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DEL.ICIO.USBarr says the REAL ID requirement in immigration bill won’t fly
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last month, former Georgia congressman Bob Barr chastised those passing too-quick judgment on the immigration reform effort now going on in Washington.
But on Wednesday, he announced that he’d found something objectionable “hidden deep within the massive bill.”
The legislation, he said, would require use of the REAL ID — a drivers license that can serve as a national identification card, approved by Congress in 2005. States have until the end of 2009 to issue them. Barr and other civil liberty activists say a nationalized ID raises the specter of a broad invasion of privacy by the government.
But with the immigration reform bill, Barr said, the ID would become “one of only two forms of identification a U.S. citizen could use lawfully to obtain or retain employment; the only other being a passport.
Barr wants that provision out. He’s written “key members” of the Senate — i.e., Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss.
“No America citizen should have to prove to a government entity who they are in order to obtain or retain employment,” he said.
Complete statement is on the jump.
Atlanta, GA, - Former Congressman Bob Barr, who has offered general support for the Immigration Bill currently pending in the U.S. Senate, has taken strong exception to a particular section hidden deep within the massive bill that requires the use of a REAL ID.
The REAL ID Act was passed by Congress in 2005 and, once it takes full effect in two years, would mandate that all state drivers’ licenses adhere to federal standards in order to be accepted for any “federal purpose,” such as airline travel, obtaining federal benefits or access to any federal facility.
Under the provision in the immigration reform bill, a REAL ID Act-compliant driver’s license would be one of only two forms of identification a U.S. citizen could use lawfully to obtain or retain employment; the only other being a passport.
Barr has now written to key members of the U.S. Senate urging that the REAL ID Act provision in the immigration bill be removed.
For one thing, Barr said, “no America citizen should have to prove to a government entity who they are in order to obtain or retain employment.”
“In the second place,” Barr continued, “if such a provision remains, and if a job applicant is a U.S. citizen he or she should be allowed to establish that fact through any number of legitimate identification documents.
Thirdly, and most importantly, limiting the permissible forms of identification to those that are REAL ID Act-compliant is especially problematic, given the strong and legitimate concerns with what is essentially a national identification card that the REAL ID Act has engendered.”
Barr also noted that already a number of states are enacting legislation that would opt out of the REAL ID Act provisions. Finally, Barr said, “the immigration bill should not be allowed to serve as a stealth REAL ID Implementation Act.”
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By Willie
June 7, 2007 10:02 AM | Link to this
The real “Real I.D.” problem is association. With the RFID chip inside your Real I.D., your movements are trackable 24/7. If Homeland Insecurity is tracking a known terrorist and discovers that she comes to my church every Sunday and sits by me, then B.I.N.G.O. I’m a terrorist, because I MUST be associating with her, even though she is there to plot blowing the place up and happens to sit where I always sit!