Identification and Travel Documents

The following was written in April 2014, as part of a response to the Campaign for Liberty's 2012 survey questionnaire for candidates running for federal office.

16. Will you oppose any legislation that requires states and citizens to participate in a National Identification Card program?

     Yes, I will oppose any legislation that requires states and citizens to participate in a National Identification Card program.

     I will vote to repeal the portion of the REAL ID Act of 2005 which established and implemented regulations for the security standards of driver's licenses and identification documents.

     I do not believe that anyone who is born in the United States or becomes a citizen should be required or expected to carry identification or travel documents on them at all times. I will not vote to support any proposed federal laws – nor urge states to adopt laws - that requires businesses to scan individuals' driver's licenses when checking their age to confirm alcohol and tobacco purchases, nor will I support laws providing for requiring travel or identification documents to contain either bar codes, computer chips, or tracking devices. If holograms and embedded ink are good enough for our money, they should be good enough for our identification documents.

     I believe that Americans would be appalled if they discovered that Native Americans are required to carry blood quantum cards due to federal law (the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934). Although tribes accepted this requirement 80 years ago, and the law allows them autonomy over determining quantum laws so as to limit benefits for descendants of Native Americans with low blood quantum, there is no reason that anyone born in the United States should be expected to carry such a document. It is the relic of a regrettable, racist era in American history, and it was not voluntary because it was one of few choices offered to a conquered and besieged people.

     I will oppose federal legislation requiring employers to participate in the e-Verify program - under the Department of Homeland Security's Basic Pilot Program – because such legislation only serves to turn businesses into police departments.

     Additionally, I will oppose federal legislation to require presentation of proof of residency and identification documents in order to vote; these effectively amount to Reconstruction-era poll taxes. I will sponsor federal legislation to abolish such legislation enacted by the states as serious civil rights violations which diminish the freedom of not only members of racial and ethnic minorities but poor and homeless people of all races.

     I believe that any and all federal mandates to purchase and/or carry identification and travel documents should only follow appropriate constitutional amendment (although in that case I will vote against my own amendment) or else invoke a financial obligation on the part of the party making the command, i.e., the pockets of members of Congress themselves.

For more entries on homeland security and terrorism, please visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/03/911-heres-what-i-think-happened.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-aurora-batman-massacre.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/national-defense-authorization-act-for.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/september-11th-2001.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/jared-lee-loughner-and-gabrielle.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/in-response-to-question-about-patriot.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/notes-on-osama-bin-ladens-reported-death.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/airport-security-and-expectation-of-harm.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-israeli-role-in-911.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-transportation-security.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/indefinite-detention-and-2012-ndaa.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/wiretaps-searches-and-patriot-act.html

For more entries on the interior and tribal relations please visit:
http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/personal-and-political-connotations-of.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-cherokee-freedmen-controversy.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/02/cascadia-proposal.html

For more entries on transportation, transit, travel, and the automobile industry, please visit:

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/01/sovereignty-and-secrecy-freedoms-of.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/spencer-stuart-recruited-executives-for.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/questions-about-roads-eminent-domain.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/economic-policy-for-2012-us-house.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-transportation-security.html

Immigration and Borders Policy

I believe that there is an urgent need for comprehensive immigration reform which is humane and tolerant; as well as conducive to the freedom of travel, the openness of trade, and the normalization of commerce. As such – and given that the constitutional clause which had denied the Congress the power to prohibit the states from enacting migration policies which they deem proper has expired – I feel that it is desirable and appropriate to pursue passage of federal legislation prohibiting all agencies of the federal and state governments from constructing or maintaining fencing along our international borders.

                Although a system permitting federal jurisdiction over immigration policy would seem to have authorized the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (D.R.E.A.M.) Act, I would vote to support a repeal of that legislation on the grounds that it was enacted through an executive order, which I feel is an inappropriate, expansive exercise of presidential power. I would urge states which have passed similar legislation to transition the responsibility to provide D.R.E.A.M.-Act-type goods and services to the county- and municipal-level governmental agencies within them, as well as to private-sector agencies; and I would urge states which have not passed similar legislation to allow local governments to do so, and to allow the widespread provision of such goods and services to come into being organically through the efforts of private-sector agencies.

                As the forms of compensation which are procured through employment are the most productive form of welfare, such private-sector agencies should include places of employment. I would support the right of immigrants – documented and undocumented alike – to negotiate with their employers to obtain the compensation which they deem appropriate for their own subjective purposes, irrespective of federal and state minimum wage standards. I would also voice opposition to mandates on employers – by governments at any level – to participate in the eVerify system, which has been described as obligating hirers to police illegal immigration. Additionally, I would oppose all existing and proposed laws providing for mandatory identification documents for all persons, such as the REAL ID Act.

                In order to help provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, I would urge the president and the governors of the several states to grant pardons to all non-violent transgressors, especially to minors who did not have intent or informed awareness of the illegality of the actions of the parents or guardians who accompanied them into the country. Punishment – and law-enforcement requests for the identification documents – of suspected illegals should be contingent upon their conviction for either physically harming or threatening to harm persons; stealing, damaging, or otherwise diminishing the utility of their property; or trespassing on their occupied landed property; provided that some victim claiming that direct harm has occurred has pressed formal charges by filing a Verified Criminal Complaint.

                I would assert that deportation and extradition of non-violent illegal immigrants would only be permissible were the status of a transgressor as a foreign subject entered-into with informed consent and without duress, and that the pertinent foreign country has laws explicitly prohibiting illegal emigration. I would also defend the position that the 14^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not automatically grant federal citizenship to the native-born, but that it merely makes the extension of an offer of citizenship permanent and irrevocable.

                I feel that opponents of illegal immigration would have less justification for their personal and legal views were they to become aware that the federal government has conducted cross-border weapons-for-drugs programs and arms-trafficking-and-tracking operations (such as Project Gun-Runner and Operation Fast-and-Furious) which have destabilized and undermined the sovereignty of Mexico, and caused death of American border personnel. Voting to stop – and investigating to uncover the facts about – such operations is crucial for restoring America’s reputation and credibility abroad; ameliorating artificial antipathy towards minority groups and improving race relations; and saving lives of American civilians, law enforcement officers, and politicians alike.

                Additionally, I would work to restitute government theft of immigrant property; sponsor legislation which would prohibit government agencies at the state and federal levels from making English the single official language; and urge governments at all levels – including the governments of Mexico and Central America – to uphold rights to bear arms and rights of the accused which are either on-par with or more protective than the 2^nd and the 4^th through 8^th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

For more entries on borders, immigration, and territorial integrity, please visit:

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2010/11/jurisdictional-aterritorialism-bastiat.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/01/immigration-and-minimum-wage.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2013/10/map-of-contiguous-united-states-in.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/02/cascadia-proposal.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-piscean-ethic-in-government-ecology.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/thoughts-on-illegal-immigration.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/on-immigration.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/04/social-policies-for-2012-us-house.html

http://www.aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/05/taxpayer-funded-benefits-for.html