REAL ID Act of 2005 & Its Interpretation

This book analyses the major provisions of H.R. 418, which would, inter alia, (1) modify the eligibility criteria for asylum and withholding of removal; (2) limit judicial review of certain immigration decisions, (3) provide additional waiver authority over laws that might impede the expeditious construction of barriers and roads along the US-Mexican border near San Diego; (4) expand the scope of terror-related activity making an alien inadmissible and deportable (removable), as well as ineligible for certain forms of relief from removal; and (5) require states to meet certain minimum security standards in order for the drivers’ licenses and personal identification cards they issue to be accepted for federal purposes (a bill by Representative Tom Davis, containing only the provisions relating to drivers’ licenses and personal identification cards, has also been introduced as H.R. 368, the Driver’s License Security and Modernisation Act). This book describes relevant current law relating to immigration and document-security matters, how H.R. 418 would alter current law if enacted, and the degree to which the bill duplicates existing law.