Real ID = National ID Card
The REAL ID Act is a national ID card scheme that was passed by Congress back in 2005. It turns drivers licenses into national ID cards. There was no debate whatsoever on REAL ID as it was tacked onto a must-pass appropriations bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
>> Browse the archive of faxes sent to Senators from this site...
Since it was passed, sixteen states have passed legislation rejecting REAL ID, making nation-wide implementation next to impossible.
So what, really, is REAL ID?
• A Multi-Billion Dollar Boondoggle.
According to Homeland Security's lowball guesstimates, it'll cost over 23 billion dollars to create this national ID card system. Almost 8 billion dollars of this will be paid by individual citizens through higher costs to obtain a REAL ID drivers license. Another 14.6 billion dollars for this is to be shouldered by the individual states.
• A Waste of Your Time.
Ready to renew your license? No matter how long you've had your drivers license, you'll have to get ahold of a Social Security Card with your full legal name on it (Married? Better fix your maiden name!), a certified copy of your birth certificate, and a ton of other documents just to renew or replace your license. Don't have them? That's your problem.
• A Boon to Criminals and Terrorists.
Once you do go through the trouble of getting your documents together, the DMV will make high-resolution digital copies and put them onto a computer network that can be accessed by any DMV worker, anywhere in the country. The data on your license or ID card will be able to be called-up by any federal or state agency, anywhere. And your information will be put in either a chip or unencrypted barcode on the back, making it easy for anyone to skim your personal information.
With so many databases sharing your information, all it takes is for one breach, anywhere in this massive data collection sharing system, and your information is out in the open, forever.
• A Back-Door National Gun Registry.
There are many states that don't respect the 2nd Amendment the way we do here in Alaska: gun registration in those states is often tied to drivers licenses. Once these state firearms databases are linked together with existing federal data systems, there begins the national gun registry. All that is then needed is to force all the pro-gun states to comply.
• A Threat to Freedom.
"Your Papers, Please" is not a phrase that sits well will freedom-loving Americans. A national ID card system flies in the face of everything we as Americans believe in. Across the country, the individual states are rising-up and saying 'no' to REAL ID. Now is the time for we citizens to stand-up for our fundamental rights and add our voice to the chorus.
What Do We Want From The Senate?
The REAL ID Act has never been debated on the US Senate floor. They've never talked about it in any committee. Heck, most of them haven't even read it! Yet they passed it unanimously, no questions asked back in 2005.
In order to make a single irresponsible Congressman with totalitarian leanings happy, the Senate leadership let him write the bill and then slipped it into a another bill, one that would keep our fighting men and women taken care of in Iraq and Afghanistan. Supporting our troops means making sure thy come home to a free nation, not a surveillance state.
The Senate Can Fix Their Mistake.
The Baucus-Tester and the Grassley-Baucus amendments to the current immigration bill making its way through the Senate will strip all REAL ID provisions from the bill. Fax your Senators and tell them to support these amendments and say 'No' to REAL ID in the Immigration Bill.
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