U.S.-China Surveillance

A requirement for all US citizens requesting employment to present Real ID is buried in the current draft of the much maligned US immigration reform bill, according to a June 5th post at PolicyBeta, the blog for the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT).

Congress is back from its spring recess and the hot topic for debate is immigration reform (S. 1348). While the public debate has been focusing on guest worker programs and border fences, a small but important component of the proposed legislation has been overlooked: the immigration bill’s mandate that all potential employees present a REAL ID card before they can work. The immigration bill that is currently being considered by Congress requires all American citizens and qualified aliens to prove that they are authorized to work in this country. For U.S. citizens, this means that they must present either a passport, or a REAL ID driver’s license/state identification card plus a Social Security Card. Moreover, the bill requires employers to copy and store these highly valuable personal documents.

Might this be an attempt to stifle state-level resistance to national ID? Last Thursday, according to the AP, Main Governor John Baldacci signed a law banning REAL ID within its borders, while a similar bill was passed by the state legislature in neighboring New Hampshire. Similar efforts are under way in several other states.