“In various situations over the years, we’ve encountered plenty of fake ones,” Harris County’s Tax Assessor-Collector Don Sumners stated. “And, law enforcement officers have told us that taking it will lead to more fraudulent titles.”
Texans can use ‘matricula consular’ for vehicle titles, but only for about a year
Texas residents with a Mexican government photo identification card, called a “matricula consular,” will have one year to use their cards to register or transfer vehicle titles, a Department of Motor Vehicles’ allowance that has local officials on edge.
The new rule’s first phase, effective from Sept. 3 until Aug. 31, 2013, will mean temporary procedural overhauls at the Harris County Tax Office, which currently does not accept identification cards issued through foreign consular offices when processing title and registration applications.
“I am not in favor of accepting the matricula card as a form of identification but my office will follow the new rule of the Department of Motor Vehicles,” Harris County’s Tax Assessor-Collector Don Sumners said by email through a spokesman.
Sumners said he objects to allowing the matricula consular, in part, because its authenticity is hard to verify. Similar in size and appearance to a driver’s license, the matricula shows the bearer’s photo, birth date, address and an expiration date.
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