that the city would “absolutely” safeguard cardholders’ identities. De Blasio, a Democrat, said officials would assess whether to delete the personal records, a provision that was built into the program partly over concerns about the possible election of a Republican president such as Trump, whose campaign promises included a vow to deport millions of people in the U.S. illegally.
Municipal ID programs began in 2007 in New Haven, Conn., and have expanded to about 10 cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. New York’s program is the most ambitious, with more than 800,000 cardholders, many of them U.S. citizens or legal residents.
So claims made in the Conservative Daily Post article are at least grounded in fact. But there’s been no indication that there’s anything criminal about De Blasio’s ID program, and he definitely is not currently “headed to jail” as the article claims. That’s why we’re calling this one mostly fiction.