Sen. Mike Haridopolos Files Secure I.D. Bill --- S486

FLORIDA SENATE AND HOUSE CO-SPONSORS ARE NEEDED. CALL YOUR FLORIDA SENATOR AND REPRESENTATIVE AND ASK THEM TO CO-SPONSOR S486.
 

See http://www.flimen.org/contact_officials.htm for telephone numbers.

With the help of a first draft start from Rosemary Jenks, Director of Government Relations at NumbersUSA, Sen. Mike Haridopolos of Melbourne agreed to sponsor some much needed legislation to eliminate identity fraud so pervasive in Florida. He filed the Florida Secure & Verifiable I.D. Act, S486 on November 12, 2005.

Sen. Haridopolos was instrumental in the past two legislative sessions to defeat attempts to allow driver's licenses to illegal aliens, and to give in-state tuition rates (college tuition subsidy) to illegally resident students.

S486 will disallow the acceptance by any state agency " for the purpose of establishing identity, as required to obtain a public benefit, license or permit, any document except those described....."

Nor is any state agency " charged with registering individuals to vote....any document except those described..." a s follows:

1) Valid, unexpired U.S. passports, immigration documents issued by the Federal Government, and other identification documents issued by a Federal authority and bearing a photograph of the applicant;

2) Valid, unexpired identification documents issued by a State or local authority if; (A) the document bears a photograph of the applicant, (B) the issuing State or local authority statutorily bars issuance of such identification documents to aliens unlawfully present in the U.S., or

(C) the State or local authority requires independent verification of records provided by the applicant in support of the application; or

3) Valid, unexpired foreign passports, if such passports include or are accompanied by proof of lawful presence in the U.S.

This legislation, if passed substantially as drafted, should eliminate the Mexican consular card (or any other government's consular cards) that are notoriously unreliable.

Despite F.B.I. testimony to Congress in June of 2003 critical of Mexico's consular card, the Ohio News Network, this past July, reported that matricula consular IDs are accepted in 33 states, more than 800 cities and by 1,200 law enforcement agencies.

The F.B.I. testimony by Steve McCraw, Ass't. Director of the Office of Intelligence, noted that the Mexican government has no centralized database to coordinate the issuance of consular ID cards so multiple cards can be issued under the same name, and even the newest version of the cards can be easily replicated.

Two criminal threats arise from using the consular ID as a 'breeder' document to establish false identity for multiple types of crime including alien smuggling.

Sen. Haridopolos is seeking co-sponsors for the bill in both the Senate and House.

The text of the bill is at: Senate 0486: Relating to Verification of Identity.

December 5, 2005