WSJ: National ID Party

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

National ID Party
February 17, 2005; Page A12

Republicans swept to power in Congress 10 years ago championing state prerogatives, and one of their first acts was to repeal federal speed-limit requirements. Another was aimed at ending unfunded state mandates. So last week's House vote to require costly and intrusive federal standards for state drivers' licenses is a measure of how far the party has strayed from these federalist principles.


(snip)

That's because all of the hijackers entered the U.S. legally, which means they qualified for drivers' licenses. The Real ID Act wouldn't change that. Moreover, you don't need a driver's license to fly. Other forms of identification -- such as a passport -- are acceptable and also were available to the hijackers. Nothing in the Sensenbrenner bill would change that, either.

(snip)

Mr. Sensenbrenner's claims that tougher asylum provisions will make us safer are also dubious. The last thing a terrorist would want to do is apply for asylum. Not only would he be bringing himself to the attention of the U.S. government -- the first step is being fingerprinted -- but the screening process for applicants is more rigorous than for just about anyone else trying to enter the country. In the past decade, perhaps a half-dozen individuals with some kind of terrorists ties have applied for asylum. All were rejected. The Real ID Act would raise the bar substantially for granting asylum to people fleeing persecution. But this is a solution in search of a problem. A decade ago the U.S. asylum laws were in fact being abused by foreigners with weak claims who knew they would receive work permits while their cases were pending.

But in 1994, the Clinton Administration issued regulations to curb this abuse. The law now says that asylum seekers cannot receive work permits until they have won their case. Applications per year subsequently have fallen to about 30,000 today from 140,000 in the early 1990s. This was the biggest abuse of the system, and it's been fixed. Raising the barrier for asylum seekers at this point would only increase the likelihood of turning away the truly persecuted.


(snip)

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110860912753757407,00.html

[papau]

1. LOL - WSJ praising Clinton and critical of GOP!!!! LOL

:-)

[question everything]

2. They are blind by their own power

I hope that some day, they too, will start disintegrating before realizing what had hit them

[dbeach]

3. Natl ID bout destroys the US Constitution..

and allows all these privacy invasions which cannot be challenged cuz they can say its in name of national security..
more hassles at airports..the internal passports and check points.repukes are a busy bunch of criminals

[question everything]

4. And this comes from the Republicans who used to be for small government

oh, forgot, this was before their hypocrisy surpassed their selfishness