WorldNetDaily: Citizenship check for licenses OK'd

And it's about time.

The REAL-ID Act, a project of Representative (and Chairman of the Judiciary Committee) James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) will accomplish four things:

1. It will set a minimum standard of acceptability for State driver's licenses. Under this Act, any State could still be as lax as it pleased when issuing a driver's license--but a license not meeting the Federal standard would automatically be invalid for such Federal purposes as getting aboard an aircraft. (As I have said before, New Jersey's Motor Vehicle Commission now has built the toughest obstacle course yet to getting a driver's license. So if you can get licensed to drive in New Jersey, people can know that you are whom you say you are. Other States could learn from the New Jersey example.)
2. It makes clear that "political asylum" is no longer a civil right, and grants to judges greater discretionary power to deport an asylum seeker suspected of being a terrorist.
3. It provides specifically for the construction of fences along our borders with Mexico and Canada. And--most important--
4. It lets the Secretary of Homeland Security waive any laws, be they federal, State, or local, that get in the way of erecting border fences. It even strips the courts of jurisdiction over any environmental-impact lawsuits against a security-fence route.

Now some have already stated that the waiver provision would allow the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive any law that he pleased. Not so. I quote:

SEC. 102. WAIVER OF LAWS NECESSARY FOR IMPROVEMENT OF BARRIERS AT BORDERS.

Section 102(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1103 note) is amended to read as follows:

(c) Waiver-

IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section.
1. NO JUDICIAL REVIEW- Notwithstanding any other provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), no court shall have jurisdiction--
   to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1); or
   1. to order compensatory, declaratory, injunctive, equitable, or any other relief for damage alleged to arise from any such action or decision.

In other words, the waivers apply strictly to the question of erecting border fences and building roads near the border for the border patrol to use. This stops all those silly environmental-impact lawsuits that have left gaping holes in our borders, at the aptly-named "smuggler's gulch" near San Diego, CA.

Call your Senators, people. We need this law!