Alongside the flood of anti-national ID comments that hit the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) this week, there's some other good news in the fight to stop the REAL ID Act.
- The states' rebellion against this unfunded mandate continues to thrive, as Colorado became the eighth state to officially reject REAL ID.
- The Wall Street Journal (sub. required) thoroughly criticized this "de facto national ID card decree" in an opinion piece. Along with highlighting the privacy concerns, the WSJ argues:
"Real ID was always more about harassing Mexican illegals than stopping Islamic terrorists...For unexplained reasons, immigration
restrictionists are convinced that preventing illegal aliens from
obtaining drivers licenses will result in fewer illegal aliens, rather
than merely more unlicensed and uninsured motorists. Mr. Sensenbrenner
attached Real ID to a must-past military spending bill without hearings
or much debate, and Mr. Bush made the mistake of signing it." - It also seems that Congress is starting to get the message, as the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing focusing on the privacy and civil liberties concerns raised by the Act on Tuesday. Security expert Bruce Schneier clearly explained to the committee that:
"Real ID is another lousy security trade-off. The last cost estimate I saw was $20 billion?and that makes unrealistic assumptions about IT projects being able to stay in budget?and we won?t get much security in return. My recommendation is to scrap REAL ID altogether. For the price, we?re not getting anywhere near the security we should."
We need your help to keep the momentum going. Visit our Action Center and tell Congress to repeal REAL ID now.