The result of the battle in the U.S. Senate to make the estimated 15 million undocumented immigrants in the United States to have driver’s licenses, which many of them use as a source of livelihood was chilling. One hundred senators with no dissenter voted, on May 10, to pass the controversial Real ID Act, which will strip all undocumented immigrants of any form of official identification in three years.
Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin) the sponsor of the bill, cleverly attached his controversial bill to the 2005 Supplemental appropriation bill meant to fund the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, which ensured it easy passage without debate. Sensenbrenner said that “by targeting terrorist travel, the Real ID will assist in our war on terror, to disrupt terrorist operations and help secure our borders.”
Opponents of the bill, however, said the only thing that the law will disrupt is the source of livelihood of undocumented immigrants., who use the driver’s license to secure jobs as cab drivers , chauffeurs, and other low-paying jobs.
Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), who has previously opposed the bill, was too scared to vote against the bill especially as it relates to funding the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Clinton later issued a press release saying, “I am also deeply concerned that on an emergency supplemental to fund our troops and provide disaster relief for areas devastated by the tsunami, we are being asked to vote on the so-called Real ID legislation. I am outraged that the Republican leadership in both the House and the Senate decided to ignore this reasonable request [to remove the Real ID Act from the military budget] and put this seriously flawed act into a bill to fund our troops.”
President George W. Bush has vowed to sign the bill into law once it gets on his desk.
The act gives the states three years to comply or lose federal grants. It also requires states to make people who want licenses or non drivers IDs to prove they are in the United States legally so that the IDs can be issued to board planes.
Coming on the heels of the heavily anti-immigrant act, the Patriot Act, advocates for immigrants of whatever hue are now worried that a wave of xenophobia may be sweeping the country. As well, they fear that Republican politicians would soon target the Permanent Residency cards, (also know as green cards). The Patriot Act already makes the possession of the once almighty green card weak. For instance, one of the provisions of the Patriot Act, enacted after the terrorist attack of 9/11, prescribes that immigrants convicted of a felony be deported after serving their term in prison and be refused re-entry into the United States.
Many immigrants and their children have fallen afoul of this law. African Abroad U.S.A. notes the recent case of a 21-year-old Caribbean immigrant who was brought to this country when he was just six years old who was denied re-entry into the United States while holding a green card. A 16-year-old immigrant has also been caught in the Patriot Act’s anti-immigrant sweep, when she was arrested in a Harlem store where she was helping her parents, detained and labeled by the government as a “potential suicide bomber.” According to a letter from Representative Charles Rangel (D-Harlem) and to Michael J. Garcia, who heads Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “No evidence has been given to justify her removal from the community.” The girl is presently detained at the Berks County Juvenile Detention Center in Pennsylvania. [The young Bangladeshi immigrant girl was deported to her home country.]
A section of the media has not helped in the fueling of the new wave of anti-immigrant sentiments. Lou Dobbs, of CNN, has a segment called “Broken Borders” in his nightly program where he rails against undocumented immigrants, a veiled attack on Mexican immigrants who make up 80 percent of the undocumented immigrant population in the United States.
An unintended consequence of the Real ID Act is that immigrants fleeing persecution in their home country arrive in the United States to seek asylum or refugee status can now be deported at the point of entry, without judicial review or due process.
