Oppose HR 418 (National ID)

Oppose HR 418 (National ID)

Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) | February 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 the U.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 driver's 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=CO