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Air travel could get a little harried for Illinois residents this spring. Illinois is one of seventeen states that have passed legislation or resolutions objecting to the post-9/11 REAL ID Act’s provisions over concerns it could cost too much to implement. The law is designed to make driver's licenses more secure.
On Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced the final details of the rules, and said that states have until May 2008 to comply or ask for an exemption. On Saturday, Secretary of State Jesse White said that the State would be asking for more time to implement the REAL ID Program. The extension will give the State until January 2010 to comply, without which travelers from Illinois would have to use passports or another form of Federally-issued identification.
The REAL ID program established national standards for state drivers licenses and ID cards. Some provisions include photographing the applicant at the beginning of the process so if the applicant is denied the ID, there is a photographic record of the individual; three layers of security systems built into the cards; and state DMV offices being required to verify birth certificates and check with other states to verify the individual doesn’t have an ID from another state.
Michael Chertoff photo by Alex Wong via Encyclopedia Britannica.
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So do I have to go get a new drivers license, even though the perfectly legal one I have doesn't expire until June 2010? I have this completely fantastic picture on my drivers license that I would hate to give up.
I feel safer already.
I've always taken my passport to the airport, since before 9/11. It's kind of the gold-standard ID.
Babysteps to the national ID card/barcode/chip implant/Cheney collar.
Your passport is the gold-standard ID, except at the Apple Store in Old Orchard which wouldn't take my passport, but insisted on my DL.
Papers please!
So now we won't even be able to travel within our own country without proving who we are? What is this country coming to. Welcome to the United Staten von Amerika.
We don't need to be afraid of terrorists, we need to be afraid of our government.
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" - Ben Franklin.
What is this country coming to, you ask?
Uh, we already cannot board planes without IDs, and can hardly exist in modern society with an SS number. Trying buying our using another mode of transportation more glamorous than a bike without proper ID. Whatever this country is coming to, it arrived there a while ago. Getreal.
The German rendering of the USA was cute, as though this were early 1942 again. Nice retro agitprop.
i think IL is one of the states trying to protest this. i am also hoping that we can convince someone to do away with this with another president. michael chertoff isn't going to be there forever!!
this was all attached to a military funding/tsunami relief bill. just because a law was passed, doesn't mean we can't repeal it, right!? i think this is all very, very dangerous. read up on this one, kids. it gives me the mega mega creeps.
I guess I'm missing the big picture of why something like this would be "very, very dangerous". As matilda said, you can't get on a plane currently without showing a driver's license or state ID, what's the big deal about standardizing the way those IDs are issued? I don't recall reading anything about Checkpoint Charlies being set up on the Wisconsin border. And getting a REAL ID wouldn't be mandatory would it? Of course, it would hamper a lot of activities, but again, so does the lack of a state photo ID...
Do other countries in the free world handle IDs on a "federal" level, or is it more localized?
Newguest2: I actually oppose this law as I have serious concerns about the reliability of the databases that will be used under the Real ID scheme, and question the cost-benefit relationship of this program, which will costs states billions of dollars.
I just think Getreal was making an outdated point, that's all. Clearly our society long ago decided it was comfortable with a type of civic culture that required regular ID checks and identification numbers.
I didn't mean to imply you were for the Real ID. I'm not currently for or against it -- the points you make I haven't read enough about to form an opinion one way or the other, But I respect that at least they are firmly based in reality rather than scary George Orwell boogey man paranoia...
A few things from the DHS website re: RealID:
"In the proposed rule, DHS is proposing to limit the official purposes of a REAL ID license to those listed by Congress in the law: accessing a Federal facility; boarding Federally-regulated commercial aircraft; and entering nuclear power plants. DHS may consider expanding these official purposes through future rulemakings to maximize the security benefits of REAL ID."
"The proposed regulation requires that REAL ID licenses be valid for a period limited to eight years. If a state has maintained the source document images, the DMV may re-verify that information without requiring that the applicant re-present the source documents. If, however, the State does not have the information and images of source documents at the time of the renewal, the State would need to require the applicant to re-submit any appropriate, missing documentation."
First, I like how they say that they can expand this process to include things that they see fit to maximize security.
Second: if the state loses everything, I will have to get my "source documents": SS card, birth certifiate, etc., even though I am holding my license. We all know how competent DHS is already, with inaccurate no-fly lists and whimsical decision making made by individual TSA employees (shoes off! shoes on!) Who is to say that states won't screw this up? Who is to say that this would not turn into a National ID program? Who is to say that the government will not misuse their powers and go on fishing expeditions in these databases?
That's cute that you think the feds don't already have unfettered access to DMV records.
I know that they do already, #2. But this will even give them easier access. And if the databases require even more information, they will have access to that as well.
But thanks for thinking that's cute. I appreciate the condescending tone.
"Unfettered" access in its current form is different from the database requirements under Real ID, #2. The authentication process is different, and the law might alter the vendor landscape, meaning a mistake made in one database could be multiplied more easily in other places. As well, there could be changes about who will make changes to the databases, resulting in other concerns about accountability.