Homeland Security Ready To Begin Real ID January 11, 2008
Posted by Reginald Johnson in Culture, Government, Homeland Security, Jobs, Politics, U.S. Congress, Video.add a comment
(Credit: U.S. Homeland Security)
“I wanted this done a year ago,” said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in a press conference today at the National Press Club; during the club’s Noon Newsmaker segment. He was speaking on the implementation of the controversial Real ID plan, despite opposition from numerous states and privacy groups. Chertoff also said, “This is something that was put before the United State Congress. The measure passed and was signed into law by the president. Now it’s my job to carry out the order.”
During the press conference, the Secretary took the wraps off the final regulations for the electronic identification card mandate. He also re-explained the plan’s importance in keeping Americans safe from terrorist threats. He said of those who refuse to comply, they can expect to have “inconveniences” at airports and federal buildings–by 2017. “If someone doesn’t have the required materials when attempting to board planes or enter federal buildings, they will have to be detained in order to verify that they are who they say they are,” remarked Chertoff.
The new rules, which are a few months behind schedule, are supposed to build on a draft version released last March for public comment. Over 21,000 comments have been received since that time. The document, boasts almost 300 pages of guidelines for the 50 states.
The Real ID Act is what came out of numerous recommendations from the 9/11 Commission. Chertoff reiterated Friday that the program is necessary in part because all but one of the hijackers in the September 11 attacks carried government-issued identification cards that helped them remain in the country illegally. Another goal is to prevent illegal immigrants from “pretending to be American citizens so they can work illegally in this country.”But under the new rules, some Americans will have to get Real ID-compliant identification cards. They have until 2014 to comply. Even then, the mandate will apply only to Americans younger than 50 at the time, in an apparent effort to give some disgruntled state motor vehicle departments more time to issue the licenses. The requirements would be broadened to all Americans by 2017.
Only three categories of people need be “disappointed” by the forthcoming identification cards, the Homeland Security chief told attendees at a midday press conference here: terrorists, illegal immigrants, and con-men.
“We’ve worked very closely with the states, in terms of developing a plan that I think will be quite inexpensive, reasonable to implement, and produce the results that…are a part of the core recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, which is secure identification when driver’s licenses are presented,” Chertoff said Thursday, according to a transcript of his remarks, at a meeting of departmental advisers.
In response to the legislation (due to the price tag), 17 states have already enacted legislation rejecting the Real ID requirements. Several other states were considering such a step, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The ACLU is one of the most prominent voices against the plan. Secretary Chertoff reaffirmed that states who do not comply to this law will have their states’ driver’s license deemed not a legal form of government ID. And those persons from these states that do not comply, will face ‘inconveniences” when attempting to travel by plane or entering all federal buildings. Luckily for supporter of the bill, some federal officials have somehow devised a way to reduce the expected $14 billion in costs to states to $3.9 billion under the revised rules.
Chertoff said that for any state which doesn’t seek such a waiver by May, residents of that state will have to use a passport or certain types of federal border-crossing cards if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening at airport security.
“The last thing I want to do is punish citizens of a state who would love to have a REAL ID license but can’t get one,” Chertoff said. “But in the end, the rule is the rule as passed by Congress.”
It’s unclear how the department plans to assuage security and privacy concerns about the cards, including whether data encoded on their two-dimensional bar codes will be encrypted to guard against misuse. The AP reported that states will have a “menu” of security options from which to choose but will not be required to embed “microchips”–ostensibly a reference to radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology, which, depending on the type, could be read either from a distance or close-up.
Chertoff stressed he fully-supports this new law and said to the naysayers he says he is determined to defend it. He called it, “…more secure form of identification that will serve both our homeland security and our individual concerns about personal privacy.”
