(BBC News) – July will mark a fresh beginning for Puerto Ricans – literally – as the government of the US territory begins issuing new birth certificates in an attempt to tackle identity theft.
Existing birth certificates for Puerto Rico’s 3.9 million inhabitants – and the estimated 1.4 million citizens who live on the US mainland – will be invalid from 30 September.
Criminal gangs have targeted Puerto Rico because anyone born there is a US citizen from birth, and the certificates can be used to make fraudulent US passport applications.
Faustino Fuentes School on Puerto Rico’s eastern coastline has an idyllic setting, between the lush green hills of the national park and the azure blue of the Caribbean Sea.
There are a few tourists, but otherwise life is usually quiet.
The calm was shattered three years ago when identity thieves broke in and stole the birth certificates and other documents of 105 pupils here.
The criminals were after the children’s birth certificates, which they knew they could sell on the black market for up to $10,000 (£6,600).
After a series of school burglaries across Puerto Rico in 2007, including the raid on Faustino Fuentes, the FBI discovered that up to 12,000 Puerto Ricans were the victims of an identity theft ring.
Puerto Rico has been a US territory since the Americans captured it from the Spanish in 1898, and people born here are American citizens.
A US Department of State study found that 40% of fraudulent American passport applications made with birth certificates involved documents from Puerto Rico.
So after pressure from the US, Puerto Rico’s legislators voted to invalidate all the old birth certificates and issue the new, secure ones starting on 1 July.
“Most of the people that are seeking quickie US citizenship are people with Hispanic names and Hispanic surnames,” said Kenneth McClintock, Puerto Rico’s Secretary of State.
“And most of the birth certificates issued in Puerto Rico are to people with Hispanic surnames.”
A second reason for the huge black market was the way Puerto Rican organisations, from schools to junior sports clubs, asked for birth certificates as proof of identity and kept them on file.
