It's Time for Another Broadside on the SAVE Act!

American Policy Center
  Issue CLV - May 20, 2008
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A sample imageCongress has been listening, but it's imperative they hear from us again. More and more congressmen have been unwilling to pass this intrusion bill that does more to threaten your privacy and security than it does to secure our borders. Many congressmen now outright reject the SAVE Act as unworkable; this tells us Congress is listening to you. But the SAVE Act has not been pulled, and that's what we need. Please give it one more strong push, and hopefully we can kill this very dangerous bill once and for all.

Here are the major reasons the American Policy Center opposes the SAVE Act.

Section 201 of the bill would require employers to use the E-Verify, or EEV, system "for every person or other entity that hires one or more individuals for employment in the United States." It is outrageous to propose that every working American submit to having their personal information placed in a massive Department of Homeland Security (DHS) database, and be registered in a DHS worker registry, before being authorized to work in our own country. The presumption that DHS can better find millions of illegal, undocumented workers by first herding them together with a hundred+ million legitimate workers is absurd. In fact, a study by the Cato Institute found the E-Verify program to be ineffective, intrusive, and expensive. "A full-fledged Electronic Employment Verification (EEV) system has many practical and technical problems - to say nothing of the question of whether it is appropriate for a free country - and would still fail to prevent illegal immigration" says Jim Harper, Cato's director of Information Policy Studies. Mr. Harper further stated, "The things necessary to make a system like this really impervious to forgery and fraud would convert it from an identity system into a cradle-to-grave biometric tracking system."

Section 203 of the SAVE Act would establish a standardized, national databank that tracks "vital events" in your life, particularly your birth and death. The Real ID Act requires states use a national birth certificate databank to verify identity - but no such databank exists, making it impossible for states to comply. Yet the majority of Americans oppose carrying, or being chipped with, any kind of mandatory national identification (biometric or not), such as proposed by the Real ID Act of 2005. And the number of states that have chosen not to comply is gaining momentum. Twenty-two states have outright refused, or have to-date refused, compliance with the Real ID Act. The outright rebellion of so many states has caused House and Senate members to reevaluate the wisdom of the Real ID Act. Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) has sponsored an amendment to the Senate's budget resolution to prevent spending money on Real ID this year.

The provisions of Sections 201 and 203, and others, within the SAVE Act, support the American Policy Center's position that the SAVE Act is not only NOT serious immigration reform, but is in fact a very dangerous piece of legislation. We must kill the SAVE Act if for no other reason that to stop these two liberty-killing provisions. The SAVE Act is an important tool needed to implement the Real ID Act. But the Real ID Act mandates much more than just a national identification program; it's actually establishes a global biometric identification program, and is being resisted around the world.

Here at home the SAVE Act seeks to deliver Americans to the centralized control of our federal government, by setting the stage for a national workforce management system - an unjustified intrusion into our privacy and a very real threat to our security and liberty. Such systems may be "convenient" for government, but it's not freedom and APC stands opposed to it.

Congress has been listening to the American people. They're coming to understand that legislation mandating the registering, controlling, and manipulating of Americans WILL NOT STOP illegal immigration, and this bill WILL NOT EVEN SEAL OUR BORDERS TO TERRORISTS! The SAVE Act is NOT the solution to America's immigration problems, and it must be stopped for good!

ACTION TO TAKE

Contact the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi at (202) 225-4965.

Contact the Act sponsors, Heath Shuler at (202) 225-6401, and Brian Bilbray at (202) 225-0508.

It is imperative you contact your member of Congress. Also contact House Majority Whip, Steny Hoyer; House Minority Leader, John Boehner; and House Minority Whip, Roy Blunt. Call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with the House office you request.

Please be careful to fully identity the SAVE Act as H.R. 4088, as there are several bills before Congress right now identified generally as the SAVE Act.

Tell every Congressman you contact to oppose the SAVE Act, H.R. 4088, because:

 

 

 


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