ACTION ALERTFebruary 8, 2005
Are the terrorists winning? When al-Qaeda attacked the United States on September 11, 2001, they made it clear they hate America and want to terrorize us into changing America.
If they could, the terrorists would destroy the unique American way of life. But they can't. Only we can do that.
Tragically, too much of the legislation enacted by Congress in a knee-jerk reaction to 9/11 does al-Qaeda's job for them. The Patriot Act took the first, disastrous step toward fundamentally changing our way of life. Then came the homeland security bill, followed by the 9/11 intelligence reorganization bill. And now the Real ID Act of 2005 (H.R. 418) will be voted on Thursday, February 10th.
What's wrong with H.R. 418 -- a bill we are told will stem the flow of illegal aliens through our porous borders? For starters,
it does NOTHING to stem the flow of illegal aliens. Instead, H.R. 418 will:
1. Establish a
national ID card.
2. Establish a
federally-coordinated database of personal information on American citizens with Canada and Mexico.
3. Use the new national ID to
track American citizens when traveling outside theU.S. -- and within the U.S.
4. Re-define "terrorism" in broad new terms that could include members of firearms rights and anti-abortion groups or other such groups as determined by whoever is in power at the time.
5. Authorize the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to
unilaterally expand the information included in driver's licenses, including such biometric information as retina scans and DNA information -- and even radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking technology. Carry a drivers license with RFID and governmental officials will know your whereabouts 24/7.
Incredibly, H.R. 418 does nothing to solve the growing threat to national security posed by people who are already in the U.S. illegally. Instead, H.R. 418 states what we already know: that certain people here illegally are "deportable." But it does nothing to mandate deportation. H.R. 418 fails miserably on this most critical issue.
The Real ID Act or Real National ID Act will impose a Soviet-style internal passport on law-abiding American citizens. Proponents of H.R. 418 say we must "make sacrifices" like this to control our borders and fight illegal immigration. But H.R. 418 is a Trojan horse -- it pretends to offer desperately needed border control in order to stampede Americans into sacrificing what is uniquely American: more of our constitutionally protected liberty. H.R. 418 does what al-Qaeda could never do without our help.
H.R. 418 does what legislation restricting firearm ownership does.
It punishes law-abiding citizens. Criminals will ignore it. H.R. 418 offers us a false sense of greater security at the cost of taking a gigantic step toward making America a police state. The terrorists will have won.
Urge your U.S. representative to vote "no" on H.R. 418. Go to
http://capwiz.com/liberty/issues/alert/?alertid=6938731&type=COKent Snyder
The Liberty Committee
http://www.thelibertycommittee.org
