First North American Union Driver's Licenses Issued in US
By Jim Kouri CPP (09/21/07)
While the battle over providing illegal aliens with driver's licenses rages in state capitals and Washington, DC, North Carolina created the first "North American Union" driver's license, complete with a hologram of the North American continent on the licenses.
The hologram is a facsimile of the map of North America that is used as the background for the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America logo on the SPP website.
Marge Howell, spokeswoman for the North Carolina DMV, told the press that the state was embedding a hologram of North America on the back of their new driver's licenses. "It's a security element that eventually will be on the back of every driver's license in North America," Howell said.
Howell explained the hologram of the North American continent was the creation of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization that, according to the group's website, "develops model programs in motor vehicle administration, law enforcement and highway safety."
Founded in 1933, AAMVA represents state and provincial officials in the United States and Canada who administer and enforce motor vehicle laws. The government of Mexico is also a member, though the individual Mexican states have yet to join.
According to the group's website, AAMVA's programs are designed "to encourage uniformity and reciprocity among the states and provinces."
"The goal is of the North American hologram," Howell explained, "is to get one common element that law enforcement throughout the continent can look at on all driver's licenses and tell that the driver's license is an official document."
Jason King, spokesman for AAMVA, affirmed the North American hologram was created by AAMVA's Uniform Identification Subcommittee, a working group of AAMVA members.
He explained the goal is to create a continental security device that could be used by state and provincial motor vehicles agencies throughout North America, including the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
King referenced a document on the AAMVA website that describes guidelines for using the North America continent hologram as an Optical Variable Device (OVD) that AAMVA has now licensed with private manufacturers to produce.
AAMVA supplies member motor vehicle agencies with a quantity of North American continent hologram OVD foils to use on their driver's licenses and ID cards as needed.
As the guidelines document on the AAMVA explains, each North American continental hologram OVD foil is embedded with a unique set of control numbers that permit law enforcement electronic scanners to identify the exact jurisdiction and precise individual authorized to hold a driver's license or ID card with that particular OVD foil embedded.
"AAMVA understands its unique positioning and the continuing role identification security will play in helping the general public realize a safer North America," King said. "The association believes ID security will help increase national security, increase highway safety, reduce fraud and system abuse, increase efficiency and effectiveness, and achieve uniformity of processes and practices."
Missouri State Rep. Jim Guest has held a seminar in North Carolina to protest the Real ID law. The surprise came at a meeting on the Real ID held in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Saturday, July 28,"
When Rep. Guest asked participants to take out their driver's license and see what was on it one gentleman was a state employee and on his license there was this hologram with the North American continent on the back. They were all surprised to see that on a North Carolina driver's license.
Guest has formed a coalition called Legislators Against Real ID Act, or LARI.
"I was astonished when I saw that North American hologram on the North Carolina driver's license," Guest said. "I thought to myself that the state DMV has already included this North American symbol on the back of the driver's license without telling the people of North Carolina they were going to do this."
"I thought right then that this was going to be the prototype for the driver's license of the North American Union. When we called the North Carolina DMV, they hedged at first," Guest said, "but finally they admitted that, yes, there was a North American continent hologram on the back of the license."
"This is part of a plan by bureaucrats and trade groups that act like bureaucrats to little by little transform us into a North American Union without any vote being taken and without explaining to the U.S. public what they are doing," Guest argued.
In 2005, North Carolina was the state where illegal immigrants go to get a driver's license, with busloads of aliens travel south on I-95 to get an easy ID.
The Tar Heel State's requirements to obtain a license are weaker than those of many surrounding states.
In 2006, Pastor Rios Sanchez, 55, an illegal alien, was accused of killing three people, including two North Carolina State University students and a 26-year-old, while driving drunk.
(This article is based on a report received by the National Association of Chiefs of Police.)
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