The Real Importance of REAL ID: A Strategy for Saving the Secure Driver's License Initiative

The Heritage Foundation ^ | May 4, 2007 | by James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.

[Sarajevo]

The 9/11 Commission made the case that state driver's licenses need to become a more secure cre­dential. Congress acted--twice, passing laws to establish national standards. Now this common-sense initiative is under attack and may never be implemented. Congress and the Administration must act decisively to make the REAL ID program a reality. They need a strategy that encourages states with the capac­ity to implement REAL ID to do so quickly, demonstrating its viabil­ity and value. Once REAL ID is underway, momentum will build for other states to join; their citi­zens will not want to be left out of a program that materially contributes to their safety, their prosperity, and the protection of individual freedoms.

Why REAL ID? Identity is one of the cornerstones of a free society. Many transactions, from cashing a check to boarding a plane, are predicated on an assumption that free citizens in a free society should be free to act as they choose under the rule of law.That is why criminals and terrorists work so assiduously to obtain identity instruments or the "breeder documents" (such as birth certificates) that are used to obtain identification cards. Billions of dol­lars is lost each year due to identity theft, the fraudu­lent obtaining of government benefits, and other criminal activities. In addition, the 9/11 hijackers obtained 17 driver's licenses and 13 state-issued identifications. Some had duplicate driver's licenses.

This is unacceptable. Any costs involved in implementing reasonably secure standard identifi­cation cards will be more than recouped by the contribution that secure IDs make to facilitating travel and com­merce while combating criminal exploitation of the freedoms of a free society.

What Is Required? The 9/11 Commission concluded that "the federal government should set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of identifi­cation, such as driver's licenses." Congress acted. Both the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Preven­tion Act of 2004 and the REAL ID Act of 2005 required national standards including:

• Requiring individuals obtaining driver's licenses or personal identification cards to present docu­mentation to establish identity, including U.S. nationality or lawful immigration status, and then verifying the validity of the documents.
• Establishing physical security features for ID cards to prevent tampering, counterfeiting, or fraud.
• Implementing security plans for state ID card issuance and computer systems, including employee background checks.
• Ensuring that states share information to combat fraud and other criminal activity.

What Is the Problem? In the time since Con­gress acted, concerted efforts to undermine this pro­gram have included calling for further deferral of its implementation, demanding that the federal gov­ernment spend tens of billions of dollars to upgrade state issuance facilities, trying to eliminate the requirement that citizenship or legal immigration status be validated, or even killing the whole pro­gram because of privacy concerns. None of these criticisms is warranted.

• Further postponing implementation will only encourage states to avoid making the invest­ments needed to implement the law. Implemen­tation has already been delayed until the end of 2009. This provides more than enough time to establish regulations to implement REAL ID and for states to undertake and fund the programs needed for them to do their part.
• Expecting the federal government to foot the bill for states that continually fail to provide their cit­izens secure IDs is wrong.
• Eliminating the requirement for states to certify citizenship or lawful residence status under­mines the purpose of REAL ID.
• Raising the specter of privacy concerns is disin­genuous. The law does not give government more access to personal information, nor does it create a national data base. In fact, the law adds privacy protections by requiring more security and background checks for government employ­ees who handle personal data.

What Is the Answer? Congress and the Admin­istration need a strategy to jump-start REAL ID. Specifically, they should:

• Not expect states to use funds from homeland security grants to implement REAL ID: That is just "robbing Peter to pay Paul." Homeland secu­rity grants are meant to help build a national pre­paredness and response system. Congress should therefore appropriate specific funds for REAL ID, with the federal government paying its fair share of the costs of implementation.
• Focus federal dollars on the states closest to implementing REAL ID. This will show that the initiative can work and demonstrate the benefits of the program.
• Work with states that want to ensure that their driver's licenses meet federal standards under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative so that they can be used instead of passports for travel between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. This will make REAL ID even more beneficial for states whose citizens frequently drive across the border.

What Is Right for America? REAL ID is the right answer at the right time. The alternatives are stark. One is to continue to live in the "wild West," where documents are counterfeited or exploited at will, costing the economy billions, disrupting the lives of millions, and putting all at greater risk. The other is a national identity card that will cost many times the expense of implementing REAL ID and that really will be an additional intrusion into the lives of all Americans. Compared to the options of doing noth­ing or putting "Big Brother" in charge, REAL ID offers a sensible and sound program for creating the secure identity documents that are needed to help keep American safe, free, and prosperous.

James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., is Assistant Director of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies and Senior Research Fellow for National Security and Homeland Security in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

[kabar]

Buddy, you don't know what you are talking about.

REAL ID: Myths & Facts

Buddy, Real ID is national ID.

Fact: REAL ID simply sets minimum standards so that the public can have confidence in the security and integrity of driver’s licenses and identification cards issued by all participating states and jurisdictions.

--States and jurisdictions will maintain their ability to design and issue their own unique driver’s licenses and identification cards. Each state and jurisdiction will continue to have flexibility with regard to the design and security features used on the card. Where REAL ID details the minimum data elements that must be included on the face of the card, most states and jurisdictions already include all or almost all of these data elements on their cards.

--REAL ID identification documents will not be the only form of documentation accepted by the federal government or any other entity. You can still present another form of acceptable identification such as a U.S. passport, military ID, or government identification badge. If you do not have another form of acceptable documentation, however, you may experience delays at the airport due to the requirement for additional security screening.

[Secret Agent Man]

Friend,

it is de facto national ID. The Feds are forcing a standard on all states so that the FEDs have all the data they want on an ID. This is a states rights and individual rights issue. They will make life miserable for citizens (who are citizens of the sovereign states, we are not federal citizens) whose states don’t kowtow to the demands. It is none of the federal government’s business to compel states to issue IDs that contain what the federal govt wants. These are official state ids. It has already been proven people will be able to change data on a real ID card. They have already shown they cna do this with biometric US passports that the feds claimed were hacker-proof encrypted. These things will also be copied. It is a total joke. It is unbridled federalism.

I don’t have time to argue with you. I suggest you spend time reading things about Real ID other than this one recent article. You are late to the game, and the guy who wrote this, has it wrong.

[kabar]

I don’t have time to argue with you. I suggest you spend time reading things about Real ID other than this one recent article. You are late to the game, and the guy who wrote this, has it wrong.

I am very familiar with the Real ID act. The Reps in the House, namely Jim Sensenbrenner, fought a tough fight to get it passed. The Dems fought against it because they want their buddies in ACORN to continue with their voter fraud and they want to protect the "undocumented workers." And the terrorists are given free reign. The 20 9/11 hijackers had 65 state driver's licenses between them.

The link I provided was from DHS. Oh, by the way, your good pal, Janet Napolitano is trying to get it repealed. Homeland Security chief seeks to repeal Real ID Act

Obama and his toadies are dismanteling our security safeguards, including Real ID. For those of us who work on the immigration issue lobbying on the Hill, the real reason they want to kill Real ID is because Obama doesn't want to hassle the illegal aliens who are running around without driver's licenses or have used fraudulent documents to get them. And there are four states that issue drivers licenses to illegals.

I gather you are a Libertarian who can care less about our borders or voting fraud. I suggest you read the actual legislation. Also, what is your solution to sorting out the 12 to 30 million illegals living amongst us and the tens of thousands of potential terrorists who are entering our country. What documents do you propose that we use to demonstrate that someone is here legally? What ID document do you use to board an aircraft? Do you support E-Verify?

[Wallace T.]

It's amazing that this country had prolonged conflicts with the Communist bloc for over 40 years, and a four year war with Germany and Japan for four years, yet we managed to triumph in these conflicts without the imposition of national IDs. These powers were all far more formidable than are the Muslim terrorists, and also had a considerable body of domestic sympathizers, such as German-American Bund and the Christian Front during World War II and the Communist Party and its fellow travelers during the Cold War. Yet, unless you were a young man of military age during World War II or a Communist or a sympathizer during the 1950s, your freedoms were not restricted. As for immigration, this country did an effective job in controlling that problem from 1920 to 1965, without resorting to mandatory identification. The Eisenhower administration did an effective job in rounding up and deporting illegals in the Southwest without imposing controls on the general population.

The idea of Federal involvement in these matters is also unsupported by the Constitution, unless you can find it in the penumbras and emanations of which liberals seem so fond.

[kabar]

It's amazing that this country had prolonged conflicts with the Communist bloc for over 40 years, and a four year war with Germany and Japan for four years, yet we managed to triumph in these conflicts without the imposition of national IDs.

The America of the 1940s is far different than the one we have now. The Immigration Act of 1965 changed it forever. There are now over 40 million foreign born residents of the US. The total population of the US in 1940 was 132 million.

The U.S. adds one international migrant (net) every 36 seconds. Immigrants account for one in 8 U.S. residents, the highest level in more than 80 years. In 1970 it was one in 21; in 1980 it was one in 16; and in 1990 it was one in 13. In a decade, it will be one in 7, the highest it has been in our history. And by 2050, one in 5 residents of the U.S. will be foreign-born. Currently, 1.6 million legal and illegal immigrants settle in the country each year; 350,000 immigrants leave each year, resulting in net immigration of 1.25 million. Since 1970, the U.S. population has increased from 203 million to 306 million, i.e., over 100 million. In the next 40 years, the population will increase by 135 million. Three-quarters of the increase in our population since 1970 and the projected increase will be the result of immigration. The U.S., the world’s third most populous nation, has the highest annual rate of population growth of any developed country in the world, i.e., 0.975% (2009 estimate), principally due to immigration.

No one is advocating an National ID. Certainly not the author of this piece from the Heritage Foundation. We do need ways to identify who is here legally and illegally. An estimated 500,000 illegals enter this country annually.

These powers were all far more formidable than are the Muslim terrorists, and also had a considerable body of domestic sympathizers, such as German-American Bund and the Christian Front during World War II and the Communist Party and its fellow travelers during the Cold War. Yet, unless you were a young man of military age during World War II or a Communist or a sympathizer during the 1950s, your freedoms were not restricted.

We did round up Japanese, Italians, and Germans and put them in camps during WWII. Today, we are fighting an enemy that is a non-state actor. They operate in countries throughout the world, including in the US. More people were killed on 9/11 than at Pearl Harbor. WMD is now more readily available to the terrorists, which makes them much more dangerous in terms of civilian casualties. You really can't compare the two. Different threats, different times.

The Eisenhower administration did an effective job in rounding up and deporting illegals in the Southwest without imposing controls on the general population.

We no longer have the political will to conduct an Operation Wetback and the numbers are much greater today. Obama and the last GOP Presidential candidate both wanted to legalize the status of those who entered illegally, i.e., amnesty. It remains to be seen if it happens, but if it does, this country is finished with the stroke of a pen. Moreover, even if amnesty doesn't happen, we are still being destroyed by the 1.2 million LEGAL immigrants who enter this country. We can't assimilate those numbers, especially since most of them are poor and uneducated. Milton Friedman said, “You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state.” The idea of Federal involvement in these matters is also unsupported by the Constitution, unless you can find it in the penumbras and emanations of which liberals seem so fond.

The Federal Government is responsibile for our national security. We have 12 to perhaps 30 million illegal aliens running around this country, about 30% top 40% are visa overstays, i.e., they entered legally. How do you propose we deport them without the federal, state, and local governments cooperating with one another? Do you believe that states and cities should be allowed to establish sanctuaries for illegals? What is your opinion on 287 [g] authority and E-Verify?

There has been a lot of knee-jerk response to Real ID, which is not a national ID card and doesn't invade personal privacy. The federal government is dictating such things as airport security. Do you think that should be allowed up to the states?

Are you against metal detactors and x-ray machines prior to boarding an aircraft. We didn't have that in the 1940s or 1950s so why are they needed now?

[Joe 6-pack]

"It's amazing that this country...managed to triumph in these conflicts without the imposition of national IDs."

Very true and yet, just a symptom of the much greater problem of our society's abandonment of its moral underpinnings and cultural virtues.

I'm a lover of technology, but while it has increased our capabilities exponentially, it remains a strictly amoral proposition: it can be used for tremendous good or evil. The decline in personal, professional and public ethics will almost inevitably lead to its use for control of the masses rather than to expand individual liberty. A national ID is simply one of the first steps in this direction.