E-Verify & Real ID Act of 2005 - under attack by "Pass ID" legislation

[WhiskeyGirl]

Repealing REAL ID? Rolling Back Driver's License Security
by Janice Kephart for the Center for Immigration Studies

Senior members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs are set to introduce the “Providing for Additional Security in States’ Identification Act of 2009,” also known as the PASS ID Act.1 This act would repeal the REAL ID Act of 2005, legislation aimed at ensuring that all states meet minimum driver’s license security standards in order to enhance national security and driver safety, combat drug running, and better safeguard against identity theft and fraud. While no state must comply, the 30 or so states that are choosing to actively meet REAL ID minimum standards are helping make America less vulnerable. Opponents critical of REAL ID provisions have painted the law as an affront to privacy and states’ rights, but the reality is that REAL ID is the appropriate means by which to maintain liberty and security. Congress should preserve REAL ID, fund it adequately, and take steps to ensure its full implementation.

PASS ID Act: Not the Right Strategy

Upon introduction, PASS ID advocates likely will attempt to construe the bill as a means of maintaining 9/11 Commission recommendations in a more flexible manner than represented by REAL ID. The reality is that this act would repeal REAL ID outright, stripping away the substantive provisions that are already making driver’s license issuance more secure. In short, PASS ID will set the same standards for driver’s licenses as were recommended by the Commission, but the standards will not be enforceable or create actual secure practices among the states. The primary supporters of PASS ID have made their opposition to REAL ID clear and the PASS ID language demonstrates that their goal will be met, to freeze standards as they are today instead of continuing the process of strengthening licensing under REAL ID. While recent drafts of PASS ID circulating on the Hill continue to change, some aspects have remained constant throughout the subsequent drafts:

Repeals 9/11 Commission Identity Verification Recommendations in Two Key Areas. (1) ensuring that people are who they say they are, e.g. identity verification; and (2) repealing the digitization of birth records recommendation as pertains to driver’s license issuance.

PASS ID returns identity verification to identity validation, the pre-9/11 standard, which does not encourage states to do anything other than rubber stamp documents like birth certificates, principal residency documents, electronic verification of Social Security numbers, and passports. This was the same process in place when a fake document (in this case a principal residence affidavit) in Virginia enabled five 9/11 hijackers to obtain IDs in early August 2001. REAL ID combats this problem by adding passport verification and birth record digitization as additional layers of security.

Why wouldn't government want improved identification for citizens and those here legally?

Secure IDs for Safe America

When a state issues a driver’s license or ID, both the state and the individual should be confident that the license is a secure, authenticated credential. DHS issued final regulations for REAL ID in January 2008, based on thousands of comments from states and other interested parties. Many states have made significant progress toward this end already. States are working toward implementation, including putting millions of dollars toward improvements in their driver’s license issuing systems. Stopping those efforts now would simply waste money, confuse processes that took four years to get in place, and delay what most Americans want: secure IDs for a safe America.

read more here - http://www.ilw.com/articles/2009,0729-kephart.shtm

This is an informative article and has many sources listed.