Charles Norwood: “the House and Senate are finally taking the first small step in decades to address the hordes of criminal illegal…”

“the House and Senate are finally taking the first small step in decades to address the hordes of criminal illegal immigrants who are undermining our Nation's laws, our culture, and our economy. We have agreed to pass the REAL ID Act as part of emergency supplemental appropriations. REAL ID holds the promise of attacking, finally, the underground fake ID industry in this country. This important legislation asks States to implement tough new standards for issuing driver's licenses, that is, if they want their State driver's licenses to be accepted as legitimate identification for Federal purposes. This bill does not force States to do so, nor does this bill implement a new national ID. The opponents of immigration reform, those who really want opened borders, are now screaming that this bill is ``too expensive'' and will ``backlog'' the driver's license application process of legal Americans. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported yesterday the concerns of one bureaucrat at the National Conference of State Legislators. He complained that the REAL ID would cost States $500 million to implement. But my home State of Georgia, like many others, already require many of the standards in this bill. So this figure is very questionable, extremely questionable. But for the sake of argument, let us accept that figure as valid. Would it be worth $500 million to have avoided 9/11?…”