ACTION ALERT! ACTION ALERT! ACTION ALERT!
The National Immigration Forum and has already signed on to letters of support in rejecting the REAL ID Act.
Please take a moment to read about the REAL ID Act and call your legislator as soon as you can. Thanks to NAKASEC for and the National Immigration Forum for providing this background!
Congress is threatening to take away drivers licenses and other important rights from immigrants. This past February 10, the REAL ID Act (H.R. 418) passed in the House by a 261-161 vote.
The REAL ID Act does nothing to strengthen national security or address the problems with the broken immigration system. America urgently needs legislation supporting comprehensive immigration reform and not another measure to drive immigrants deeper into the shadows of society.
Broadly, the REAL ID Act puts greater restrictions on immigrant access to drivers' licenses, making it more difficult for those fleeing persecution to attain asylum, and waives potential environmental concerns in constructing a fence to close a 3-mile gap along the US-Mexico border.
The bill also severely curtails the rights of immigrants to have a fair trial and expands the definition of "terrorism" to include actions normally protected by the first amendment.
Of particular concern to the Asian Pacific American community, the Real ID Act drivers' license provisions would create the following 3-tiered system for drivers' licenses:
1. States will be prohibited from issuing drivers' licenses to undocumented immigrants. Undocumented immigrants will be forced to drive to work and school without licenses, and therefore auto insurance, making the roads unsafe for everyone.
Most of these undocumented immigrants, numbering one million Asian Pacific Americans, are long-term residents and integral part of our communities, our economy and our nation. They live, work and study in America and should not be deprived of the basic right to drive, work and contribute to society.
2. All drivers' license applicants will undergo unnecessarily burdensome proof of identity standards. Even citizens will be impacted by this provision. There will be long delays as the Department of Homeland Security will have to verify the citizenship of each license applicant.
Moreover, naturalized citizens who do not have U.S. passports or access to their naturalization certificates may have difficulties getting their licenses because they cannot prove that they are U.S. citizens.
3. Temporary licenses, expiring according to the validity period of one's visa, will be issued to certain legal non-immigrants. Legal non-immigrants who are in the U.S. to work or study will be forced to carry drivers' licenses or IDs that single them out from the general population.
Furthermore, they will likely have tremendous difficulties getting or renewing their licenses or IDs, as many employees of state Departments of Motor Vehicles will not understand the complexities of immigration law.
Communities are also concerned that these provisions are likely to lead to discrimination or racial profiling of those who may look "foreign."
The REAL ID Act has moved to the Senate. We need to continue reaching out to senators to ask that they oppose the REAL ID Act. A coordinated national day of action is in the works for the Week of April 11. We’ll send out details later, when we have them. Stay tuned!
IN THE MEANTIME, WHAT CAN WE DO?
Call or visit your senators while they are in their district office. Your senators will be home through April 1st. In addition to arguing against the REAL ID Act on the merits, please ask them to take this additional step:
o If they are Republican: They should tell their leadership—Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Bill Frist (R-TN)—that they oppose REAL ID, don’t want to see it as part of appropriations legislation, and that attaching it may bog down the appropriations bill in extended debate. Cochran is Chair of the Appropriations Committee and Frist is the Senate Majority Leader.
o If they are Democrat: They should tell their leadership—Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Harry Reid (D-NV)—that they oppose REAL ID, don't want to see it as part of appropriations legislation, and that attaching it may bog down the appropriations bill in extended debate. Byrd is the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee Reid is the Senate Minority Leader.
This step is important, because REAL ID must be kept off the Senate version of the spending bill. The appropriators (that is, Cochran and Byrd) may be convinced to keep it off the spending bill because they generally do not like controversial policy proposals attached to their spending bills.
For suggested talking points, please visit http://www.immigrationforum.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=654
Write a Sample Letter If you prefer to send a letter by fax to your senators’ offices, you can use the sample letter on the National Immigration Forum's website, and personalize it.
BACKGROUND
REAL ID Goes to the Senate
The House passed a bill that will provide additional money for the war in Iraq, for military operations in Afghanistan, and for tsunami relief (among other things). As expected, James Sensenbrenner’s REAL ID Act has been attached to that appropriation bill. The bill passed the House 388 to 43.
As you will recall from previous e-mails, the REAL ID Act, if enacted, will make it practically impossible for someone to win asylum in the U.S., requiring asylum seekers to meet a credibility standard that no member of Congress (for example) could meet.
It would also induce states to deny drivers’ licenses to undocumented immigrants; further restrict the due process rights of immigrants; give bail bondsmen unprecedented powers to decide whether an immigrant is a flight risk and to go after him or her; and give the Secretary of Homeland Security the power to waive all laws that he feels might interfere with building border barriers.
For a more detailed review of REAL ID provisions, and for materials related to the bill, go to our Web site:
http://www.immigrationforum.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=701
Ultimately, a supplemental appropriations bill will pass overwhelmingly in the Senate. The question now is, "Will it have REAL ID attached to it?"
THE SENATE’S OPTIONS
The Senate can take up the House appropriations bill (with REAL ID attached), or senators can consider their own appropriations bill. In the latter case, that bill may face amendments as it goes through Senate passage (including something like REAL ID, if someone were to offer it).
In any case, the Senate will have to deal with REAL ID, either in the chamber or during a conference committee with the House. One way it may do so is to insist that REAL ID be dropped from any House/Senate compromise package.
On the other hand, some senators may feel that if the House wants to attach an extraneous immigration matter to a military operations supplemental spending bill, the door is open for other immigration provisions that are priorities for senators.
The Senate will consider the supplemental spending bill after they return from recess April 5th.
Please contact your legislator today!
Anh Phan
Director of Communications
Organization of Chinese Americans
1001 Connecticut Ave., NW Suite 601
Washington, D.C. 20036
tel: 202.223.5500
fax: 202.296.0540
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