mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman for yielding me time . 
mr. speaker , the real id act is a real travesty . 
it has little to do with homeland security , and it represents just the latest in a string of anti-immigrant proposals so unfortunately popular with certain of our republican colleagues . 
instead of putting the safety of our families first , these are the same folks that would have turned our emergency room doctors into border patrol agents ; who would have cut the funding to cities that did not conduct immigration raids ; and who would interfere with the people with whom our private banking institutions could serve and encourage instead an underground , black market financial system . 
this same anti-immigrant fervor continues to fuel this bad bill . 
the real id act is designed to make our roads real unsafe . 
undocumented workers will be on our roads . 
that is why the austin police department believes that texans would be safer if the law allowed all drivers to obtain licenses . 
as assistant police chief rudy landeros testified , `` in allowing the community the opportunity to obtain driver 's licenses , they will have to pass a driver 's test , and that will make them not only informed drivers , but safer drivers. '' the texas legislature , in a bill by former representative miguel wise , wisely recognized that requiring all drivers to obtain licenses would make texas families safer . 
had it not been for the veto by texas 's myopic governor , this common-sense call for public safety would be the law in the president 's home state . 
legal immigrants could also be denied a license . 
paula waddle , an immigration attorney in the rio grande valley , explained that her clients are having delays of as much as 15 months in getting their legal permanent residency papers because of confusion at the department of homeland security . 
if these legal immigrants do not have sufficient paperwork to prove their legal status , they will be caught up in this same web of anti-immigrant fervor and denied the opportunity to obtain insurance and drive . 
ironically , consideration of this bill coincides with the release this week by the u.s. commission on international religious freedom . 
this proposal would worsen the plight of those whose conditions were the subject of investigation by that commission : asylum-seekers who already face deplorable conditions , who are often treated like common criminals and thrown into jail with common criminals , and who are subject to strip searches as well as solitary confinement . 
but since current law already bars those who presnet a secruity risk from getting asylum , the additional restrictions in this bill would not make us safer . 
we must not sacrifice our democracy in a misguided attempt to save it . 
this bill strikes the wrong balance . 
anti-immigrant hysteria can not be permitted to drive an agenda that makes us less safe , less healthy , and erodes our civil liberties while failing to address real terrorist threats . 
the real id bill ought to be really rejected fast by this congress . 
