“This is the important piece that was missing from last year’s intelligence reform bill,” Rehberg, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said. “The measure closes the security loopholes exploited on 9/11, enacting tough security standards for the issuance of driver’s licenses, reorganizing the asylum system abused by terrorists, fortifying our borders, and putting the teeth back into our neglected deportation laws.”

The legislation tightens procedures for non-citizen entry into, and movements and activities within, the United States.  The bill also enables state governments to bolster standards for the security and integrity of drivers’ licenses, “something states should have been doing all along,” Rehberg pointed out, “which is keeping citizens safe from terrorists and refusing to hand out drivers licenses to illegal aliens.”  Also included is a provision directed at reforming the asylum process, plus language that provides for the construction of physical barriers where appropriate to protect U.S. borders.

“As a state with one of the largest international borders, Montana needs all of these provisions. We want to see that driver’s licenses and other identification cards cannot be used to access Montana’s critical infrastructure,” Rehberg said.

Brief Highlights of the REAL ID (as included in the conference report):

·         All states must require proof of lawful presence in the U.S. if their drivers’ licenses are to be accepted as a form of identification to a federal official.  The conference report clarifies that getting aboard a commercial airplane or entering a federal building or a nuclear power plant are among the official federal purposes.  States must comply within 3 years of law’s enactment. 

·         Temporary driver’s license issued to a foreign visitor by a state must expire when the visitor’s visa expires, with a maximum term of one year.

·         Does not create a national ID card or a national database.

·         Tightens the asylum system abused by terrorists by allowing immigration judges to determine witness credibility in asylum cases.  In assessing witness credibility, requires the trier of fact “[c]onsider[]. . .the totality of the circumstances, and all relevant factors.”  With respect to statements, the trier of fact is to “[c]onsider[] the circumstances under which the statements were made.”

·         Closing the 3-Mile Hole in the fortified U.S./Mexico Border Fence Near San Diego

·         Ensures all terrorism-related grounds of inadmissability to the U.S. are grounds for deportation from the U.S.  Conference report allows the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive some of the new grounds of inadmissability.  Congress must be given periodic updates on who receives waivers.

·         Provides, after the proper judicial review, reforms to ensure the prompt removal from U.S. of terrorists and criminal aliens.  By restoring judicial review to its former, settled forum, all aliens ordered removed by an immigration judge will be able to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals and then raise constitutional and legal challenges to the circuit court, the second-highest courts in the U.S.