House Approves REAL ID, Senate Action Up Next (FAIR UPDATE-WINS AND CONCESSIONS)

The House today passed by a vote of 368-58 the final conference agreement on the Emergency Appropriations Supplemental Act (H.R. 1268) with Rep. Sensenbrenner's (R-WI) REAL ID provisions largely intact. This is a major victory for homeland security and the fight against illegal immigration! These provisions will help keep driver's licenses out of the hands of illegal aliens and the terrorists among them, will close dangerous loopholes in our asylum system, and will improve border security by enabling the completion of the San Diego/Tijuana border fence.

Your continuous faxes, emails, phone calls, and personal visits since the start of this battle made possible this enormous victory! Thank you for all of your hard work.

Next week, the Senate will vote on this must-pass legislation. Once approved, it will go to President Bush for his signature.

BAN ON DRIVER'S LICENSES FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS: Under the REAL ID provisions, all states must require proof of lawful presence in the U.S. if their driver's licenses are to be accepted as a form of identification to a federal official. Boarding a commercial airplane and entering a federal building or a nuclear power plant are among the official federal purposes. Some concessions were made allowing states to issue "driving certificates" that do not meet the national requirements, but they would not be valid for official purposes. The terms of these cards would be a maximum of one year. While we oppose the issuance of these driving certificates, they will make it easy for state and local law enforcement to identify and detain illegal aliens during the course of their normal activities.

MORE DRIVER'S LICENSE SECURITY: Temporary driver's licenses issued to foreign visitors by a state must expire when the visitor's visa expires, with a maximum term of one year. Had this been in place prior to 9/11, the illegal aliens among the terrorist hijackers who overstayed their visas would not have had valid driver's licenses.

EXPEDITES COMPLETION OF U.S./MEXICO BORDER FENCE: Provides the Secretary of Homeland Security authority, subject to federal judicial review of Constitutional questions, to waive laws hampering the completion of border fences and roads for national security purposes. This will expedite completion of the border fence along the dangerous San Diego/Tijuana border.

INADMISSIBILITY AND DEPORTATION OF TERRORISTS: Ensures all terrorism-related grounds of inadmissibility to the U.S. are grounds for deportation from the U.S.

ASYLUM REFORMS: The REAL ID provisions will help weed out fraudulent asylum applications by allowing immigration judges to determine witness credibility in asylum cases.

LIMITS DEPORTATION-DELAYING APPEALS: Provides reforms to ensure the prompt removal from the U.S. of terrorists, criminal aliens, and illegal aliens after proper judicial review. Aliens order deported will no longer be able to abuse the appeals process to remain in the country.

INCREASES ENFORCEMENT AGENTS AND DETENTION SPACE: The final bill includes funding for 500 additional border patrol agents, 50 immigration and customs inspectors, 168 enforcement agents and detention officers, and 1,950 detention beds. (This funding was added by Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) during Senate floor consideration.)

MODEST CONCESSIONS WERE MADE, BUT OVERALL, STILL A BIG VICTORY! Cheap labor proponents and open-border advocates fought vigorously to make this bill a vehicle for amnesty, foreign worker increases, and other immigration liberalizing provisions. They were far from successful. With your help, we defeated Sen. Craig's massive AgJOBS amnesty/guestworker bill. Some concessions were made during negotiations and the following foreign worker increases were accepted...

H-2B SEASONAL GUESTWORKER INCREASE: The Mikulski amendment was included in the final bill, exempting H-2B seasonal guestworkers who have worked in the U.S. in the past from the 65,000 annual cap.

INCREASE FOR AUSTRALIAN WORKERS: About 10,500 Australian guestworkers will be allowed to enter the country annually under terms similar to the H-1B high-tech visa category.

Despite these modest concessions, this is still a HUGE VICTORY for the immigration reform movement!

This scares me a little. Please let me explain why before flaming me. (Please note, I stated it 'scares me'; not that I strongly oppose this).

1.) 4 Forms of ID are a little hard to get. Birth Certificate, Social Security Card, Passport and what else? A Library Card?? Visa card?

2.) It starts with a Birth Certificate; which can be forged or received from a deceased infant. Births and Deaths are not handled by the same department in every locality. From there we simply start creating a false record, applying for a Social Security card, then a passport, and finally the driver's license.

3.) Drivers Licences are not impossible to forge. One could argue that they are relatively easy to forge; and yes, they are sold in the streets in Mexico.

4.) What are we trying to accomplish here? We have open borders, police are not allowed to even ask if you are here legally.

5.) Instead of making the driver's licence more difficult to forge by adding biometrics, DNA or other information; we have been forced to stick with plastic and a photo.

Thus, other than inconveniencing the population at large; this appears to be a lot of wasted effort.

Sounds like a grey area without much difference. Kind of like the debate over civil ceremonies and marriage. All this will do is strengthen the authority of these "driving certificates" proving one step closer to handing out a license to an illegal.

If Congress had mandated that the States not give driving privileges to illegals they would have been stepping all over the Constitution because since it is not mentioned in the Constitution, this is clearly one of those rights reserved for the States. Instead, Congress has said that if you give licenses to illegals we will not accept drivers licenses from any of your citizens as Federal ID for the purposes of entering Federal Buildings or boarding aircraft (interstate commerce). They have struck a nice balance with states still having the power to do as they please, but with consequences.

There is a huge difference between allowing an illegal to drive and buy insurance with a drivers certificate that is clearly marked "not valid for identification" and giving him a drivers license which is the defacto national id and which makes him nearly indistinguishable from real citizens including making it very easy to vote.

My preference would be to deport them, but this is at least a step in the right direction. And Sensenbrenner meant it primarily as a National Security measure. Recall that several of the 9/11 Terrorists used drivers licenses to board jets.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h109-1268

ID INFO go to on and about #114 and as follows THEN VISAS in the #300 section.. Gov. Track:H.R.1268

#124
The Secretary may make grants
10 to a State to assist the State in conforming to the min-
11 imum standards set forth in this title.
12 (b) AUTHORIZATION APPROPRIATIONS.--There
OF

13 are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary for
14 each of the fiscal years 2005 through 2009 such sums as
15 may be necessary to carry out this title.

Money in there for Mercy College-Dobbs Ferry, NY, for the develop-
17 ment of a master's degree program in nursing edu-
18 cation, including marketing and recruitment activi-
19 ties'';

Money in there for:University of Iowa,
10 Iowa City, IA for the Iowa and Israel: Partners in
11 Excellence program to enhance math and science op-
12 portunities to rural Iowa students''

Money in there for: 70
1 ``(3) $14,000,000 from other funds shall be
2 transferred under the heading `Sports and Enter-
3 tainment Commission',

Money in there for: 60
1 read ``University of Alaska/Southeast in Juneau,
2 AK, working with the State of Alaska and Catholic
3 Community Services, for the Alaska System for
4 Early Education Development (SEED)'';
5 (7) the provision specifying $25,000 for QUILL
6 Productions, Inc., Aston, PA, to develop and dis-
7 seminate programs to enhance the teaching of Amer-
8 ican history shall be deemed to read ``QUILL Enter-
9 tainment Company, Aston, PA, to develop and dis-
10 seminate programs to enhance the teaching of Amer-
11 ican history'';
12 (8) the provision specifying $780,000 for City
13 of St. Charles, MO for the St. Charles Foundry Arts
14 Center in support of arts education shall be deemed
15 to read ``The Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, Mis-
16 souri for support of arts education in conjunction
17 with the City of St. Charles, MO'';
18 (9) the provision specifying $100,000 for Com-
19 munity Arts Program, Chester, PA, for arts edu-
20 cation shall be deemed to read ``Chester Economic
21 Development Authority, Chester, PA for a commu-
22 nity arts program'';
23 (10) the provision specifying $100,000 for Kids
24 with A Promise--The Bowery Mission, Bushkill, PA

Money in there for:ASSISTANCE FOR THE INDEPENDENT STATES OF THE

2 FORMER SOVIET UNION

Money in ther for: FORT PECK FISH HATCHERY, MONTANA;viability of establishing an off-channel sanctuary for the
13 Rio Grande Silvery Minnow in the Middle Rio Grande Val-
14 ley.
YUCCA MOUNTAIN

``Fairfax
18 County Public Schools, Fairfax, VA for Chinese lan-
19 guage programs in Shrevewood Elementary School
20 and Wolftrap Elementary School'';
21 (6) the provision specifying $1,250,000 for the
22 University of Alaska/Fairbanks in Fairbanks, AK,
23 working with the State of Alaska and Catholic Com-
24 munity Services, for the Alaska System for Early
25 Education Development (SEED)

That up to $5,000,000 of the funds made
7 available for assistance for the West Bank and Gaza by this
8 chapter under ``Economic Support Fund'' shall be used for
9 an outside, independent evaluation by an internationally
10 recognized accounting firm of the transparency and ac-
11 countability of Palestinian Authority accounting proce-
12 dures and an audit of expenditures by the Palestinian Au-
13 thority.

the provision specifying $50,000 for Great
4 Projects Film Company, Inc., Washington, DC, to
5 produce ``Educating America'', a documentary about
6 the challenges facing our public schools shall be
7 deemed to read ``Great Projects Film Company,
8 Inc., New York, NY, to produce `Educating Amer-
9 ica', a documentary about the challenges facing our
10 public schools'';
11 (12) the provision specifying $30,000 for Sum-
12 mer Camp Opportunities Provide an Edge
13 (SCOPE), New York, NY for YMCA Camps
14 Skycrest, Speers and Elijabar shall be deemed to
15 read ``American Camping Association for Summer
16 Camp Opportunities Provide an Edge (SCOPE),
17 New York, NY for YMCA Camps Skycrest and
18 Speers-Elijabar''; and

CHESAPEAKE BAY, SR1 BRIDGE, DELAWARE

Unrelated to national security items are tucked in between ..ENJOY!!! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

This is more unrelated inclusions..and I know I saw something about burros in here but can't find it now!!

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