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Real ID Act of 2005

Date: Feb. 10, 2005
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Immigration


REAL ID ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - February 10, 2005)

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman, a better amendment title for this amendment would be The Bounty Hunter Act of 2005.

The amendment gives bail bondsmen authority to round up illegal immigrants and to have them deported without any sort of hearing or due process rights. This amendment would not make our homeland any safer or keep terrorists out. Instead, it would endanger civil rights and create fear in the immigrant community. We should not outsource the Department of Homeland Security's job to a bunch of bounty hunters.

As already has been said, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 has very similar language to this amendment. And for those Members who have not suffered from the ills of slavery and what people went through, I want to share and encourage you to look at this amendment very clearly before it comes to a vote.

Let us give the Department of Homeland Security the 2,000 employees that we authorized for border security, not 2,000 bounty hunters. This is not a reality program. People will not be watching it on TV. We are turning over the Department of Homeland Security's enforcement responsibility to bounty hunters, people who have no training whatsoever, who absolutely can and possibly will infringe on civil rights of the people of this country.

Mr. Chairman, I encourage absolute opposition to this amendment.

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