5-11 Campaign
The 5-11 Campaign is a single-issue, grassroots campaign that seeks to repeal the federal Real ID Act of 2005 and stop implementation of the Real ID Act in the United States. The campaign was founded on May 11, 2008, the date of enactment of the Real ID Act of 2005. The campaign works mainly through legislation submissions, grassroots activism, and grassroots community education. Background The 5-11 Campaign began as a conversation at Brave New Books between Harlan Dietrich, the store's owner and literacy activist, and Sheila Dean, anti-Real ID activist and blogger. The idea for the campaign came about by contrasting 9-11, the culturally ingrained term for the World Trade Center disaster, with May 11, 2008 (5-11), the enactment date of the Real ID Act of 2005. The date 5-11 was seen as of critical importance, as every American’s citizenship is now in question. Positions The 5-11 Campaign opposes the Real ID for reasons involving privacy, identity security, Constitutional sovereignty, the ineffective and wasteful nature of the bill, national security, and other reasons listed below. Privacy The Real ID's RFID technology allows the ability for tracking, profiling and identity theft, and Real ID "will inevitably expand to facilitate a wide range of surveillance activities." Real ID will be a powerful continuance of the ever-growing surveillance society, already seen in the U.S. in the form of increased video surveillance, data surveillance, and government databases. While Real ID does not yet have a biometrics components, such as fingerprint and iris scans, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed that in time it will inevitably be a part of the Real ID program. Identity security The Real ID poses the threat of increased identity fraud. The machine-readable strip on each Real ID will contain unprotected personal information. The private sector and anyone with a barcode reader will have access to the cardholders personal data, which will expose the cardholder to tracking, profiling, and identity theft. The Real ID will be vulnerable to insider and outsider fraud because The Real ID Act requires States to connect their drivers license data to the data of all 55 other states and territories. Thousands of false driver's licenses are already being issued by bribed state employees, and the Federal Government has exposed the personal information of as many as 40 million Americans to potential theft. The Real ID database will certainly be a target for identity thieves. Passage of the Act The 5-11 Campaign opposes the way that the Real ID Act was passed. While the official DHS site claims Congress responded to a recommendation from the 8/11 Commission Report by passing the Real ID Act, The Real ID Act of 2005 was previously rejected as a stand-alone bill and was then inserted into a bundled legislation bill HR1268, titled Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005. The 5-11 Campaign opposes the covert passage of the Real ID Act, as it was slipped into a bundle