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Proponents of the Real ID Act say, among other things, it will prevent illegal immigrants from getting driver’s licenses.
The act sets minimum issuance standards for such documents that require (1) verification of presented information; (2) evidence that the applicant is lawfully present in the United States; and (3) issuance of temporary driver’s licenses or ID cards to persons temporarily present that are valid only for their period of authorized stay (or for one year where the period of stay is indefinite).
The act also requires states to participate in the interstate compact regarding the sharing of driver’s license data (the Driver License Agreement).
In a May 8 press release where Democrat Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Republican Secretary of State Terry Lynn Land offered the state’s perspective on the Real ID Act, the pair said the act establishes national standards for issuing state driver licenses and identification cards, requiring states to re-issue driver’s licenses and identification cards to 245 million current holders by 2013, establish on-site identification verification procedures at Secretary of State offices, and meet specific security and production requirements for the new cards.
In a joint letter to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, Granholm and Land said the ID requirements can only be an effective homeland security tool if all states fully implement the law. They noted that some states have acted to limit or reject Real ID because of concerns about policy goals and the resources available to assist with implementation.
"DHS must take seriously the states' positions that the process of revamping the standards for identification documents is a federal mandate that should be backed by federal funding," they said in the joint letter to Chertoff.
According to a study released last year by the National Governors Association, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, and the National Conference of State Legislatures, states' costs could total more than $11 billion over 10 years. A federal cost estimate issued this year by DHS pegged cumulative states' costs at more than $14 billion.
Granholm and Land said they were particularly interested in avoiding duplication of services and imposing unnecessary requirements for citizens who have been issued driver licenses and ID cards for many years.
The Real ID Act has come under fire from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers and organizations.
According to a Nov. 4 article in the Washington Post, eight states have passed legislation to opt out of the program, nine others have passed resolutions in opposition, and more will consider doing so this winter.
In Michigan, a resolution opposing the Real ID Act already has passed in the House.
Rep. John Espinoza, D-Croswell, sponsored the resolution.
He said he opposed the act because of the price Michigan will have to pay.
Conservative estimates of the cost of implementing the program in Michigan start at around $7 million, Espinoza said.
“And some say it could be as high as ten times that,” he added.
Espinoza said he also opposed the act because he has real concerns with the privacy of citizens being protected.
Sen. Jim Barcia, D-Bay City, co-sponsored a similar resolution in opposition of the Real ID Act.
“It’s a huge unfounded mandate that would require Michigan (to go through) complex and unnecessary hurdles in order to comply with the federal law,” he said.
Barcia said he also is opposed to the Real ID Act because it could dramatically increase the amount of identity theft crimes if things like everyone’s social security numbers were stored in a federal database.
Both lawmakers, however, were strictly opposed to Michigan issuing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mount Clemens, said she helped craft the Real ID Act.
On Tuesday, she called on Granholm and Lt. Gov. John Cherry to implement the Real ID Act immediately.
In response, Liz Boyd, the governor’s spokeswoman, said, “if Rep. Miller is serious about Real ID implementation she’ll make two phone calls: One to President Bush to ask him to release overdue Real ID implementation rules, and one to her successor, Secretary Land, to ensure the federal mandates can be implemented without haste and without waste.”
In an interview on Wednesday, Miller said because Michigan receives millions and millions of dollars in Homeland Security funding, they should be able to afford to implement the Real ID Act.
“I would say this: Forty-two other states have figured out a way to do so, and I think Michigan needs to do this now,” she said.
Miller said states that have opted to not implement the program will make their forms of identification basically irrelevant and useless at the federal level.
“Essentially what happens is their identification — their driver’s license or their state ID card — is not a recognized document, federally,” she said. “So in other words, you couldn’t use a Michigan driver’s license to get on an airplane, for photo identification, for all kinds of things. You could use it to drive in Michigan, but that would be the extent of it.”
Regarding local lawmakers’ concerns of privacy, Miller said it’s impossible not to have everyone’s social security numbers stored on the federal database. She added that residents giving their social security numbers when applying for a driver’s license isn’t anything new.
“In that particular issue, when you get your driver’s license now, you have to give them your social security number,” Miller said.
All of that being said, she said now the question remains: Will Michigan implement the Real ID Act?
“If they’re not going to do it, then people in Michigan have to realize they are going to have problems,” Miller said.
The great thing about being a true believer and studier is this. The Bible tells us it is going to happen, so believe me it is. You yourself are already pushing it and trying to write off the religous as crazy I suppose. The thing is, we will resist this mark and we will pay dearly for it. However we will be rewarded for our faith as those who take the mark will be rewarded for a short time and then all hell breaks loose, not to mention an eternity of death which in my understanding is to mean "apart from God". It's your choice. Make the government (beast) happy or follow God's laws and warnings and be rewarded with an eternity in the presence of God.
I hope you rethink your position, study not only Revelations, but spend more time with Daniel and Isiah. Daniel was told and shown everything that was going to happen in the end of days, but then told to SEAL up the knowledge. The knowledge would then be released in the end times, when men travel to and fro'. Just recently in History does man travel at mach speed and beyond, not to mention mass transit and such. Just recently in History (last 100 years) has so much knowledge been released. They say that 99% of all scientist that have existed are alive right now, not to mention the internet where anyone can study, research, and see facts.
I pray you make the right choice. Remember the wide road is easy, and not the right choice. The correct Way is the narrow path, and always will be. Don't follow the herd.
BioSecurity, is identification that is held within a person's body. Many main stream Christians believe that this would be the Mark of the Beast. Religious feelings aside, it is the only way for us to truely be safe against identification theft and many frauds that are committed with fraudulent identification. Talk to anyone that has suffered from identity theft and found their credit is ruined. Or worse, their bank accounts are empty and their life savings is gone. Or simply look at the Country as a whole, and the economy. Businesses lose millions of dollars a year do to fraud. With BioSecurity, those theives would have a much tougher time of it.
It's time for us to embrace the future of commerce security, not hide from it, or create more physical id's।
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