Ed Royce: “I do rise in opposition, and I thought what I might do is simply quote some of the testimony before this Congress…”

“I do rise in opposition, and I thought what I might do is simply quote some of the testimony before this Congress, starting with Steve McCraw of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of Intelligence, and he says of these cards: ``It is the terrorist threat presented by matricula consular that is most worrisome. The ability of foreign nationals to use the matricula consular to create a well-documented but fictitious identity in the United States provides an opportunity for terrorists to move freely within the United States without triggering name-based watch lists that are disseminated to local police officers.'' Now, that is problem number one. Problem two, as the FBI says, ``It also allows them to board planes without revealing their true identity.'' Mr. McCraw goes on to say that ``Federal officials have discovered individuals from many different countries in possession of matricula consular cards, and that is because the documents are easy to forge.'' He testified that ``An individual of Middle Eastern descent has also been arrested and was in possession of a matricula consular card.'' What we are doing here, if we pass this amendment, is legalizing a method that would make it easy for terrorists to gain access to our financial system, thereby enabling the next group of terrorists to freely move money around the United States and finance their operations. This flies in the face of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations to strengthen I.D.'s.…”