“This Is My ID”: Co-Constructing an ID Responsive to the Intersectional Lived Context of Undocumented, Unhoused, Transgender, and/or Previously Incarcerated Communities.

Kalamazoo County is a mid-sized county located in Michigan in the U.S. Midwest. Since 20__ it has issued identification cards through a process that takes into consideration the multiple factors that prevent access from state-issued documentation. This intersectional approach sets it apart from other locally-based initiatives that primarily focused on undocumented migrants who otherwise fulfilled normative expectations. Throughout a number of County Commission meetings, proponents listed contact with law enforcement, picking up children from school, opening banks accounts, and picking up medication as everyday activities that may require official documentation. Furthermore, they described how communities are prevented from accessing a state-issued ID due to their immigration status, lack of stable housing, inability to procure documents to prove their identity, and/or holding an identity that is inconsistent with that listed in documents. Although such populations are often described as resisting the imposition of being treated as marginal, disposable, or surplus, there is little work focused on intersectional coalition-building that considers their respective vulnerabilities. Utilizing interview and archival data collected across a six-year study, I describe a movement that foregrounded the needs of undocumented, unhoused, elderly, transgender, and previously incarcerated communities to co-construct the Kalamazoo County ID, in Michigan. Specifically, I argue that the concepts of access, safety, and utility served as foundational pillars to ensure a card that was responsive to the local context.