Rights Fall as the Real Id. Act Passes House
OCA, and nearly every other civil rights advocacy group, opposed passage of the act.
A bill introduced by Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), purporting to contain several provisions aimed at closing perceived loopholes in the current immigration system that facilitate terrorist travel within the United States has passed despite flaws.
1. Imposes federal rules on state drivers' licenses and mandates states conform to a standard that includes a ban
on licenses to undocumented immigrants. This challenges states' rights to define how and who they license as
drivers.
2. Differentiates licenses depending on immigration status, but provides for no training for training of state employees
in immigration law.
3. Links states databases and increases the opportunities for large scale identity theft.
4. Makes it nearly impossible for people to apply for political asylum.
5. Deports non-citizens, including legal permanent immigrants and their families (who may be citizens by reason of
birth), who cannot prove that they did not knowingly support, e.g. contribute charitable aid to terrorists or terrorist
organizations who may not have been even identified as such after the donation was made.
6. Bypasses judicial review and allows people to be deported before they can have a federal court review their case.
7. Tightens U.S. border security by giving Homeland security rights that supercede individual property rights and due
process and environmental concerns.
8. Empowers bounty hunters to hunt, arrest and detain anyone they suppose might be an illegal immigrant-read that
persons who are not obviously of European extraction.
Supporters of the law contend the act addresses important security problems, but the measure is really aimed at controlling immigration and making it more difficult for immigrants to open a bank account, buy a house, rent or buy a car, or board a train or plane.
Previous attempts to pass similar legislation aimed at creating some form of national identity card, here and abroad had been soundly criticized for making identity theft even more enticing. Yet this bill proceeds to ignore those objections without any mitigating efforts.
According to the New York Times, when the bill was first proposed four bipartisan senators: Republicans John E. Sununu of New Hampshire and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, and Democrats Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois. They sent a letter to Senate majority leader, Bill Frist. They had said, "By repealing a provision enacting a central recommendation of the 9/11 commission, in favor of unworkably rigid federal mandates… it would jeopardize an initiative that can make the nation safer from terrorist attack."
This law should have left a number political dead bodies in its wake, but, sadly, there are none to be seen. Our government seems bent on safety even at the expense of state and individual rights. Again the lawyers will win since this law will certainly be challenged in the courts.
© 2005 OCA-Greater Seattle
OCA - GREATER SEATTLE CHAPTER