The quiet assimilation of the undocumented

That's the city manager's recipe for democracy in Arvin, one of 12 California towns where more than half of the adult residents aren't American citizens. When Arvin needed to update its noise ordinances, it decided participation, not citizenship, should rule the day.

The Central Valley agricultural town, population about 14,000, held a community meeting -- with snacks. The city officials asked a DJ to play music and measured the loudness with a decibel meter. When it came time to decide what noise level ought to be allowed, no one was asked, "Are you a citizen?"

"We asked them to raise their hands and their vote was counted," said Arvin's city manager, Enrique Medina Ochoa. The results went to the City Council for consideration.

It was remarkable: Without a fuss or a massive new federal law, Arvin did what it had to do so that a majority of the townspeople could participate in governing themselves.

That simple show of hands is just one way, and Arvin is just one place, where local, state and even some federal officials do their best to accommodate nearly 11 million undocumented residents as they live and work below the radar of the nation's lawmakers but in full view of their neighbors. In many communities, everyday life makes it clear that nothing is accomplished by pitting citizens against noncitizens. Instead, the quality of life is dependent on everyone, with papers or without, getting along.

"What has happened is [that] that type of legal distinction is inconsequential," said Joaquin Avila, a voting rights expert and a law professor at Seattle University who first noted the phenomenon of California cities with majority noncitizen voting populations. "Many of these communities are [economically] dependent on these noncitizens, so they have to take measures to make sure that they are integrated."

That means there are plenty of accountants advertising help with impuesto, or taxes, as the undocumented line up to file their returns with taxpayer identification numbers, a creation of the Internal Revenue Service that lets taxes get paid without the need for a citizen's Social Security number. That means banks, retail stores and some government agencies accept a Mexican-government issued identification card, the matricula consular, as good enough to open accounts, establish credit and get services, as this newspaper reported recently.