March
30, 2010
Dear Fellow Arizona Campaign for Liberty Members,
There
are a lot of issues each one of us is concerned with. Oftentimes, when
bad law passes, it can be changed in the future and corrected. National ID is the exception. Once National ID is implemented, it can
never be repealed, because once the data has been handed over to the
federal government, it will never be deleted.
Under State Senator Russell Pearce's bill, SB1070 (and its
companion, HB2632) contains a section which allows the Arizona Motor
Vehicle Department to exchange your private data with the US Department
of Homeland Security (who owns the REAL ID/PASS ID database) for the
purposes of verifying your immigration status.
This is precisely the requirement that the REAL ID legislation
required. Worse, this bill specifically allows for the exchange of your
domicile information with the US Department of Homeland Security. Together, this information can also be used to register the legal
purchase of firearms.
Senator Pearce calls his bill the anti-sanctuary city and
anti-illegal immigration bill. We do not oppose these parts of the
bill, only the specific part which provides private information of law
abiding Arizona citizens to the US Department of Homeland Security.
Senator Pearce maintains that the only way to sort out who-is-who is
to provide your information to Homeland Security. This is
unacceptable. The first priority of government is to protect the
liberty, which includes privacy from government, of law abiding
citizens.
Please view recent analyses of this bill provided by a nationally
recognized National ID expert who was instrumental in preventing REAL ID
from being implemented.
Analysis 1
Analysis 2
Based on the actual language of
the bill (in SB1070 Section 2. 11-1051, Subsections E. E.1. and E.2.), there
is no doubt that this bill applies to all law abiding Arizonans who go
to get their driver's licenses and that their private data will be
handed over to the US Department of Homeland Security.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION NOW!
This
bill will be heard for a final time in committee tomorrow morning,
Wednesday, March 31 at 9am.
It is important that you contact your own state
representatives and state senators both by phone and by email.
-Please
tell them that you oppose this bill in its current form.
-Please
tell them that the amendments that have been made do not protect
Arizonans from their data being disclosed to Homeland Security when they
go to get their driver's license.
-Please tell them to remove section 2. 11-1051 Subsections E. E.1
and E.2 from SB1070 as well as F. F1. and F2. from HB2632.
Find
your State Representative's contact information HERE.
Find your State Senator's contact information HERE.
Finally,
please also contact all of the members of the Military Affairs and
Public Safety Committee to ask that they vote the bill down.
Find their information HERE or go to the Arizona Legislative
Information Service (ALIS). Sign up and leave your opinion
(against) SB1070 "as written" for the House Committee on Military
Affairs and Public Safety.
Just like other bills (for example, SB1443, the Photo Radar
Expansion Bill), many representatives and senators have been misinformed
about the actual contents and wording of certain bills. Unfortunately,
they do not always read the actual words of all bills. Therefore, it
is up to each and every one of us to remain vigilant at all times to
ensure our liberty is protected and our state representatives and
senators are fully informed.
Please take action immediately. This urgent issue is about to be
decided. While Arizona has been exempted under previous state
legislation from mandatory participation in the REAL ID program, here
the state legislators are going to approve the state willingly
handing over the very same data that the national REAL ID program
required!
Thank you for your continued vigilance. Thank you for taking action
on this important issue.
Best Regards,
Arizona
Campaign for Liberty
P.S. - Please don't forget to check out our new website and
sign up for one of our Grassroots Activist Bootcamps, which we are
conducting around the state. Maricopa County's Bootcamp will be this Saturday, April
3rd at 8:30am! |