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Oscar Valdez sacrificed a recent Wednesday afternoon to sit in the back of a crowded room full of people. No problem, the Edinburg resident told himself. One afternoon in line and he wouldn’t have to renew his driver’s license again for four years. But Valdez and any other U.S. citizen who plans to use a bank, hospital or federal service after 2010 may have to make another license renewal trip a little sooner than expected. Although Congress passed the Real ID Act more than two years ago, few people know what it is or what it means for them when it is enforced at the end of 2009. Even lawmakers are still trying to figure out what it means. All they have are a set of goals: eradicate fraudulent IDs, cut down on identity theft and consolidate several forms of identification into one harder-to-get card. State legislators and local business owners worry about the cost of issuing and cataloging so many new IDs. Texas lawmakers expect the cost of doing it to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, with the feds pledging to reimburse 20 percent of the cost to each state. As Valdez waited in line at the Texas Department of Safety’s office in McAllen late this summer, he mostly worried about the inconvenience of getting a new ID. “It will be a challenge for people from out of town who do not have access to personal documents,” he said. “But at the same time, it would help protect us.”Why you need a new ID
Freddy Falceson, 41, has driven for years, and he has always renewed his license when necessary. He doesn’t understand why he now might have to present a photo ID, birth certificate, proof of residence and a Social Security card to get a new driver’s license. “I can produce all the documents, but I don’t have them right now,” Falceson said. “I’d have to search for them.”That’s exactly the point.Politicians passed the Real ID Act so U.S. citizens would have to take the extra steps to prove their identities. It was a security measure recommended by Congress’ commission on the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which reported that hijackers used fraudulent IDs to board aircraft. According to the 9/11 staff report, many of the hijackers used passports “manipulated in a fraudulent manner” to board flights although it does not go into specifics about how the passports were manipulated. The new IDs also require machine readable technology, such as bar codes many states already use. Federal officials said this would make the cards more difficult to forge. Those in favor of Real ID have said standardizing the look of state-issued drivers’ licenses would make it easier for security officers to detect manipulated documents, which in turn would beef up security. So states must begin issuing cards compliant with Real ID standards by December 2009. If they don’t, residents of those states will have to bring a photo ID, Social Security card, birth certificate and proof of residence each time they use a federal service, such as a bank, hospital or air travel. That doesn’t mean all residents will have to get new cards in 2009. It just means states must begin phasing the old cards out then. Politicians say that day can’t come soon enough. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee and represents Starr and western Hidalgo counties, said Real ID makes it easier for security officers on the border to protect the country. The Real ID Act gives Americans one type of ID card, and it cuts down on security headaches, Cuellar said.
Critics call Real ID intrusive
Some worry that the Real ID Act will force the country to issue a national ID card, which they call intrusive and a danger to liberties. In February 2005, the American Civil Liberties Union first attacked the policy with a letter to the House of Representatives. The letter called the bill “an unnecessary assault on privacy and the rights of refugees and other immigrants that does very little to enhance the security of our country.” The letter expressed worries that Real ID links driving privileges to immigration status, and it describes a scenario in which legal citizens and others who appear foreign would find it harder to renew and obtain driver’s licenses. A coalition of other concerned liberties and immigrants’ rights groups sent a similar letter to Congress, echoing concerns over Real ID creating a national ID card. Nineteen groups signed the coalition letter, ranging from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse to the League of United Latin American Citizens. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security counters by saying all licenses will look the same, but they will continue to be issued by states rather than a federal agency. The act also does not require states to transmit license information to a federal agency or database. Homeland Security officials say it will have no greater access to personal information than it does now. Still, the ACLU and others continue to oppose the measure for the difficulty it posses to immigrants and the potential of a federal database.
States must prepare to issue new IDs
Like in most other states, Texas officials don’t know how they will issue new IDs to the state’s more than 23 million residents. Homeland Security officials have not released final requirements for what will make licenses REAL ID compliant, and state lawmakers have not locked down funding to make their IDs compliant. Until those two things happen, the states can’t really move forward with their Real ID compliance. “We’re still waiting on the rules from the federal government,” said Tom Vinger, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Safety. “So, in a sense it’s a moot point.” The states, however, will be responsible for most of the cost to comply with the new law. Texas lawmakers said they will push the federal government and others to help pay these costs, but there is also a strong possibility that some of the burden to cover the state’s roughly 80 percent portion will fall to residents. As federal officials iron out the exact timeline and requirements for Real ID, many states have passed legislation excoriating the requirements. These bills range from legislation in Arizona that calls for Congress to repeal the unfunded mandate to a bill in Montana that plain opposes the act. For now, state governments can only wait. Texas lawmakers said they expect to work out more of the requirements during the 2008 legislative session, and the paramount task stands to be educating a general public that is almost entirely oblivious to the Real ID program — especially because many state and federal lawmakers are waiting to learn the specifics themselves. Cuellar said he expects major awareness campaigns to launch once the details become clear. “This is something we need to start talking about more and more,” he said.
As in the days of Noah.....
