Sean Mariano Garcia | 06.05.2005 09:52

This Wednesday, we got final language from the House and Senate negotiators working on the Iraqi War Funding bill regarding their decisions on REAL ID. By and large, they adopted REAL ID in its
entirety.

REAL ID now provides the Secretary of Homeland Security with the Authority to waive any legal regulation that would impede the construction of border barriers, fences, or roads. This construction would only be contestable in the courts on constitutional grounds.

With this bill, we are not only seeing the steamrolling over 30 years of environmental regulations, but also the assurance that more people will die crossing the border thanks to the US's failed trade policies.

While this is a blow to everyone in favor
of improving the lives of immigrants in the US, and
for border communities in particular, we did get
some small concessions that improve the final
version - but only slightly. The House of
Represenatives voted to accept this language last
night, and the Senate is expected to follow suit at
the beginning of next week. The President has
indicated he will sign the bill into law.

I do want to thank everyone who made phone calls and
spoke with their congressional offices to voice
opposition to this bill. Without such outcries, it
is unlikely that we would have even gotten the
concessions that appeared in the final version of
the bill. And though this is a disheartening
result, this fight over REAL ID has just served as
Act I in the larger debate over immigration reform -
we may have lost the battle, but we can still win
the war! As I write this, we are preparing to see
the release of the first serious immigration reform
bill presented in the Senate by Senators McCain
(R-AZ), and Kennedy (D-MA). We are expecting
introduction of this bill in the next two weeks.
While we hope there will be alot to like about this
bill, we are not expecting it to be perfect, so
there will be work to be done to make sure that it
continues to evolve in a favorable way.

One of the most important things that communities
and individuals can do at this point in time is to
express their outrage that the Congress steamrolled
REAL ID through to final passage. I'm going to
quote a colleague at the American Friends Service
Committee about appropriate reactions:

* Create noise against the REAL ID provisions that
pass. Those Congressional members who supported REAL
ID should know that their positions were not
acceptable. While DC people are usually the ones who
want to highlight the positive and stay away from
criticizing members of Congress, one DC person said
today that, with REAL ID, it is time for communities
to voice their discontent. While our communities>
have felt this for some time, it shows how bad the
climate is that a DC person feels this way also.
* For now, consider neither supporting nor opposing
the McCain-Kennedy bill. (This will be very
contentious as some groups will support and some
groups won't.) Instead, use the introduction of the
bill as an opportunity for immigrant communities to
present their vision of immigration reform.
Highlight specific portions of the bill that
communities agree with and specific portions of the
bill that communities oppose, rather than simply
saying "we support" or "we oppose" the entire bill.
* Use the bill as yet another opportunity for
community forums. Consider the introduction of the
bill as part of a process to continue to raise
community awareness and to create a better bill
(through future amendments, etc.).

We will continue to provide you with more
information about the McCain-Kennedy bill in the
future. In the meantime, I'm going to provide you
with a quick overview of what passed in the REAL ID
bill, and where we won our small victories.


Fencing Provisions: REAL ID now provides the
Secretary of Homeland Security with the Authority to
waive any legal regulation that would impede the
construction of border barriers, fences, or roads.
This construction would only be contestable in the
courts on constitutional grounds.

While this is pretty regressive, we did win a few
small victories here. First, the original bill that
passed the House required the Secretary of Homeland
Security to waive all laws that would impede
construction. Making this a discretionary waiver
basically transfers the already existing
discretionary waiver authority that the President
has always had to the Secretary of Homeland
Security. The original version also barred all>
court challenges to construction. While the
construction cannot be challenged because it breaks
laws (regardless of whether they are laws that were
waived or not), it does allow for challenges to
constitutional rights. This does provide some
avenues for us, but less than we would like.

Asylum Provisions: There are new, severe
restrictions on people seeking asylum in the US.
They will be required to show a greater degree of
evidence, and the bill includes new, overly-broad
reasons for denial of asylum in an attempt to
prevent terrorists from seeking political asylum.
The bill does increase the caps on the number of
people who can seek asylum, which is a positive step
forward. But the new regulations will make it more
difficult for them to qualify.

Again, there were a few small victories for asylum
seekers. First, the requirement that the
requirement that a person seeking asylum in one of
the currently established 5 protected categories
(race, religion, ethnicity, political affiliation,
or membership in a particular social group) be the
"central motive" of their request has been softened
to be "at least one central motive." The
requirement that asylees provide documentation of
their persecution has been softened to "unless the
applicant does not have the evidence and cannot
reasonably obtain the evidence." Finally, the
original version of the bill would have allowed for
an asylum seeker to be deported back to their home
country while their case was still in appeals. The
final version strikes that provision, and is a
significant victory for asylees.

Drivers License Provisions: Unfortunately, there
were no significant modifications to the new drivers
license provisions in REAL ID. These provisions
will have a significant impact on US citizens as
well as on immigrants. They provide for new federal
standards for the issuance of drivers licenses. They
will require anyone going to get or renew a driver's
license to provide proof of citizenship or legal
immigration status. In some cases, this will
require an applicant to show up to four pieces of
ID. For foreign nationals, only a passport will be
accepted as proof of identiy and date of birth.
There are new criteria for the design of driver's
licenses that are set to federal standards. In the
case that a state does not meet all these
requirements, it must state that on the ID, making
it invalid for use as identification for any federal
purpose, including boarding an airplane. These
provisions will also create a nationally centered
database that contains all the information
individuals submit to receive a driver's license.

There are a few other minor sections of REAL ID, but
few that have such broad scope. The only one worth
mentioning to border activists is that there is a
provision requiring the Border Patrol to conduct a
study of how to better use technology to secure the
border. It requires the Border Patrol to conduct
the study and then submit proposals for how to
better use technology within a year of the bill
passing - not necessarily a bad provision in an of
itself, but in the hands of the Border Patrol, it
could become an invitation to further militarize the
border.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news as the weekend
kicks off, but I encourage all of you to think how
you can convert your anger and frustration into
community activism that will create positive change
as we look forward to the next fight on
McCain-Kennedy.

Best regards - Sean

thank God 4 people like u...there is HOPE 29.05.2005 02:26 As it saddens me that our government continues closing doors on mothers that need to drive their children to school, the doctor, the scout meeting or the soccer game for that matter, I will never apply to be "inked" and oficially become known as "legal to drive, ilegal for everything else". My five children and I will have to continue taking chances everytime we go anywhere in the car. God has and will continue being with us. I've waited twenty years, I'll wait my turn as "the next door neighbor"...literally one of those republicans that cry, whine and complain about people like me. They do however, have gardeners, a cook a nanny, and a driver that speak, look, and sound just like me. Again, thank God for people like you Sean. Continue being my voice...our voice an independent immigrant mother e-mail:: happyfostermom@sbcglobal.net Unfortunately.... 03.06.2005 16:24 ...it was the complete lack of border security that drove the market for cheap labor. I guess we can thank Bush and his big buisness buddies for that fuck-up. Joshua