Sali seeks to delay Mexican consulate

BOISE – Rep. Bill Sali, R-Idaho, is urging Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to hold off opening a Mexican consulate in Idaho until the government can show the office won’t aid illegal aliens.

Sali, a conservative first-term congressman, sent Rice a letter Wednesday saying Idaho residents deserve guarantees that Mexican consular offices will not help illegal aliens obtain identification cards that can be used to receive government services or other benefits.

“Our government has the moral and constitutional duty to take into consideration how foreign consulates affect our fellow citizens here in our own country,” Sali wrote in the letter to Rice that was made available to news media.

“While I appreciate the important role that the Mexican and other foreign consulates play in facilitating trade and assisting their citizens in distress just as our foreign consulates do, that is not the issue at stake here,” he added.

Sali asserted that the State Department has done little to assure residents that a consular office would not be used to aid illegal immigration.

The State Department did not return phone messages from the Associated Press on Wednesday.

In March, Sali received a letter from the State Department saying an application for a consular office in Boise is pending.

Idaho is one of several states without a Mexican consulate, but a grass-roots effort to open one has been under way for several years. Supporters say they have collected about 10,000 signatures on a petition requesting a Mexican consular presence in the state.