September 28, 2015

By: Kelly Diamond, Publisher

passport controlI find myself often engaging in conversations having to do with moving and relocating. I’ve done it my whole life. My family was moving on average every two years my entire childhood, not because my dad was military or anything. He was just restless, I suppose. My sisters went on to plant some roots, but I carried on the tradition of moving every so often. I’ve lived Oregon, Michigan, Texas, and New Hampshire, and all over California. I also spent a little time out in Japan and Australia.

When I talk to people about immigration, some of the major allegations are that immigrants “steal” American jobs, overload our welfare doles, and all the violent criminals are coming over the border. So I pose it to them this way:

  • If someone moved from Texas to California and found gainful employment, are they a Texan stealing a Californian’s job?
  • What if a violent criminal were to feel the heat of the law catching up to him, and he decided to move from Nevada to Utah to get away from Nevada law enforcement?
  • What if someone moved from a red state like Texas, to a blue state like Massachusetts or California for the better welfare programs?

The response to which is overwhelmingly: Well, that’s different! It’s the same country. We have interstate agreements that allow for that sort of thing.

Uh-huh. I see. So, if we have a North American Union like Europe has the European Union, then it would be okay? All those problems listed out earlier would become null and void? Migration would no longer be this nefarious and sinister act of global conquest or international invasion, but rather a simple act of free individuals.

Why do I bring this all up?

Well, for one thing, Global Wealth Protection has been a stalwart advocate of second passports, second citizenships, and second residencies. The greatest strategy in achieving ultimate freedom is sometimes playing strictly by the rules.

Turns out, however, that Americans might need a passport just to travel from state to state! Considering that the majority of Americans don’t even have a FIRST passport, this might pose a problem. What happened to that interstate agreement? The one that made migration both legal and benign. Well, as the United States moves toward nationalizing everything from healthcare to marriage, it should come as no surprise that the US is trying to nationalize identification as well.

(If this isn’t totally reminiscent of the various Nazi era Kennkarta, I don’t know what is!)

The REAL ID Act was passed back in 2005 at the behest of the 9/11 Commission. Apparently, having a national standard for personal identification is SO integral to our national security, it’s taken ten years for anyone to even take it seriously enough to write about it. The Patriot Act was sold and resold on similar grounds. That was allowed to expire. But for some reason, REAL ID still has its dukes up ready to take a swing at liberty!

It’s true that this bill was passed. It’s true that it was meant to be implemented in phases. But it’s also true that states have been resisting and filing extensions for years. Not ONE state is in full compliance with REAL ID.

However, the claim is that starting sometime in 2016 people traveling with driver licenses from New York, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire and American Samoa will not be allowed to use those licenses as valid IDs to fly domestically. Their states will either need to get in compliance with the structure and format outlined within the REAL ID Act or the individuals will need to apply for a national ID such as passports and passport cards, as well as permanent resident cards, U.S. military ID, and DHS trusted traveler cards such a Global Entry and NEXUS.

The TSA will also accept Enhanced Driver’s Licenses, which are currently used en lieu of passports for travel to and from Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Of the noncompliant states, only New York and Minnesota offer them.

This isn’t a liberal vs conservative, right wing vs left wing issue. Opponency to REAL ID has forged some bipartisan alliances such as that between Republican Governor Bobby Jindal and the ACLU.

REAL ID creates a national ID card that has nothing to do with the ability to drive and everything to do with government snooping on innocent people. We don’t need that, and never have. If it were so essential to national security, it would have been enforced years ago.” — Marjorie Esman, executive director of the Louisiana chapter of the ACLU.

I don’t know how REAL ID is supposed to make us safer either in theory or in practice, and there isn’t any substantive evidence that it can or will achieve any such metric, but the stated purpose of it remains as a matter of “national security”.

The reality is, that it’s a federally unfunded project which will cost millions to each state offering no real benefit to anyone other than the busy bodies at the federal level. The federal government has spent over $250 million on this ridiculous act of its own, and the best it can do is cheer that they have nearly 80% compliance to a watered down version of the bill.

Jim Harper over at the Cato Institute thinks this is much ado about nothing. I’m inclined to agree, however, so long as there is a law on the books, any administration could impetuously drop the hammer and fully implement this heavy handedly from the top down. Mr. Harper sees no need for state or individual compliance since the very idea that a handful of people from a handful of jurisdictions would be denied free travel within the same country is politically combustible.

This goes back to what the devoted patriots claim made it “okay” for American citizens to migrate from state to state harmlessly: that interstate reciprocity agreement. It’s sweet how they take for granted something as simple as interstate travel and migration. At one point, international travel and migration was equally simple. In fact, it was only a few generations ago that my great grandparents showed up from Russia, illiterate, totally unable to speak a lick of English, with several children in tow, broke and unemployed, seeking a new life in the United States. The “immigration process” consisted of a TB test and a name change.

Right now, it’s just talk and a relatively inactive law. But a US Kennkarta, coupled with FATCA, and various new measures to deny Americans the right to freely travel is downright scary. The US Secretary of State has a tremendous amount of latitude to deny someone a passport to deactivate an existing passport ranging from allegations of “aiding a terrorist” to delinquency on owed taxes.

There is no definition of what ‘aided’ means, no chance to dispute the Secretary’s decision, no trial or presentation of evidence, and in fact any evidence the government has can be classified as secret so that you may not see it. In effect the Secretary of State can unilaterally consign you to internal exile and there is nothing you can do about it,” writes Daniel McAdams of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

That the Secretary of State is now being roped in to help corral $400 million in delinquent tax revenue shows just how desperate the US has become. Clearly, taxes are not voluntary and travel is hardly a right. This is the land of the free? Interesting what passes for freedom these days.

If any of this has you clenching your wallet a little tighter, it might be time to schedule a consultation to see how you can dodge some or all of this nonsense! Click here now, and cover your assets!