On May 11, 2005, under the counsel of the 9/11 Commission, President Bush signed into law the Real ID Act – a bill that may ultimately jeopardize the American citizen’s right to privacy, and waste billions of taxpayer dollars. The Real ID Act is actually part of a larger bill entitled “Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005,” which was originally meant to obstruct terrorism.
Chiefly, the Real ID Act reforms border control and establishes national criterion for state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards. The bill also prohibits the federal government from accepting state-issued identification for any official federal purpose. In other words, this new ID card will be necessary for one to gain employment, fly on an airplane, open a bank account and enter a federal building.
Thus, it will require every American to hold an identification card, and it will centralize every citizen’s personal information into a national database. For now, the Real ID Act only requires that ID cards have one’s full legal name, signature, date of birth, sex, driver’s license number and residence, but there has been discussion about whether or not the federal government should mandate that states put additional information into the federal database, such as a citizen’s driving record and firearms registrations.
Most supporters of this bill view it as a measure against terrorism rather than as an anti-immigration bill. Its fan base is primarily mainstream Republican. According to advocates, the Real ID will secure our borders and prevent terrorist infiltration. It will also assist the federal government in keeping tabs on potential terrorists.
Drawbacks of the Real ID Act are many, but most are centered on privacy and cost issues. Creating a national database that joins all of the states’ information about its citizens will make every American more vulnerable to identity theft. Not only identity theft in the realm of high tech computer hack jobs into government databases, but now your information could potentially become readily available to any organization, retailer, employer or anyone else who requests your driver’s license or social security number – not to mention the government.
This law’s ratification has officially moved America closer to a “show us your papers,” statist society. The fourth amendment provides us freedom from unreasonable search and seizure; this right should extend into the digital age also. No person is above the fourth amendment, not even in the name of Homeland Security.
The Real ID Act is a largely un-funded federal mandate. Although Congress plans to give $40 million to states to help implement this new system, it’s hardly a drop in the bucket.
“When we know it [the cost] is going to be around $11 billion [nationally], to offer $40 million is almost an insult,” declared Texas state senator Leticia Vande Putte.
In Texas alone, start-up costs to pay for new technology and verification systems are around $142.6 million, with annual expenses of about $67 million. Naturally, taxpayers are expected to pick up the slack.
Many people, politicians and citizens alike, are put off by the shear inconvenience of the law. If this law isn’t repealed, then over the next two years 12 million Texans will have to renew their licenses and state ID cards. In this way, the law puts a huge burden on local and state governments. Furthermore, insufficient media coverage about the impending change almost guarantees a flood of Texans into DPS’s in late 2009.
According to Chief Judy Brown of the Driver’s License Division of Texas, “The Department [of Public Safety] and its employees will face implementation challenges with legislative, operational, and fiscal limitations.”
No doubt the Real ID Act is going to be a bureaucratic nightmare.
Because the Real ID license would only be available to those with a social security number, obtaining a driver’s license as a non-citizen would be near impossible. Legal and illegal aliens who will presumably still drive, will then drive unregulated and without liability insurance.
Due to its unpopular infringement of privacy and its cost, several states have passed legislation to oppose the Real ID Act – including Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Washington.
In our own state, we have Congress members on all sides of the issue, but the majority is in favor of the Real ID; it’s unlikely that Texas legislators will move to reject this law or refuse its implementation. Most politicians in Texas are so in favor of the law that ten Texas Republican representatives including Gohmert, Hall, Neugebauer, Poe, McCaul, Johnson, Granger, Carter, Barton and our own Lamar Smith actually cosponsored the bill on its way through the House.
Neugebauer, happy to see it pass, says it will increase border security and in turn national security. Smith, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee was also a promoter of the Real ID Act stating, “It makes the country safer and protects the American people from terrorists who would use the most common form of ID as cover.”
Not all Texas representatives are so sure. Both Republican representatives Jackson-Lee and Gonzalez were cosponsors of a bill that would repeal the Real ID Act.
Texas state senator Craig Estes expressed a similar viewpoint: “While I support efforts to enhance our national security, it should not come at the loss of state sovereignty and the undue burden on our citizens.”
Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul has also remained adamant about the law since its conception. “In reality, this bill is a Trojan horse,” said Paul in 2005. “It pretends to offer desperately needed border control in order to stampede Americans into sacrificing what is uniquely American: our constitutionally protected liberty.”
-Lauren King
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