Politics & Government
'Mexican Government Pop-Up Office' Will Open In NYC On Saturday To Help Immigrants
The secret office will help immigrants obtain copies of their birth certificate — while wiping away any trace they were there to begin with.
NEW YORK, NY — The Mexican Government will open a "pop-up office" in New York City on Saturday, May 13, to help immigrants obtain free copies of their birth certificate.
The location of the pop-up, though, will only be made available for people who sign up through the Sunset Park office of City Councilman Carlos Menchaca, the first Mexican-American elected to public office in New York.
And at the end of the day's activities, all of the computers at the location will be "wiped clean" to remove any potentially identifying information, Menchaca's office said.
Find out what's happening in Sunset Parkfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
"Mexican immigrants in New York will welcome ready access to vital records like birth certificates," said Menchaca, whose district includes Sunset Park, Greenwood Heights and Red Hook, in a press release. "The documents provided at the City of Mexico’s pop-up office will help Mexican residents get the identification, employment, and immigration documents that they need to stay safe and secure in the homes they have made here in New York City."
The pop-up office will open with the help of the City of Mexico, the immigrants rights group Iniciativa Ciudad de Mexico and Menchaca's office.
Find out what's happening in Sunset Parkfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Anyone interested can register at Menchaca's office; and the location of the pop-up office will be revealed Friday afternoon.
"To best serve and protect the identities of those who want to take this opportunity to obtain a certified copy of their birth certificates, we are choosing not reveal the location of the City of Mexico’s first ever pop-up office in the United States until Friday," Eddie Borges, spokesman for the New York City-based Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, said in the release.
The protections don't stop there.
Google is loaning Chromebook computers to the office and "by late Saturday afternoon, the Chromebook’s will be wiped clean to remove any and all identifying information of visitors to the pop-up office," the release says.
It adds: "No records will be created or maintained in the United States that these birth certificates have been requested or provided."
For more information, contact Menchaca's office at (718) 439-9012.
Image by Marc Torrence, Patch Staff
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.