Status of anti-Real ID legislation Maine and Idaho have passed legislation rejecting the Real ID program and similar measures have been introduced in other states, including Washington. States with statute or resolution: Red - Enacted Blue - Passed one chamber Green - Introduced
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Ten Top Real ID Complaints
The Real ID law has met with a fusillade of criticism from state and federal lawmakers, privacy advocates, state executive branch officials and commentators.
Opponents have cited dozens of potential technical problems, including:
10. Only one of the five national systems that state motor vehicle departments will need to implement the Real ID law is currently ready, according to the National Governors Association. DHS itself concedes that some federal “reference databases” aren’t yet complete.
9. Real ID calls for states to use a single array of security features for driver’s license cards, which could force states to abandon existing card issuance systems.
8. The federal government lacks a uniform naming convention that would facilitate states’ electronic verification between files.
7. The door remains open for creation of a de facto national identity database.
6. The draft Real ID rule doesn’t include a redress process, which likely will become a technical as well as a policy issue, because thousands of people now have driver’s licenses with faulty data.
5. The draft doesn’t require that data on the license’s machine-readable zone (MRZ) be encrypted. DHS has said that distributing encryption keys, or a single, common key to the 16,000 state and local law enforcement agencies that will need access to the MRZ data would pose an unacceptable challenge. The department said it would favor MRZ encryption if the practical problems could be solved and raised the possibility that the MRZ shouldn’t include the bearer’s address.
4. Some critics charge that Real ID magnifies privacy risks, partly by shirking the requirement that federally sponsored systems meet the standards of the Federal Information Security Management Act. The draft rule states that it doesn’t create a national database because it leaves the interstate data exchange decisions to the DMVs. That statement prompted Jim Harper, director of information policy studies for the Cato Institute, to posit that DHS was saying, “My car didn’t hit you—the bumper did.”
3. DHS has failed to require that the MRZ omit the race identifier field.
2. Real ID fails to take advantage of identity verification processes the federal government already carries out when it issues passports, military IDs, Transportation Worker Identification Cards and some federal employee credentials. The National Conference of State Legislatures has asked why, if individuals holding such documents can already board an airliner, they should be checked again to get a driver’s license.
1. Technical challenges, such as the apparently inadvertent omission of several categories of legal residents eligible for the credentials and the high cost to states of complying with the law, have spurred a vigorous rejection campaign in state capitals. Idaho and Maine already have enacted laws rejecting the Real ID requirements, and similar legislation is pending in dozens of additional states.
Wilson P. Dizard III
The debate over biometric credentials has moved into new territory now that Washington state and the Homeland Security Department have agreed to pilot a secure biometric driver’s license that also would serve as proof of citizenship at border crossings.
The pilot would create a license that is compliant with the controversial Real ID program and could be used as a passport in some situations.
State and federal lawmakers, as well as the National Governors Association, have blasted the federal Real ID program, which is aimed at fostering secure biometric driver’s licenses that also would serve as proof of citizenship or legal residence. Various states have threatened to opt out of the supposedly voluntary Real ID program, and Maine and Idaho have done so.
“We think it is a breakthrough,” DHS assistant secretary for policy development Richard Barth said last week. “We expect other border states will also [seek comparable hybrid documents].”
Meanwhile, the controversial federal Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) has been tightening the rules for citizens to re-enter the country along the land borders and after sea cruises.
Beginning in January 2008, WHTI rules will require that returning citizens show secure biometric credentials at the land borders, ending a longstanding practice under which immigration officials accepted as many as 8,000 different types of documents or, in some cases, no ID at all.
That pending WHTI requirement has prompted outcries from border state lawmakers who charge that it will be a costly burden on their constituents and hamper travel and trade.
An agreement between DHS and Washington state calls for the state to produce a Real ID-compliant driver’s license that could potentially also function as proof of citizenship for re-entry under the WHTI land border identification requirement.
DHS and the State Department have developed plans for a “passport card,” seen as a cheaper and simpler alternative to a full-fledged passport for use by border state residents, to ease compliance with the WHTI rules.
"The pilot is a way to boost security without hampering trade and tourism." Gov. Chris Gregoire
“This pilot project is a way to boost security at our border without hampering trade and tourism,” Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire said in a prepared statement.
“Our effort to keep our border crossing moving is particularly important with the upcoming 2009 World Police and Fire Fighter Games and the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in British Columbia,” Gregoire said.
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