Heres my email to the reporter for the Maine REAL ID story I linked: Mr. Hench, I read your article on REAL ID in Maine (Maine may pay price for resisting REAL ID requirement) and have commented on it extensively. I do so for any story involving REAL ID so as to raise public awareness of the problems with REAL ID. I am a retired Florida trooper that worked a number of driver license fraud cases and also ID theft and fugitive cases. I as responsible for the capture of one of Floridas most-wanted fugitives inn 2003. I did so w/o the use of any facial recognition or other things as required by REAL ID. I used standard resolution driver license and department of corrections photos. In 2010 after retirement, I formed the citizen group Floridians Against REAL ID. I have authored and lobbied for legislation in Florida to modify or repeal the law at the state level. It has failed to pass each year, often due to legislator misinformation, DMV support, and citizen apathy. Some legislators are fearful that so-called federal money will be cut if they refuse REAL ID. In fact, two such bills were attempted after REAL IDs 2005 passage- to restrict federal highway funds if a state failed to comply. Both bills failed. Here are some things I did not see mentioned in the story: REAL ID could not be enacted as a standalone bill (HR 418 of 2005). It had to be hidden in a defense and Tsunami relief bill (HR 1268) that was certain to pass. Former president W. Bush signed it into law on May 11, 2005. On May 12 in his signing statement, he failed to mention REAL ID, which gives the appearance he did not know it was in there. The First Amendment clearly states that Congress shall make no law that abridges (restricts) our right to seek redress of our grievances with our government, be it the IRS building or the patent office. Requiring a national ID card to do so is a violation as it abridges that right. There are currently two bills in Congress to repeal REAL ID. They originate from Montanas delegation, which is one Democrat and one Republican. Also, Montanas former Governor Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, strongly opposed REAL ID. He has written to Congress that Montana has refused it and would refuse again. The state databases are required to be linked to each other, however, there is no reference in the REAL ID law to a federal tie-in. Since the federal government can access certain state data, it is likely they would be able to access this database as well. One thing working ID theft cases taught me is that placing all documents into a single database is less secure than having them in five databases. It is truly one-stop hacking for criminals. Government data breaches are unfortunately all too common, as are cases of corrupt employees selling data or services. The 10th Amendment reserves only those powers specified in the Constitution (generally Article 1 Section 8) to Congress, the rest unless prohibited to the states are reserved to the states, or to the people. State driver licenses are just that- state licenses. Congress cannot legally have any say in the matter. Common doges used by those attempting to circumvent the 10th Amendment include interstate commerce and general welfare. State driver licenses are not interstate commerce since no money crosses a state line in order to obtain one. They are sold and made in the state. General welfare refers to the welfare of the nation. A national ID card cannot be proved to be good for the general welfare when one looks at things such as the (pro-REAL ID) Heritage Foundations May 2011 report on 39 failed terror plots. Not one of these plots was stopped by or would have been stopped by REAL ID. They were stopped by alert citizens and our law enforcement officers performing their duties in a constitutional manner. The REAL ID law creates terrible hardships for women. If they have been married, widowed, or divorced and changed their name, they must obtain costly certified documents often from a distant official from many years ago. The majority of people that write to me are women complaining about not being able to renew the driver license theyve held for in some cases over 50 years. The REAL ID law removes state-level residential address protections for active and retired law enforcement officers and other in the public safety field. It also does so for domestic violence victims that under state law can use an alternate address. These laws came to be due to things such as prosecutor Eugene Berry in Labelle, FL being gunned down at his home by a woman whose husband he was prosecuting. There are in fact four official purposes for REAL ID in the law. You mentioned three of them, the fourth one is and any other purposes that the Secretary shall determine. This gives the unelected DHS secretary unlimited authority with which to require a national ID card. Right now it is flight on commercial aircraft, entry into federal buildings (a violation of the First Amendment), and entry into nuclear plants. Tomorrow it could be any number of things you and I do on a regular basis. The way the law is written, this would be completely legal, as the secretary can do so for any other purposes. Resistance to this law has indeed been from across the political spectrum. The first group to oppose it here in Florida was the Spacecoast Progressive Alliance. Since that time, Tea Party groups have opposed it as well. In Pennsylvania, a mixed legislature passed a bill to ban it and a Republican Governor signed the law. Ohio had enacted the law, however it was reported in December 2013, they had administratively withdrawn from it due to privacy concerns. REAL ID was an anti-terrorist law and a knee-jerk reaction to the 9/11/01 attacks on the US. Title 2 (the state driver license part) is being misused by fear mongers (such as the CIS you cited in your story) in the battle against illegal immigration- and I do not support illegal immigration. The reason the 19 middle eastern males got into our country to be able to attack us was due to incompetent federal consular and border screeners. This is documented in the same 9/11 commission report that was used to justify REAL ID, but no one seems to notice that part. My site, which contains years of information on REAL ID, is linked below. If youd like more information, please contact me. Thank you, Paul Henry pressherald/2014/08/27/maine-pays-price-for-resisting-real-id/
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 05:04:20 +0000
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