The National ID Trojan Horse

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http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul235.html

The National ID Trojan Horse
by Rep. Ron Paul, MD

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a national ID bill last week that masqueraded as â??immigration reform.â?� The bill does nothing to address immigration policy, however, nor does it propose deporting a single illegal alien already in our country. It does nothing to address the porous border between the U.S. and Mexico, which is the fundamental problem. In reality, the bill is a Trojan horse. It pretends to offer desperately needed border control in order to con a credulous Congress into sacrificing more of our constitutionally protected liberty.

Supporters claim the national ID scheme is voluntary. However, any state that opts out will automatically make non-persons out of its citizens. The citizens of that state will be unable to have any dealings with the federal government because their ID will not be accepted. They will not be able to fly or to take a train. In essence, in the eyes of the federal government they will cease to exist. It is absurd to call this voluntary, and the proponents of the national ID know that every state will have no choice but to comply. Federal legislation that nationalizes standards for driversâ?? licenses and birth certificates creates a national ID system pure and simple.

It is just a matter of time until those who refuse to carry the new licenses will be denied the ability to drive or board an airplane. Such domestic travel restrictions are the hallmark of authoritarian states, not free republics.

This bill establishes a huge, centrally-coordinated database of highly personal information about American citizens: at a minimum their name, date of birth, place of residence, Social Security number, and physical and possibly other characteristics. The bill even provides for this sensitive information of American citizens to be shared with Canada and Mexico! Imagine a corrupt Mexican official selling thousands of identity files, including Social Security numbers, to criminals!

This legislation gives authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to expand required information on driversâ?? licenses, potentially including such biometric information as retina scans, finger prints, DNA information, and even Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) radio tracking technology. Including such technology as RFID means the federal government, as well as the governments of Canada and Mexico, could know where American citizens are at all times.

What will this mean for us? When this new program is implemented, every time we are required to show our driversâ?? license we will, in fact, be showing a national identification card. We will be handing over a card that includes our personal and likely biometric information, information which is connected to a national and international database. This will further degrade our precious privacy, which is the hallmark of a civilized society. As Ayn Rand said, the â??Savageâ??s whole existence is public.â?�

A national ID card will have the same effect as gun control laws: criminals will ignore it, while law abiding people lose freedom. A national ID card offers us nothing more than a false sense of security, while moving us ever closer to a police state. The national ID proposal should die a well-deserved death in the Senate, and it should be denounced as authoritarian and anti-American.

February 15, 2005

Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.

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Identity Crisis: â??Real ID Actâ?? does little to halt terrorism
February 15,2005
The Monitor View
http://www.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=5695&Section=Opinion

The so-called "Real ID Act" that the House of Representatives approved last week would allow the head of Homeland Security to disregard any law, without judicial review, in the course of building fences along the border. No person in government can be trusted with such unlimited power.

But thatâ??s not the only thing wrong with HR 418, which addresses immigration policy, the issuance of driverâ??s licenses and criteria for asylum from oppressive countries, all in the name of preventing terrorism. Unfortunately, while the bill would be a giant step toward a national ID card and a broad, easily searchable database on citizens, it would do little to prevent terrorist acts â?? and probably wouldnâ??t limit illegal immigration much.

Like other crises, the 9/11 terrorist attacks were followed by a flurry of discussion about whether it would be necessary to trade liberty for security â?? indeed, many answered the question affirmatively without even weighing counter-arguments and moved quickly to consider just how much and what kind of liberty Americans would have to sacrifice.

But liberty vs. security is a false dichotomy. A free society will of necessity be vulnerable to attacks by fanatics, especially those willing to kill themselves in the process of hurting others. But absolute security is an illusion, even in a maximum-security prison or a police state.

Is a totalitarian society really more secure for individual citizens? Did subjects of the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany feel more secure â?? even from foreign attack â?? than citizens of the relatively free United States? And which systems are now on the ash heap of history?

Free societies are vulnerable in some ways, but remarkably resilient in the long run, in part because freedom allows flexibility and adaptation from the bottom up, rather than from the top down.

HR 418 would impose numerous top-down changes. It would require states to adhere to federal standards when issuing driverâ??s licenses, and to issue them only to those who can prove they are in the country legally. It would establish a national database of information â?? not confined to driving records â?? on American citizens, which would be shared with Canada and Mexico.

Since it would cut off federal funds to states that didnâ??t go along, this would be tantamount to establishing a national ID card. It could then be used â?? and misused â?? in other ways. Gun Owners of America, for example, fears "this will give the BATF the expanded ability to impose even greater forms of gun control" since a driverâ??s license is needed to purchase a gun from a dealer.

It is true that some of the 9/11 hijackers had driverâ??s licenses acquired when they were in the country illegally. But most of the hijackers were in the country legally. This bill would not deter future potential terrorists with that same status. It does nothing about the millions of people already in the country illegally. Instead, it further invades the privacy of all American citizens.

The impulse was understandable. The mechanism â?? requiring a federally standardized driverâ??s license to board airplanes and enter federal facilities â?? could even be justified. On balance, however, the bill would be a huge imposition on every American citizen that would buy little or nothing in the way of security.

The Senate is considered unlikely to approve this bill. Thatâ??s good. The House needs to go back and come up with something less bludgeon-like.