The John Birch Society :: Truth Freedom Leadership

ARTICLE SYNOPSIS:

Department of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff is threatening states that don’t care to comply with the Real ID Act passed in 2005 with increased domestic traveling restrictions for their citizens.

Follow this link to the original source: "Federal ID plan raises privacy concerns"

COMMENTARY:

In a real show of defiance, more than half the nation’s states have passed or proposed legislation opposing the Real ID plan in some way or another. This plan requires issuing new federal driver’s licenses for all drivers by the year 2013, and would link state driver’s license databases in one huge federal database.

In response to state opposition, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has issued a threat saying that the Real ID cards would be mandatory for all "federal purposes," when it comes to domestic traveling in order to coerce these rebellious states into complying. "Federal purposes" include boarding an airplane, walking into a federal building or nuclear facility, or picnicking at one’s favorite national park.

In a speech last week to the National Conference of State Legislatures in Boston, Chertoff said citizens in states that don’t comply with the new rules will have to use passports for federal purposes. "This is not a mandate. A state doesn’t have to do this, but if the state doesn’t have – at the end of the day, at the end of the deadline – Real ID-compliant licenses then the state cannot expect that those licenses will be accepted for federal purposes."

Chertoff went on to say that the cards are essential to national security because there are presently 8,000 types of identification accepted to enter the United States. "For terrorists," he said, "travel documents are like weapons." "It is simply unreasonable to expect our border inspectors to be able to detect forgeries on documents that range from baptismal certificates from small towns in Texas to cards that purport to reflect citizenship privileges in a province somewhere in Canada," he said. Of course it’s unreasonable for border inspectors to accept over 8,000 types of ID – those suspected of faked or forged documents shouldn’t be allowed into our country in the first place. But he’s really not talking about people from Texas or Canada. Chertoff’s proposed rules are meant for law-abiding American citizens who are already here, not for those who are trying to enter the United States surreptitiously.

Since when has boarding an airplane on a commercial airliner become a "federal purpose?" When is going on a picnic on land that supposedly belongs to all taxpayers a "federal purpose?" Is visiting a nuclear power plant, owned by a private company also a "federal purpose?"

Because the Real ID Act falls under Department of Homeland Security, there is literally no legislative oversight – DHS assumes total control. This is a direct frontal assault on our civil liberties and on states’ rights as well, and an early indication of just how far Chertoff and his cohorts will go in order to make Americans surrender their liberties in exchange for a false sense of security.