April 14, 2010

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Re: Oppose Schumer/Graham Biometric National ID Proposal within Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Dear Representative:

Papers, please:

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.

Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- State agencies would be forbidden from further compliance with the federal Real ID Act under a measure the Utah House approved Thursday.

[...]

Opponents call the act an unfunded mandate that tramples on states' rights. A slew of states have already passed laws and resolutions saying they won't comply with any portion of it.

One of the most troubling aspects of the bills is the individual mandate. Instead of merely reforming the system to make it easier to buy health insurance or even extend the government health care coverage to more people, Congress seems intent to initiate a National ID under the guise of health care reform.

Full Article-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/j-bradley-jansen/health-care-reform-as-a-b_b_400725.html

Congress appears increasingly unlikely to repeal a sweeping driver's license law by the end of the year, which may force the Homeland Security Department to grant blanket waivers to states unable or unwilling to issue licenses that meet federal security standards.

Without the waivers or a congressional repeal, the Real ID law goes into effect Jan. 1. Officials across the country fear that would set off a situation that could include a requirement that tens of thousands of airline passengers go through secondary screening at airports every day.

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The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing yesterday on the REAL ID Act and the REAL ID revival bill, known as PASS ID. I attended and want to share with you some highlights.

Good News!

Little good came from the hearing, as it was primarily focused on how to get the states and people to accept a national ID. But there is some good news.

First, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declared REAL ID dead (much as I did in my testimony two-plus years ago). “DOA” is how she referred to it.

I’ve written about PASS ID here a couple of times before - first on whether or not it’s a national ID [1] and, second, on the politics of this REAL ID revival bill [2]. Now I’ll take a look at whether it fixes the privacy issues with REAL ID. Privacy is complicated. Buckle up.

The day the bill [3] was introduced, the Center for Democracy and Technology issued a press release [4] giving it a privacy stamp of approval.