Depending on what your news source is, you may have read that there are new guidelines for driver’s licenses, or you may have read that immigration laws have been tweaked. Believe it or not, this is the same bit of legislation. You can read the bill here.
During this discussion, I will overlook the fundamental difference between a “drivers license,” whose purpose is to show that one is a competent driver, and an “identification card,” whose purpose is to verify the identity of the bearer. Many if not most people use a drivers license as an identification card, but that does not make them synonymous. There are many people who, for whatever reason, need to be identifiable and yet do not drive.
Now, I don’t think anyone would disagree that an identification card should include certain basic bits of information: name, date-of-birth, address, a picture. Since it will be used to verify identity, it makes perfect sense to verify that the applicant is who he says he is. It is also, frankly, in everyone’s interest to make identity documents difficult to forge or falsify. This bill goes beyond that.
This bill wants your state DMV to check your Social Security number against SSA files, digitize your picture, put a scanned image of your birth certificate and immigration papers and social security card and who knows what other information in a digitized database forever, and make your complete driving record available to every other DMV in the country. Your state has the option of refusing to comply with these standards, but if they do not only will your state lose all it’s interstate highway funds; you and every citizen of your state will not be able to use your “non-compliant” drivers license for federal identification purposes, including boarding an airplane.
Rather inconvenient.
But wait, there’s more. The stated purpose of this bill is to close the loopholes under which the 9/11 boys were able to get “legitimate” identification. This here is an anti-terrorism bill, and it’s unAmerican to be against anti-terrorism. And since we all know that all terrorists are foreigners — except for McVeigh, and the Unabomber, and Krar, and let’s just not talk about the Earth Liberation Front or the cornucopia of other homegrown radical violent groups — this bill deals harshly on immigration issues. Illegal immigrants will not be able to get compliant identification at all (no problem, they shouldn’t be here). There will be new rules on amnesty and political asylum: “Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader, said the bill ‘targets legitimate victims of persecution – innocent people under threat of torture or death for their religious beliefs’ and ‘unconstitutionally forbids federal judges from hearing asylum cases involving real threats of torture.'”
But wait! There’s a special bonus in section 102. “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary’s sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section…. Notwithstanding any other provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), no court shall have jurisdiction to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1); or to order compensatory, declaratory, injunctive, equitable, or any other relief for damage alleged to arise from any such action or decision.”
Maybe my legalese is rusty, but that sounds like it can be reduced to “The DHS has the right to do whatever it wants, and the courts have no authority to stop them or even charge them a fine.” DHS wants to fill the Rio Grande with acid? Fine. DHS wants to erect a giant replica of the Berlin Wall on the border with Canada? Great. DHS wants to clear-cut a forest so illegal aliens can’t use the trees for cover? Alrighty then.
As long as you are planning to write your Senator, you might want to read this set of articles: How to owe $40K by doing nothing, and Tighter Bankruptcy Law Favored, 2005 dance mix.