SAVE Act, REAL ID, immigration, and the coming surveillance state
There’s been a lot of talk from Trump and his “conservative” Republican buddies about the need to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a bill that will allegedly keep illegal immigrants from voting in US elections. However, what these defenders of liberty (sarcasm) are choosing not to disclose is how the SAVE Act is really designed to use the immigration problem and our elections as another way to expand the surveillance state by eventually mandating that every American carry a REAL ID.
Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has many of us already on some form of digital ID already via the REAL ID or DHS’s backup system (ConfirmID) for flyers who haven’t submitted to Big Brother yet. And for good measure, the TSA will submit your digital data to ICE in support of Trump’s deportation efforts (via Technocracy News):
As of February 1, the Trump administration’s crackdown on non-compliant American citizens flying without a federal government-approved REAL ID will result in them being charged an extra fee of $45 and being forced to hand over their biometric data.
The website Biometric Update reports that Acting TSA Director Ha Nguyen McNeill provided the following information:
“Travelers who do not present an acceptable form of ID at TSA checkpoints and still want to fly, have the option of paying a $45 fee and undergoing the TSA ConfirmID process,” McNeill said.
TSA further explains in a press release on its website:
“All airline travelers who use TSA ConfirmID will be subject to additional ID verification, screening measures and potential delays. Travelers who appear at the TSA checkpoint without a REAL ID or other acceptable form of ID and have not already paid the TSA ConfirmID fee will be subject to additional delays which may result in a missed flight.”
Oh, and by the way, all of your personal data will be shared with ICE and likely any other government agencies that ask for it.
When McNeill was pressed on reports that ICE is using domestic flight passenger information to support deportation operations, “she did not deny cooperation,” the outlet reported. “Instead, she defended it as legitimate intra-departmental coordination and framed it as part of DHS’s overall mission set.”
With making it nearly impossible to fly without a REAL ID, and with REAL ID failing to reach the mass population, Trump and his Republican buddies are using the immigration issue to push the SAVE Act, a law that has little to do with election security but everything to do with creating the surveillance state.
Considered a top priority of Speaker Mike Johnson and President Donald Trump, the SAVE Act requires in-person proof of citizenship — such as a U.S. passport or a combination of a driver’s license and birth certificate — to register to vote. But what if you don’t have a passport? What if you’ve lost your birth certificate? What if you don’t drive? Enter former constitutional conservative Sen. Mike Lee, who says that a REAL ID will do the trick.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched the REAL ID Act in 2005. Though allegedly created to improve airport security in post-9/11 America, REAL ID has become key to Washington’s creation of a surveillance state — a primary objective of Trump 2.0 — capable of allowing government the ability to track your every move.
As anyone paying attention should know since 9/11, the Republican/Democrat duopoly rarely launches a full-blown frontal attack in their war on liberty because their intentions would be too obvious. Instead, the strategy they typically use is one that mirrors the advice Screwtape gave his nephew Wormword in the C.S. Lewis novel, The Screwtape Letters.
“Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one, the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”
The beginning of this road to hell is the immigration issue followed by REAL ID mandates. To obtain a REAL ID, you are required to provide local authorities with your social security number, proof of legal residence, and two proofs of your home address. Additionally, DHS has the authority to mandate, as it sees fit, the inclusion of additional items to put in the government database, such as various “biometric” identifiers like retina scans, fingerprints, and DNA.
National ID cards that contain biometric information have been proposed many times in the past as part of immigration reform without success. However, in the current political climate under Donald Trump, it could be successful with passage of the SAVE Act — especially when you consider how he has used immigration and border security to call for making biometric digital IDs mandatory and his established reputation of ignoring the Constitution when it comes to the immigration problem.
Any doubts about his this were answered in this video from his 2016 campaign:
“We will finally complete the Biometric Entry/Exit Visa Tracking System which we need desperately. It will be on land, sea, and air. We will have a proper tracking system.” (Emphasis mine)
With the initial intentions of REAL ID established, we are looking at elections as the next crisis that will require REAL ID to solve, at least that’s how Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) — the author of the SAVE Act — sees it:
“We believe, right, that the structure is put in place now that allow — I think there’s at least five states that do have the citizenship status as part of the Real ID — encourage more states to do so, right? That would be part of the goal here.” (Emphasis mine)
Do you recall how Trump and a host of “conservative” Republicans came out against the right to carry a firearm after ICE murdered Alex Pretti in Minneapolis? Well, according to some gun rights organizations, REAL ID could be used to monitor gun owners since there’s nothing in the law prohibiting the Department of Homeland Security from requiring REAL ID for firearms purchases. Use of REAL ID in this manner would give Big Brother Washington everything it needs to establish the national gun registry it has been working on for years.
Imagine that; the SAVE Act, immigration, and REAL ID could eventually lead to the destruction of the Second Amendment.
If current trends continue, Americans will soon be required to produce a REAL ID to do more than just board a plane. The only missing ingredient to this surveillance state recipe is a full-on digitalized control grid that uses tokenized digital and programmable “money.” Unfortunately, Trump’s GENIUS Act has that covered too!
Like just about every other piece of “for your own good” legislation that comes out of Washington, the SAVE Act will do little to make elections more secure, but it will make REAL ID and the surveillance state a reality.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative and the author of The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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