REAL ID

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It used to be: "Show me your drivers license, registration, and proof of insurance." Now, it's: " Show me your drivers license, registration, proof of insurance, and Social Security Number." From the New York Times: " Congress is still a few days away from establishing sweeping federal requirements for a driver's license, including proof that an applicant's presence in the United States is legal. But as Jorge Medina-Gonzalez discovered late last year driving from a Home Depot with a can of paint, the rules of the road in places like Nutley, N.J., have already changed.

Mr. Medina, 42, was close to home when two Nutley police officers stopped his Jeep Cherokee because of a broken taillight. They asked for his license and registration, then his Social Security number. In the few minutes it took them to search a national database in a curbside version of the kind of checks that Congress is about to require nationwide, the American life Mr. Medina had built over 13 years began to crumble."

Mr. Medina is an illegal alien. " His driver's license became a one-way ticket to immigration jail, where he remains."

SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS...

[indago]

And add to that a DNA profile and government has just about all the information that could be desired, along with cellphone GPS tracking; history profile; and etc.

[Guest]

[Steph]

If we are so afraid that we give up our liberty for security, we deserve niether. I believe FDR was correct " We have nothing to fear but fear itself".

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Driver license security may cost billions

Friday, September 22, 2006

The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - New federal security rules for issuing driver licenses could cost $11 billion to implement, raising concerns among states about paying for the changes, according to a national survey of states released Thursday.

"There's no question that state legislators believe driver licenses should be as secure as is possible," said William Pound, executive director of the National Conference of State Legislatures which helped conduct the survey. "The $11 billion question is, `Who's going to pay for it?'"

The requirements - which are not final - are part of the Real ID Act of 2005, which grew out of a recommendation by the Sept. 11 commission. The law requires states to incorporate common security features to prevent tampering or counterfeiting, such as using standard materials in every state to print the cards.

Without such features on their licenses, people would not be allowed to board an airplane or enter a federal building.

Seven of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers exploited a loophole that allowed people to obtain driver licenses and ID cards by submitting sworn statements instead of proof of residency or identity. The biggest cost, about $8.5 billion, would come in re-enrolling the 245 million people who already have driver licenses and identification cards, the survey found.

© 2006 The Birmingham News

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CNN -- LOU DOBBS TONIGHT -- Aired February 26, 2007 - 18:00 ET

Many states are still unhappy over mandatory federal standards for issuing driver's licenses. The Department of Homeland Security is expected to issue new guidelines this week, and states have just over a year to put them in place.

Now, Jeanne Meserve tells us why states are putting up resistance to the law.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I definitely don't think this is going to work.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice over): But it does. The prankster goes into the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles and comes out with a valid driver's license, silly picture and all.

From a security perspective, it is not a laughing matter. After 9/11, Congress mandated tough new federal standards for driver's licenses called Real ID. States are supposed to implement them in little more than a year.

Every one of the 245 million license holders in the United States will have to reapply in person with documents that prove they are citizens or legal residents. The states predict it will swamp motor vehicle offices, creating long waits. Currently, each state issues licenses following their own security standards and with their own features.

KAREN JOHNSON, ARIZONA STATE SENATE: They have no business in our state's business. And that's what they're doing.

MESERVE: Arizona state senator Karen Johnson is sponsoring legislation saying her state will not comply. She says Real ID would invade privacy by creating a large national database of driver information.

JOHNSON: I mean, Homeland Security is the one that's going to be running this database? Give me a break.

MESERVE: Arizona is one of 24 states that has passed or proposed legislation opposing Real ID. The big complaint, the cost -- an estimated $11 billion over five years. The biggest expense is likely to be a requirement that states verify the authenticity of identity documents used to get a license.

DAVID QUAM, NATIONAL GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION: It's verification that not even the federal government can complete for its own employees.

MESERVE: Rody Marshall just got his license renewed in Phoenix in 20 minutes. If Real ID lengthens his wait, it's fine with him.

RODY MARSHALL, PHOENIX RESIDENT: I don't think everybody should just automatically get a driver's license. If it takes -- if it takes a day of your time, that's what it takes.

MESERVE: Homeland Security is taking an even harder line.

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: If we don't get it done now, someone is going to be sitting around in three or four years explaining to the next 9/11 Commission why we didn't do it.

MESERVE: Because the next person who tries to get a driver's license may want to do harm to the country, not just get a laugh.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Phoenix.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: As you mentioned, Kitty, the Department of Homeland security is expected to issue long-awaited regulations perhaps this week that will lay out the specifics of what states have to do to comply with Real ID. Some are guessing that will fuel the uproar rather than dampen it -- Kitty.

PILGRIM: Jeanne, what are the consequences to the states of not complying with this law?

MESERVE: Well, what the law says, if you do not comply, then your licenses can't be used as federal IDs. That means you can't use them to get into federal buildings, you can't use them to board airplanes. So consequence for the citizens.

PILGRIM: Yes. It seems like it.

Thanks very much.

Jeanne Meserve.

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Lisa Sylvester reported 9 February 2007:

[dissenters]

If I have a drivers license I dont need a plane the way I drive.