Real ID Done Deal

Well, nice to see that we have no say in our own country on anything.

House, Senate May Have Immigration Deal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050502/ap_on_go_co/immigration&printer=1

By SUZANNE GAMBOA, Associated Press WriterMon May 2, 7:25 PM ET

Senate negotiators on Monday accepted a House plan to make states verify that driver's license applicants are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants but softened House-proposed changes in asylum laws.

The immigration measures are part of a bill to pay for continuing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still unresolved was how much more money to spend on border security.

Congressional aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said negotiators are still apart on provisions that would devote $4 million each to a Fire Science Academy in Elko, Nev., and environment cleanup of a former Energy Department site in New Mexico.

Also in dispute was about $600 million in the Senate version of the bill to hire 1,000 new border patrol officers and other immigration agents and provide 2,000 new beds for detainees.

Tentative deals have been reached to provide roughly $75 billion for defense-related costs and construction of a new U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

It's a pain to have to carry both a driver's license *and* a Perm. Resident Card.

Why couldn't you use a driverse licenses as your id card? Wouldn't that be enough to prove you're a legal citizen? Or are we all going to have to have ID cards?

to prove you are a legal immigrant. A driver's license won't do because if you can still get a driver's license even if you are not born here.

Let's say a worker on an H1-B visa is working in states... he'll need a car, and thus a driver's license. When his H1-B expires and he has not become a citizen, he's now illegal, but still may have a valid driver's license.

There are plenty of other types of temporary visa's that you can get a driver's license on. I don't see the Real ID as necessarily bad as more of an inconvenience to citizens to prove they really are citizens. This company is running rampant with illegal immigrants and it makes it bad for all immigrants who want to do the right thing.

Hope you are well.

Sorry its crummy news, but what can you expect these days with ** and Co.!

Hope you feel great and hang in there -- we need you!

:hug: :hi: :hug: :hi: :hug: :hi:

Glad to see you're back, but I share your dismay that Real ID is going through. It's a completely bad piece of legislation.
I noticed a couple of items today and I wonder if some of them might chip away at some of Real ID, so we can reduce the harm from it.
One is that Kennedy and McCain are working together on a bill regarding immigration. Maybe some of what is done in that can offset some of the worst anti-immigrant parts of Real ID. The news I've seen on this is limited. You may be able to find out more from your sources on it.
In California, state legislation is being introduced to limit RFID use in ID cards. Although Real ID doesn't specify RFID's, it does call for security measures to be placed in the licenses and cards and many people think this will likely be RFID's. : http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,67382,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1

Of course, these actions won't begin to make a dent in the harm this onerous bill will do, but at least we can try to support anything that will limit or alter it.

This was my fight. I mean I tried to move heaven and earth to get someone to first read it and then to not pass it. The point is and the sad truth is, no has read it. Ask anyone about Real ID in Congress and they will tell you it has something to do with borders and drivers licenses. That is all they know. And Lou Dobbs pushed this thing as though it was the cure for cancer. I take this very personally.

It was so funny, John (my editor and friend) wanted to tell me after I got home from evil hospital trip. But he could not figure out how and he was afraid that I would see the headline on Raw. So finally, he just sent the link with no comments. He did not know what to say. And other journalists called me with condolences. That is how much this fight meant to me. I am very discouraged and very angry.

If you read this monstrosity of a bill, it can only appear to be one thing: control via "buildings" used for "workers" and without any accountability to rule of law or the Judiciary. It also allows for you to be tried retroactively for something you did that was legal at the time of its doing. So "buildings" for "workers" and no "prohibitions" against age of worker or even citizenship as well as "retroactive arrests". What does this sound like to you? To me it sounds like a camp bill.

I became aware of this in February when I was becoming suspicious as to why more restrictive voter ID bills were being so strongly pushed in so many states. I stumbled onto Real ID during a search and noticed that Sensenbrenner was behind this. At the same time, one of the most restrictive voter ID bills was being pushed in his home state of Wisconsin, trying to limit voter ID to exactly (and only) the same state ID and driver's license cards that now will be federalized.
I posted on this in February in the 2004 Election forum and have kept my eye out for threads and news on it since - difficult since it would surface, then it would be hard to find info other than that it was in committee. The more closely I read it, and I read it quite a few times, the more I found that was bad about it. It's police state legislation. As I became aware of the different aspects, I posted about them in my own threads or to other's.
I talked to people about it as well. Some responded and contacted Reps and Senators as I had, but most didn't. I don't know if it's that they didn't want to believe it's that bad or if they think everything's already that bad, so how could this be worse. Maybe a bit of both.
It's been discouraging and disheartening.

Conyers tried so hard on this, but even he thinks it's a done deal:
http://www.conyersblog.us/
From his blog on Tuesday, May 3rd, 2005:

Anti-Immigration Provisions to Hit House Floor This Thursday

Last time I heard, President Bush was trumpeting himself as a pro-immigrant compassionate conservative. So you may, or may not, be surprised to learn that the White House helped draft and push the most anti-immigrant legislation in memory, with the text attached to the must-pass war supplemental. The New York Times has a story on it.

The provisions are atrocious. I have previously penned an editorial on this and noted in my blog. But the bottom line, is the bill will pave the way for a national id system, make it harder for victims of persecution to gain asylum, limit judicial review of immigration cases, and authorize the unilateral violation of environmental and other laws in order to build fences around our nation. The Republicans came up with this idea all on their own, and simply stuffed it into a supplemental spending bill. I will fight it on the floor, but I'm afraid that the fix may be in on this one. Some way to legislate.

Maybe once it's passed, people will wake up and fight it piece by piece. I'm sitting here shaking my head in dismay and disgust, but I will keep fighting. I must and you must as well. What other choice do we have?