National ID Card Legislation - Passing through Congress

The legislation moving through the Senate and House with provisions for a backdoor National ID card.

From the article, "Opponents say, however, the House provision goes a step further and creates a tri-national identification card by requiring states to create and share databases among themselves and with Mexico and Canada." This is related to the Driver License Agreement as presented by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). In the House Bill HR10, states will be REQUIRED to participate in the DLA. It is not optional but mandatory if the state wants its driver's license to be recognized.

Information like traffic tickets would be not only be shared between the US states but also with Canada and Mexico as well. Think of the rogue cop you had a run in with in Mexico can cause you grief when you get home. The AAMVA would eventually want to hook up with the EU as well. Sounds ridiculous now but it will come. This would have sounded ridiculous even back in 1996. The AAMVA has been working on the DLA for about 10 years as mentioned on their web site. Who is the AAMVA ? It is an organization composing of not only your DMV people but also law enforcement executives as well. It is an International Organization based in Virginia by the DC area who happens to be represented by Congressman Thomas Davis, one of the writers of HR10 and the other writer is Candice Miller who use to be Secretary of State of Michigan which oversees motor vehicle functions.

The Senate Version already passed but without the obnoxious DLA requirement but it is still bad ! (thanks to RINO McCain and Lieberman)

"If done right, the only hope to stop voter fraud and hiring of illegals.

I surely agree regardless of the sentiments of most on FR. I fail to see the hazard. We already have and use a SS# and we have yet to find anyone refusing SS benefits because of "lack of privacy or government intrusion."

With varying levels of security one could easily use a national identity card to encode one's medical history and medications, criminal background check, level of scrutiny for foreign travel on airplanes and so forth and so on.

Presumably, the people that oppose this are sincere in their conviction that the government will snoop in their personal matters; however, when it comes to driving a car, getting social security benefits, Medicare and so on they soon lose this fear of scrutiny.

In order to implement a national identification card, perhaps we could make it voluntary. All those who want to die because their medical records are ensconsed in a number of medical offices in a number of states could do so. Those of us who wanted to vote without challenge, drive without challenge and fly without challenge could then do so.

I can see some benefits to some of the proposals. If you are American and are caught speeding in Canada, you can throw your ticket in the trash. There is no way for Canadian authorities to go after the payment of fines once you are back in the U.S. Same thing for Canadians in the U.S. THe difference is that Canadians are expected to pay their fine up front and not in the mail if they get caught in the U.S. Not so in Canada. Plus, nationals of one country in the other have no penalties on their drivers liscenses for traffic infractions from other countries. You could drive like crazy when in an other country and your state DMV will never know you broke the law and your insurance company will never find out. A system that permits the sharing of traffic violation information and fines would be a good thing, IMHO.

I can only understand doing this for a MAJOR violation like DUI but not for speeding. You could get picked up for speeding even if you were doing the legal speed limit because the cop stopped the wrong car. What about the time and inconvenience of taking time off from work to fight a traffic ticket many, many miles away in order to keep points off and and keep it away from the insurance company ? I would much prefer that the guilty get away than for innocent to get punished which has been a basis of US law until recent time. Also, it is well known that out of state motorists are favored to be stopped and ticketed over in-state motorists even if the out-of-state motorists was driving slower than traffic.

In Mexico, you may not have any recourse or due process if you got a ticket there. If you got a speeding ticket in Baja California, I don't see any problem that you have to pay the fine to Baja Ca, get points there (if they have such a system) and possibly face license suspension there but it should not affect your drivers license at home. In fact some states will open such a point file on a non-resident driver if that driver is convicted of an offense. A non-resident like an out of state college student could accumulate points out of state and possibly be suspended in that given state as well as problems at home.

I got a minor speeding ticket in Wisconsin back in July. It was an expensive ticket - $156 even for 1 mph over. WI does not belong to any interstate compacts and the state trooper even mentioned that I could blow off the ticket but my license would be suspended in WI. However, I have to renew my license here in Colorado next year and the CO Dept. of Revenue (our DMV) would run my name and DOB on the National Driver Registry (NDR) and get a hit in WI if I blew off the ticket. I also inquired with them if they would take action if WI sends a note that I blew off the ticket and I am suspended up there. The response from CO is they would pull my license here until business in WI is taken care of.

In response to: I can see some benefits to some of the proposals. If you are American and are caught speeding in Canada, you can throw your ticket in the trash. There is no way for Canadian authorities to go after the payment of fines once you are back in the U.S. Same thing for Canadians in the U.S. THe difference is that Canadians are expected to pay their fine up front and not in the mail if they get caught in the U.S. Not so in Canada. Plus, nationals of one country in the other have no penalties on their drivers liscenses for traffic infractions from other countries. You could drive like crazy when in an other country and your state DMV will never know you broke the law and your insurance company will never find out. A system that permits the sharing of traffic violation information and fines would be a good thing, IMHO.

I'm in favor of developing and implementing a scannable social security card system containing embedded digital information and image(s) that can be electronically compared online to national databases which could help reduce fraud, and the linking of those card ID's to state DMV licenses and voter registrations. By making the SSI cards scannable and verifiable online, this would remove many of the excuses felon employers and illegal employees now use to circumvent our immigration code and reduce many of those claims of ignorance which complicates their successful prosecution.

It could also help reduce chances of identity theft, thus providing consumers added domestic security from those with malicious intent.

This system would also be valuable international security in the information offshoring craze taking place where consumers' personal information is being widely and freely distributed among countries and entities not subject to U.S. courts' jurisdiction.

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