A Flood of Teenage Immigrants? The DHS's Solution: ID Card Compliance

Gary North -

This was posted yesterday on one of my GaryNorth.com site's forums.

You seem to have little to say about the illegal immigration issue unfolding on our southern border. Do you have any information why this is occurring now? Do you have any thoughts on how it should be dealt with and why?

First, I invoke Franklin Roosevelt's law of politics: "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way."Second, the story has two halves: outside the USA and inside. We need to consider both in order to make sense of either.
Third, immigration arrests were down by 75%, FY 2000 to FY 2013.
Fourth, the media are focusing on a small component of this immigration this year: immigration from Central America. It's up this year to about 204,000. With three months to go until the end of fiscal 2014, this might hit 250,000.There is not a word from the Border Patrol on immigration from Mexico in FY 2014. There is also not a word on former immigrants from Mexico who are returning to Mexico. This has increased since 2000. Net immigration from Mexico has been close to zero for a decade.
Fifth, the lure is the hope of amnesty. If they can get on this side of the Mexican border, they may be allowed to stay.



My subscriber wants to know "Why now?" I'll tell you why now.
1. INSIDE THE USA
I cite the Wikipedia article on The REAL ID Act. It's the law. It has been for nine years.

The REAL ID Act of 2005, Pub.L. 109--13, 119 Stat. 302, enacted May 11, 2005, was an Act of Congress that modified U.S. federal law pertaining to security, authentication, and issuance procedures standards for the state driver's licenses and identification (ID) cards, as well as various immigration issues pertaining to terrorism.The law sets forth requirements for state driver's licenses and ID cards to be accepted by the federal government for "official purposes", as defined by the Secretary of Homeland Security. The Secretary of Homeland Security has currently defined "official purposes" as presenting state driver's licenses and identification cards for boarding commercially operated airline flights and entering federal buildings and nuclear power plants.

The Social Security card has functioned as an ID card for decades. I am old enough to have a card that says on the front: "NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION." From the beginning, defenders of civil liberties saw the threat. The card is now widely used for identification purposes.
The SS card is not current. Driver's licenses are. So, the DHS is attempting to create a federal ID card that is tied to state driver's licenses. The goal is to get the federal camel's nose into the privacy tent. The DHS is encountering resistance.
The REAL ID Act implements the following:

Title II of the act establishes new federal standards for state-issued driver licenses and non-driver identification cards.
Changing visa limits for temporary workers, nurses, and Australian citizens.
Funding some reports and pilot projects related to border security.
Introducing rules covering "delivery bonds" (similar to bail bonds but for aliens who have been released pending hearings).
Updating and tightening the laws on application for asylum and deportation of aliens for terrorist activity.
Waiving laws that interfere with construction of physical barriers at the borders

Unlike the vast majority of federal laws, this one created widespread resistance. Half of the states have resisted or have refused to participate. This has thwarted the DHS.
The DHS has a timetable for implementing this law. The Wikipedia article is clear about this timetable.

On December 20, 2013, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that implementation of Phase 1 would begin on January 20, 2014, which followed a yearlong period of "deferred enforcement". As of January 2014, 21 states are compliant, 20 states and territories have been granted renewable extensions (until October 10, 2014), and 15 states and territories are noncompliant (but are eligible for extensions).

Let me ask the obvious question: When did the publicity begin about this "tidal wave of immigration"? When did the headlines begin?
Hint: not in 2013.
This is an orchestrated event. Watch for "relief" from the "wave of immigration" -- formal calls for the acceptance and implementation of the REAL ID law.
What's coming? This:

IDs and driver's licenses as identificationIn the United States, driver's licenses are issued by the states, not by the federal government. Additionally, because the United States has no national identification card and because of the widespread use of cars, driver's licenses have been used as a de facto standard form of identification within the country. For non-drivers, states also issue voluntary identification cards which do not grant driving privileges. Prior to the REAL ID Act, each state set its own rules and criteria regarding the issuance of a driver's license or identification card, including the look of the card, what data is on the card, what documents must be provided to obtain one, and what information is stored in each state's database of licensed drivers and identification card holders.
Federally mandated standards for state driver's licenses or ID cards
Driver's license implications
The REAL ID Act's implications for driver's licenses and ID cards is detailed in Title II of the Act. Title II of REAL ID -- "Improved Security for Driver's License and Personal Identification Cards" -- repeals the driver's licenses provisions of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, also known as the "9/11 Commission Implementation Act of 2004", that was enacted in December 2004. Section 7212 of that law established a cooperative state-federal process, via a negotiated rule-making procedure, to create federal standards for driver's licenses.
Instead, the Real ID Act directly imposes specific federal driver's license standards.
The REAL ID Act Driver's License Summary details the following provisions of the Act's driver's license title:

Authority
Data Retention and Storage
DL/ID Document Standards
Grants to States
Immigration Requirements
Linking of Databases
Minimum DL/ID Issuance Standards
Minimum Standards for Federal Use
Repeal of 9/11 Commission Implementation Act DL/ID Provisions
Security and Fraud Prevention Standards
Verification of Documents

After 2011, "a Federal agency may not accept, for any official purpose, a driver's license or identification card issued by a state to any person unless the state is meeting the requirements" specified in the REAL ID Act. The DHS will continue to consider additional ways in which a REAL ID license can or should be used for official federal purposes without seeking the approval of Congress before doing so. States remain free to also issue non-complying licenses and IDs, so long as these have a unique design and a clear statement that they cannot be accepted for any Federal identification purpose. The federal Transportation Security Administration is responsible for security check-in at airports, so bearers of non-compliant documents would no longer be able to travel on common carrier aircraft without additional screening unless they had an alternative government-issued photo ID.
People born on or after December 1, 1964, will have to obtain a REAL ID by December 1, 2014. Those born before December 1, 1964, will have until December 1, 2017, to obtain their REAL ID.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REAL_ID_Act This caught my eye: "The DHS will continue to consider additional ways in which a REAL ID license can or should be used for official federal purposes without seeking the approval of Congress before doing so."
The public now wants action on immigration. The DHS is going to provide it.
There are at least 10 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. There may be 20 million. There is no way to deport all of them. But they can be forced to use a federal ID card to get a job. The DHS can eventually prosecute employers who do not comply.
The Supreme Court will not allow racial profiling. So, this means we must all get cards. This is the law. But the law is being resisted.
Some U.S. Senators think the REAL ID law does not go far enough. What we need is an ID card with extensive data. Which two Senators are supporters for a high tech biometric ID card? Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham. Does this come as a surprise?
How can the DHS reduce public resistance? I'll tell you how: with stories about a tidal wave of illegal immigration.
There is no tidal wave of immigration. It's an uptick in what has become a fading social phenomenon. There is tidal wave of orchestrated stories about teenagers from Central America. As media orchestrations go, this is one of the more effective examples.
The REAL ID card is part of the government's inevitable quest for more data. It is part of the illusion of rational economic planning. Murray Rothbard wrote about this in 1961. Once the planners have this tracking system operational, there will be an announcement: "The worst of the immigration problem is solved. The government can now track undocumented aliens." Then the stories about kids from Central America will fade away. Mission accomplished.
Small businesses, not big businesses, are employers of illegal aliens. Big businesses have more difficulty hiring them. It is difficult to conceal digital payments to aliens. But with the REAL ID cards, small businesses will find it more difficult to hire illegals. This will reduce competition for big businesses.
The southern border can be secured by means of drones and military troops. Pull the troops out of every U.S. military base that is outside the U.S. Let them defend America closer to home. Call this "Operation Home Base." Or let the governors use the National Guard.
Until the immigrants are sent back to their nations of origin, house them in the FEMA camps being held in reserve for what the DHS thinks of as "documented Americans." Call this "Operation No Vacancy." (Note: FEMA is under the authority of the DHS.) If some curious reporter should ask where these camps came from, ready-made, tell him. (Yes, I'm joking. No reporter would bother to ask. It might lead to the next question: "Hey, how did all these people get here? Black helicopters?" Reporters know where their bread is buttered. Some questions simply are not asked. Careers are at stake.)
Nothing like this will happen. The DHS does not want this to happen. It wants to be in charge of border security. (Note: the phrase "border security" is an oxymoron.) The DHS wants a lot of immigrants to cross. How many? Not enough to build public support to put the Army in charge of the border, but enough to build public support for acceptance of the REAL ID law.
It's time to transfer the policing of the southern border to some agency other than the DHS. The DHS wants to police too far north of the border. We need to head this off at the border.
2. OUTSIDE THE USA
These teenagers are Central Americans. Why Central America? Because Mexicans stopped coming in 2005.
The Mexican government is letting these kids into Mexico. It then makes sure they do not stay in Mexico.
You think this is random? You think teenagers walk or ride freight trains 2,000 miles across Mexico, unnoticed and unassisted? Give me a break!
The Mexican government officially wants an open border with the USA. So, it is letting these kids cross Mexico. The Mexican government for years has made it easy for Central Americans to get through Mexico on trains. On July 9, the story hit the American media that the President of Mexico had made a deal with the governments of Belize and Guatemala to give emigrants from those nations extra time in Mexico -- enough time to make it close to the U.S. border on top of trains, which has been going on for years. A few days later, a government PR stunt created the illusion that Mexico's government is not behind this flight across Mexico.
3. SYMBIOSIS
Did the gangs get more powerful during Prohibition? Yes. Did the federal government get more powerful? Yes.
Did the gangs get more powerful after the federal government put Harry Anslinger in charge of eliminating drugs in 1930? Yes. Did the federal government get more powerful? Yes.
There is a pattern here. It's called symbiosis.
The "kids across the border" scenario is rigged. It is rigged from outside the country. It is rigged from inside the country. The kids are the cover.
It's not about kids from Central America.
Gang members are getting in. Drug runners are getting in. There is nothing new here. The drug-running scenario goes back over 50 years. My friend Joe Douglass described it in his book, Red Cocaine, in 1990. The 1999 update is here. The Soviets began this strategy in the 1960's. The operation today goes on, over two decades after the designers went out of business. The Soviets let the genie out of the bottle. The Russian mafia still uses it. That's because it works.
It's all about gang money and power (outside) and federal money and power (inside). It's not about kids from Central America.
Fact: so far this fiscal year, arrests of non-Mexican alien families are up by five to one. Fact: arrests of unaccompanied teenagers are up by about two to one. The statistics are here.
But "the flood of unaccompanied children" stories get more readers. They creates more sympathy. They call for a solution. "Save the children!"
A veritable flood of children. Here is the imagery of vast quantities of unaccompanied children flowing across our southern border like a tsunami. What a powerful image! Compelling! The public believes these reports.
Reports can be exaggerated.