by Mark Lerner (May 18, 2010) Constitutional Alliance Stop Real ID Coalition
This article will detail why SB1070 threatens the liberty of all citizens. SB1070 is the symptom of a disease threatening all citizens. The federal government has and is failing on several fronts including dealing with illegal immigration.
The states and specifically the state of Arizona is the victim of a knee jerk reaction to the federal government’s failures. This article will put SB1070 in the context of what the federal government wants which is any and all information about each citizen. In this article you will read about an alternative solution to SB1070 and federal laws including the Real ID Act 2005. Keep in mind that information is power and currently only the federal government is collecting information. The information the federal government is collecting is your information and it is being shared with international law enforcement agencies and foreign governments at the discretion of the federal government.
The purpose of SB1070 is to identify people in our country, specifically Arizona, illegally and insure those people are sent back to their country of origin.
It is time to consider the following facts:
F. Except as provided in federal law, officials or agencies of this state and counties, cities, towns and other political subdivisions of this state may not be prohibited or in any way be restricted from sending, receiving or maintaining information relating to the immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual or exchanging that information with any other federal, state or local governmental entity for the following official purposes:
1. Determining eligibility for any public benefit, service or license provided by any federal, state, local or other political subdivision of this state.
2. Verifying any claim of residence or domicile if determination of residence or domicile is required under the laws of this state or a judicial order issued pursuant to a civil or criminal proceeding in this state.
2) SB1070 is and will be used as a “tool” allowing for the federal government to have at its disposal more information about U.S. citizens. This is an example of unintended consequences. The wording of the bill (see above) calls for the personal information of all Arizona citizens to be sent to DHS/federal government whether the person is seeking any public benefit or applying or any type of license (can be a fishing license, driver’s license, business license, hunting license or even a permit for a weapon). Although there is a minimum amount of information that will be provided to the federal government the legislation does not set any limit on just how much information can or should be provided the federal government.
3) The domicile issue must and should be handled by those responsible for the issuance of driver’s licenses and not every other state agency and/or department. Many women do not want their physical address shared with potentially many people because of domestic violence issues. Many Americans were concerned about the census this year. It is one thing for the government to have a count of the population but another to have the exact location (GPS) of every person’s residence.
4) The federal government has a number of pieces of proposed legislation that will result in what some refer to as a “national ID”. These various ID’s all incorporate biometrics (measurements of the body). The standards for the biometrics (facial recognition) are the adopted standards of the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) an agency of the United Nations. U.S. citizens are not just being enrolled into a national identification system but an international system of identification that applies to all people of the world. This “system” directly links your body to a system of financial control. Go to our web-site, www.constitutionalalliance.org on the left hand side you will find “Download Center”. Click on NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rulemaking), author DHS and then download document. Then go to page 68. At the bottom of page 68 you will see footnote 17. This should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that citizens are being enrolled into a global system of identification.
5) Currently the Real ID Act 2005 is federal law. Congress is considering repealing Title II of the Real ID Act and passing the PASS ID Act. This would NOT change U.S. citizens being enrolled into a single global system of identification that directly links that identification to a person’s ability to buy, sell or travel. Also, Congress is considering a new biometric social security card and as part of the Immigration Reform legislation, a biometric “National Worker’s Identification” card. The recently passed and signed into law Healthcare Reform bill will result in some type of national medical identification card. The details on that card will become more apparent as the rulemaking process plays out for the legislation.
6) At what point will the states stop relying on the federal government to accomplish what the states can do for the most part without the reliance on the federal government? The federal government has made no secret of its intention to compile as much information about each citizen as possible. This includes your biometric samples and data.
6A) The federal government wants the personal information of Americans either through direct electronic access or indirect access. Currently the “federal government” has much of our personal information already. The fact is “that information” is spread out over many departments and agencies of the federal government. DHS wants a more centralized system and thus we have witnessed the Real ID Act 2005 and now the PASS ID Act.
Because the standards for both Real ID and PASS ID are the adopted standards of two international organizations, AAMVA (American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators-An international organization by their own admission that currently includes the provinces of Canada and the states and territories of the United States and the ICAO, the driver’s license would become not simply a national ID but more accurately an international ID. International standards are only used to facilitate global information sharing. U.S. citizens should know that their federal tax dollars were used to provide states with grant money in order that the districts of Mexico are added to AAMVA’s jurisdiction. http://www.constitutionalalliance.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22&Itemid=16 AAMVA wants a single jurisdiction of the United States, Canada and Mexico. It was no accident this single jurisdiction concept began in 1994 when the NAFTA treaty was signed.
The following comes from a February 2006 GCN (Government Computer News) article:
(Mocny/DHS) said, ‘We have a responsibility to make a Global Security Envelope that would coordinate information policies and technical standards.]’
Mocny conceded that each of the 10 privacy laws currently in effect in the United States has an exemption clause for national-security purposes. He added that the department only resorts to its essentially unlimited authority under those clauses when officials decide that there are compelling reasons to do so.
In a 2007 article with the same publication Mocny stated “We’re starting the process of biometrifying [sic] a good proportion of the world population.” Robert Mocny also stated that “information sharing is appropriate around the world, and DHS plans to create a “Global Security Envelope of internationally shared biometric data that would permanently link individuals with biometric ID, personal information held by governments and corporations.”
Robert Mocny of the same DHS that has stated nearly all Americans are potentially domestic terrorists. Under Real ID, the Secretary of DHS is given the authority in the “Official Purposes” section to add restrictions at his or hers own discretion. Real ID currently restricts entrance to a federal facility, flying on a commercial airliner or entering a nuclear facility. Tomorrow we could see restrictions on purchasing weapons, ammunition or even prescription drugs. This kind of unfettered authority is unacceptable.
In Mocny’s statement we see that DHS can decide when to ignore our privacy laws. He never mentions consulting with Congress or even the President for that matter.
SB1070 does embolden the federal government. States should not and must not depend or rely on the federal government when the states themselves can go a long way towards resolving the issue of citizenship.
There would be times when the federal government might be needed but first every state has a responsibility to only involve the federal government when all other means have been exhausted. We cannot comprehend why a state would offer up/volunteer their own citizen’s personal information to a department of the federal government that has made their intentions clear. Let us not forget DHS had made it clear that it believes domestic terrorism is a much threat as terrorism initiated outside our borders. If they felt you were a potential terrorist would they share your personal information with other governments and/or corporations? Do you belong to a third party or support a third party candidate? Are you an anti-war activist or environmentalist? Are you an Evangelical Christian? Do you believe the militias are constitutional? If you answered yes to any of the proceeding questions you are under the eye of DHS. http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/lexicon.pdf Under the Real ID Act and the PASS ID Act breeder documents (documents needed to obtain a driver’s license) must be authenticated. Nearly all citizens of the United States have birth certificates or an acceptable alternative. We suggest a “hub” system be put in place that is solely controlled by the states. The hub itself would not retain any information, only act as a conduit. All DMV’s would have the capability to communicate with the state issuing agencies or departments of birth certificates. Not everyone has what is called a birth certificate. Certificates of Birth and other similar documents can be authenticated just as birth certificates can.
The federal government wants birth certificates digitized and we agree. We go one step further and believe all birth certificates must be numbered starting with the two letter abbreviation for each state. Once a birth certificate is presented to acquire a driver’s license or other form of identification the birth certificate number would go into databases as active. If anyone else attempted to use that same numbered birth certificate the “system” would show that birth certificate had been used previously to obtain an ID document or driver’s license. At that point it would be very simple to determine if someone was attempting to use another person’s birth certificate or if a person was using a birth certificate that was not in the “system”.
SB1070 is enabling DHS and worse yet feeding it’s addiction for the personal information of citizens. Domicile information is not the business of DHS. We would ask that Arizona legislators work with the legislators of the other states and agree to create the hub system described above. We have talked with telecommunications companies and the network could be in place in a short period of time. A focused and coordinated effort must take place to digitize and number birth certificates.
Let me add this about the confirming of identity, We, as a country do not have the biometric data of most Islamic extremists or for that matter many of the people entering our country illegally through Mexico or Canada. If a person comes into our country and we do not have their biometric data there is nothing right now to stop that person from “beating” the “system”. That person can obtain counterfeit breeder documents including a birth certificate and social security card for a couple of hundred dollars. To spite our government is insisting all Americans be enrolled into a single global biometric identification system (facial recognition). There is a reason facial recognition is not used to see if a person has a driver’s license in other states. The technology does not work when hundreds of millions of images are compared. (2003 AAMVA sponsored report conducted by the IBG (International Biometric Group).
Recently the talk of all forms of a “national/international ID has sparked debate over the cost of such an ambitious effort. Estimates run in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The cost of putting in place a hub system that would allow for the issuing agency at the state level of state driver’s licenses to authenticate a birth certificate with the issuing state agency that is responsible for birth certificates would be far, far less and the states would control the hub and not the federal government. The hub would simply be a secure telecommunication system that would require multiple “super computers” to crack. The hub would be far more secure than DMV offices are currently.
The only reason the Real ID Act and PASS ID do not violate the 1974 Privacy Act is it is the states that are collecting the personal information of citizens that DHS wants. The states are being used as surrogates. SB1070 is tantamount to giving a child a free pass in a candy store. In this case Arizona is feeding the addiction of DHS by feeding DHS citizen’s information.
Illegal immigration and the threat from Islamic extremists/terrorists are real. We must face these threats with real solutions.
We ask that Arizona lawmakers and other state lawmakers contact the NCSL/ALEC and urge that what we propose be addressed with the urgency required.
Keep in mind it is each citizen’s foremost responsibility to pass on to future generations, the rights, liberty and freedom they inherited at such great sacrifice from previous generations. SB1070 does not meet that test.
Thomas Jefferson is attributed with the quote “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”
Finally, know that the SSN database is riddled with errors with estimates running as high as 13 million errors. Admittedly most are not serious errors but that being said there is a problem with E-Verify identifies those in our country illegally less than 50% of the time correctly. http://www.scribd.com/doc/27458614/Final-E-Verify-Report-12-16-09-2 This preceding link is of a report DHS sponsored.
The following comes from an AP story:
The online tool E-Verify, now used voluntarily by employers, wrongly clears illegal workers about 54 percent of the time, according to Westat, a research company that evaluated the system for the Homeland Security Department. E-Verify missed so many illegal workers mainly because it can’t detect identity fraud, Westat said.
Another part of the equation is a company named L-1 Identity Solutions. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/L1-Identity-Solutions-and-the-bw-2729885297.html?x=0&.v=1 The link is to the story regarding L-1 and the World Bank. L-1 and the World Bank have reached an agreement to insure all people in the world including third world countries are enrolled into a single global system of identification that translates into a single system of control.
Why is L-1 significant? L-1 is the largest biometric company in the United States and arguably the world. L-1 provides nearly 95% all state driver’s licenses. It is involved in the production of all passports and passport cards. It is a global company that has had or does have the former Directors of the CIA, FBI, TSA and others on its Board of Directors. L-1 also has an intelligence division that has contracts with nearly every intelligence agency of the federal government. In addition to losing a contract for misleading the client and being accused by the SEC for insiders selling stock in advance of adverse financial news (settled suit) L-1, under its previous name Viisage Technology overstated the capability of its biometric technology many documented times. There is a document in the download section of our web-site (L1 Identity Solutions-Real ID DMV solution)which provides what this company believes a “Real ID” compliant driver’s license would look like (the license includes your race and political party). L-1 has contracts all over the world and some of those contracts are for National ID cards.
Why should a citizen care that L-1 is a global company and what does it mean to individuals? L-1 also provided their facial recognition technology knowing that technology was going to be tested by the Red Chinese government. Naturally the Chinese wanted to use the technology to identify dissidents. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103×359125
Think about this-the surveillance cameras on your street corners are pointed at you. It does not matter if you are in your hometown or Paris, France. You can be identified through the use of facial recognition technology, a biometric and CCTV technology (surveillance cameras. You may believe this is Orwellian. This is nothing new and has been going on for some time. Viisage Technology, now called L-1 Identity Solutions used facial recognition technology to capture the digital facial images of people who entered the Super Bowl in 2001, before the attacks on 9/11. The company claimed huge success in assisting law enforcement to capture people who were wanted by law enforcement. The article in this link describes the failure of the technology http://epic.org/privacy/surveillance/spotlight/1105/default.html The technology has been used many times since. We should all face the fact we live in a surveillance society. Government does spy on our emails, phone calls and monitor our financial transactions. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/15/nsa-improperly-spying-americans/ A free society and a surveillance society cannot coexist. Are we no better than China? Is that what we are aspiring to? What we must know-Under the provisions of the Patriot Act, the FBI has been given legal authority beyond what they previously had. The result has been abuses of NSL’s (National Security Letters) http://www.aclu.org/national-security/internal-report-finds-flagrant-national-security-letter-abuse-fbi The FBI can issue an NSL to L-1 Identity Solutions requesting information such as but not limited to citizens biometric samples/data/templates and you and I would know nothing about it. States have archived databases for their DMV’s that L-1 controls. State DMV’s would not know the information was provided to the FBI. NSL’s require the company sent the NSL not to discuss the NSL with anyone. There are no search warrants or other legal instruments needed before the FBI issues NSL’s. Congress must address the issue of L-1 and insure if L-1 is to remain the primary vendor for identification documents that there are strict laws put in place to protect citizens from L-1 sharing any information unless a court order exist. CONCLUSION
State lawmakers and yes, some citizens are willing to sacrifice liberty towards what they falsely will address issues such as illegal immigration and terrorism. We have provided a very doable solution and in presenting the alternative, have safe guarded the personal information of all citizens. Please keep in mind that almost 9 years after 9/11 our borders are still wide open. DHS has a goal of only stopping 29% of the illegal people and goods entering our country through authorized Custom Border Patrol checkpoints. http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/how-effective-cbp-keeping-us-borders-safe
One should realize just how much of our borders do not have authorized Custom Border Patrol checkpoints. What percentage of illegal goods and people are entering in those areas? Understand that if the goal is to only prevent 29% that means 71% will get through.
If state police and local police had the capability to access state DMV databases from their patrol cars they would be able to look at a person’s photo and see if the person they had in front of them was in fact who they said they were. Many states already use and have this capability. There is no reason innocent American citizens have to be detained and hauled off to police stations while their citizenship status is being verified. Under our proposed alternative (birth certificates being digitized and numbered) a driver’s license would not be issued until the birth certificate has been authenticated thus any person with a state driver’s license would be a citizen.
If citizens did not drive they could and would be issued a state identification card (not for driving purposes). This card would not be issued until again the birth certificate had been authenticated. In those states that allow for people in our country illegally to obtain a driver’s license we recommend that their licenses are different in appearance from the licenses of U.S. citizens thereby not causing confusion about who is or is not a citizen. Arizona SB1070 accomplishes very little accept sacrificing the liberty of U.S. citizens. The state will be defending lawsuits which will increase the debt of the state. Everyone should realize an Immigration Reform bill is very likely to pass in Congress. There will be enough Republicans who will court the Hispanic vote to insure passage in spite of what citizens may want. When that takes place what real good will SB1070 do? The people in our country illegally today will be given a pathway to citizenship and then legally be allowed to stay in our country. We at the Constitutional Alliance are asking citizens to think outside of the box. Our alternative works. We must not sacrifice the rights, liberty and freedom of the children and grandchildren of today and tomorrow. We do not have the right to do so. Have all the Americans that died in wars to protect our rights, liberty and freedom died in vain?
The Constitutional Alliance is an organization of state lawmakers, national & state groups and private citizens.
The Alliance works with constitutional attorneys, privacy advocates and citizens on both the right and left. The Alliance was joined by the ACLJ and the ACLU (see video on our web-site) to speak out against biometrics, global information sharing and to support the religious rights of all citizens. The Alliance is recognized around the country as the premier organization on educating all citizens on the issues of biometrics and global information sharing. We educate lawmakers and citizens. As individuals, we have been asked to testify in many states around the country regarding the Real ID Act, biometrics and the sharing of American citizen’s personal information.
About The Author 
Mark Lerner is a co-founder of the Constitutional Alliance, an alliance of groups and individuals who support the Mission Statement.