Unlimited Power to Homeland Security

The Patrick Henry Democratic Club

HR 418 "The Real ID Act" (now attached to and part of HR 1268, the Iraq Appropriations bill)

SEC. 102. WAIVER OF LAWS NECESSARY FOR IMPROVEMENT OF BARRIERS AT BORDERS.

Section 102(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1103 note) is amended to read as follows:

`(c) Waiver-

`(1) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section.

`(2) NO JUDICIAL REVIEW- Notwithstanding any other provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), no court shall have jurisdiction--

`(A) to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1); or

`(B) to order compensatory, declaratory, injunctive, equitable, or any other relief for damage alleged to arise from any such action or decision.'.

So often lawmakers do not realize the ramifications of their words until years after laws go into effect. The best example is the use of Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution as the number one excuse for federal intervention in non-federal matters that do not seem in any logical way related to commerce. It is common practice to take language out of context and use it to apply to situations that those writing those laws could not even begin to imagine. All too often, the courts go along with this extended construction of the law.

Section 102 allows the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive “all laws” with “no judicial review” and no remedies. Notice it does not specify property laws or immigration laws. If this section were to be limited to any particular laws, this limitation would have to be written into it. However, there is no limitation specifying which laws may be waived but rather the limitless statement “all laws.” “All laws” includes laws against murder, terrorism, kidnapping, torture, child abuse, false arrest, etc. Therefore the “all laws” necessarily include those related to death camps, the closing of borders and even mass murder.

The lack of judicial review, while undoubtedly unconstitutional, is likely to be adhered to by timid justices and those in the employ of the Bush and Cheney families. Is this another end run around the Right of Habeas Corpus? The Constitutional Right of Habeas Corpus proved ineffective against Ashcroft. Jose Padilla is still not free and HR 418 was not even in existence when he was placed in detention.

The result of one barrier and roads project was Auschwitz. HR 418 appears likely to take America in the same direction followed by Germany under Adolph Hitler, when he closed the borders and sent people to the death camps.