Immigration reform: IDs to vote and 700-mile fence

[BlueStar]

House passes bill to make voters show ID

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The House voted Wednesday to require Americans to show proof of citizenship in order to vote, and the Senate moved to build a 700-mile fence along the Mexican border as Republicans sharpened attacks on illegal immigration before the midterm elections.

The 228-196 House vote on a new photo ID plan and the Senate's consideration of the fence were both part of a get-tough policy on illegal immigrants that Republicans have embraced after Congress' failure to agree on broader legislation that would set a path for undocumented workers to attain citizenship.

House GOP leaders have insisted that tighter borders and tougher laws must precede more comprehensive immigration changes. The House passed the fence bill last week and plans votes Thursday on other enforcement measures: to increase penalties for people building tunnels under the border, make it easier to detain and deport immigrant gang members and criminals and clarify the ability of state and local authorities to detain illegal immigrants.

Republican sponsors of the voter identification bill said it was a commonsense way to stop fraud at the polls. People need photo IDs to board planes, buy alcohol or cash checks, said Rep. Vernon Ehlers (news, bio, voting record), R-Mich., chairman of the House Administration Committee. "This is not a new concept."

"This is what Americans want," said Rep. John Mica (news, bio, voting record), R-Fla., "They want safe borders and they want safe ballots."

But Democrats assailed the legislation, saying it could hurt minorities, the poor and the elderly — groups that tend to vote Democratic — who might have trouble producing a photo identification.

"This bill is tantamount to a 21st century poll tax," said Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md. "It will disenfranchise large number of legal voters."

Rep. Ike Skelton (news, bio, voting record), D-Mo., said he was initially denied a voter ID required under a Missouri state law because he doesn't have a driver's license and couldn't immediately produce a passport or birth certificate. His congressional ID card was not accepted.

A Missouri court earlier this month struck down the state law, and on Tuesday a state superior court judge in Georgia ruled that that state's law requiring a photo ID was an unconstitutional condition for voting.

The bill would require everyone to present a photo ID before voting in federal elections by 2008. By 2010 voters would have to have photo IDs that certified they were citizens. In response to criticism that this would be a burden for the poor, the bill stipulates that states must provide the identification cards free of charge to those who can't afford them.

The Senate, meanwhile, voted Wednesday to take up a bill to build a 700-mile fence along one-third of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Action on the fence, which could cost billions of dollars, comes four months after the Senate approved legislation that, along with tightening border security, created a guest worker program and outlined how people in the country illegally could work toward legal status and eventual citizenship.

President Bush has supported this broader approach, but it has met strong resistance in the House, where opponents have said it was tantamount to amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Bush, in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, said he would sign a fencebuilding bill as part of efforts to strengthen the border. But he added, "I would view this as an interim step. I don't view this as the final product. And I will keep urging people to have a comprehensive reform."

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said, "While I've made it clear that I prefer a comprehensive solution, I have always said we need an enforcement-first approach to immigration reform."

Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada countered, "We can build the tallest fence in the world and it won't fix our broken immigration system." To do that, he said, "we need the kind of comprehensive reform that the Senate passed earlier this year."

The current bill wouldn't provide funding to cover costs of the fencing and other barriers aimed at preventing illegal entry. About $1 billion for the fencing is likely to be *******d in a bill for the Department of Homeland Security that Congress is expected to approve before its scheduled adjournment next week for the elections.

Also on Wednesday, a bipartisan task force recommended that Congress provide a path to legal status for immigrants who can demonstrate steady employment, knowledge of English and payment of taxes and who pass a background security check.

The panel, chaired by Spencer Abraham, former Republican senator from Michigan and energy secretary, and Lee Hamilton, former Democratic representative from Indiana and chair of the 9/11 Commission, also urged new verification mechanisms to assist employers in hiring only authorized workers.

[BlueStar]

ID Program Will Cost States $11 Billion, Report Says

By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 22, 2006

The cost to consumers for helping to secure America became clearer yesterday as a coalition of state groups tallied the bill for implementing the Real ID Act and federal officials divulged the price that some of its workers must pay for new smart cards.

In a report released by the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, state motor vehicle officials estimated it would cost more than $11 billion over five years to implement the technology required by the Real ID Act.

Under the law, states must start to re-enroll about 250 million holders of U.S. driver's licenses after May 2008. The states must train workers to verify copies of original birth certificates, Social Security cards, marriage certificates and various identification documents.

"The days of going to the DMV and getting your license on the same day are probably over," said David Quam, director of federal relations for the National Governors Association. "You'll have to take all your documents as if you were applying for the first time. What this comes down to is that more people will be in DMV offices spending more time to get an ID."

The Real ID Act was passed last year to protect against terrorist infiltration and crack down on illegal immigration. Without the new identification, citizens will be barred from airplanes, sections of airports, and military bases and other federal facilities, unless they have another form of federally issued identification, such as a passport.

The report, "The Real ID Act: National Impact Analysis," does not say whether the cost of implementation will be passed on to drivers and holders of state identification cards. But Homeland Security officials said the price of similar new smart cards for 750,000 workers at ports and other transportation facilities will be about $140 each.

The State Department recently raised passport fees for adults to $97 to incorporate security into new e-passports, and a smart ID card for federal workers is expected to cost $100 to $150.

State officials have complained about the costs of Real ID since the law was passed. Re-enrolling drivers and other cardholders alone will cost about $8.5 billion, according to the report. An additional $2.5 billion will be spent to vet applicant information through various agencies, store the data and design new cards.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), who introduced the Real ID Act, strongly disagreed with a similar cost estimate presented by the groups last year, saying it was bloated. The chairman cited a Congressional Budget Office report that estimated the cost of implementation at $100 million between 2005 and 2010.

According to the budget office report, the federal government would reimburse $20 million to states for implementing Real ID. State officials scoffed at that amount.

"Congress has not appropriated anywhere close to the money it takes to implement this law," Quam said.

In the report, DMV officials said the two-year timetable for issuing the new licenses was unrealistic. The report recommended that Congress extend the May 2008 deadline, create a 10-year schedule for ID re-enrollment and give states more money.

Yesterday's revelations about costs came as the House passed three more border security measures aimed at terrorist infiltrators and immigrants who sneak across the southern border in search of jobs.

The proposals would authorize federal prison time for those caught building or financing border tunnels, create tough new penalties for illegal-immigrant gang members and criminals, and grant explicit authority to local police officers to enforce federal immigration laws.

The final bill would also allow the immediate deportation of undocumented Salvadoran workers, who are currently protected under court decisions on asylum dating to El Salvador's civil war in the 1980s. The Washington area has one of the nation's highest populations of Salvadorans.

[Nimrod's Son]

common sense reigns for once

[Future Boy]

that id thing seems rather dumb to me.