Yesterday The Department of Homeland Security issued the REAL ID Act — supposedly for the standardization of state identification documents. It actually creates a national identity card, to be used as an internal passport within the US.
States must start issuing the new internal passports by May 2008, or else their citizens will not be able to board planes or enter federal courthouses.
No, I’m not kidding.
The full document (in PDF form) can be found Here.
Some choice quotes from the 162-page document:
“Federal agencies would not accept state-issued driver’s licenses or identification cards unless they were REAL IDs for the purposes of boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft, entering nuclear power plants and accessing Federal facilities.” (page 111)
“The primary benefit of REAL ID is to improve the security and lessen the vulnerability of federal buildings, nuclear facilities, and aircraft to terrorist attack. The rule would give states, local governments, or private sector entities an option to choose to require the use of REAL IDs for activities beyond the official purposes defined in this regulation.” (page 108)
Your papers, Citizen?
There are several states that are talking about fighting this. Another unfunded mandate to states from the federal government, with the states having to collect and archive identity paperwork (birth certificates, passports, residency papers) each and every time anyone goes to renew their driver’s license. More bureaucracy, more expense, more jumping through hoops and wasted time for honest, law-abiding citizens, with the states picking up the tab.
The day when every baby is immediately implanted with an identifying microchip doesn’t seem so far away.
I think my heart just skipped several beats. Holy shit.
Do they even realize that this would hurt the economy because many people would simply opt not to travel rather than go through the sheer hell of something that will be more difficult to obtain than a driver’s license? Have they stated whether a US passport will do the trick, because i sure as Hell don’t want to have to deal with NYC DMV or anything of that sort again anytime soon.
I don’t think anyone does. They just are not thinking about the happiness of Americans. They are being idiots.
Oh. MY. GOD!
Ok, blatently honest time: I don’t take most of this as seriously as you. As serious as I should. I bypass a lot of this stuff when you post it b/c it doesn’t rile me like it riles you.
This might have been my mother fucking wake-up call.
hit a hot button
I’ve been fearing some type of national identification requirement for 5+ years now; I was hoping (stupidly) that the idea had died down. The paper takes such a reasonable, moderate tone that between that and all the jargon, it’s going to be hard to convince people that this is not a reasonable, moderate thing to do. I haven’t gotten half way through yet, but I’m betting that there are tons of ramifications that are not being considered. I’ll stop now, however, and go rant in my own LJ instead of here.
Re: hit a hot button
One more the consideration of us being a police state.
I don’t know how I’d deal with it. Haven’t even had a photo on my driver’s license for the last 16 years (Even though there was talk of enforcing its requirement before I renewed the last time). I have a county issued photo ID that I use for flights… and I work for county government.
What’s next? Checkpoints as we cross between states?
Wow, this is a really, really bad idea. I wonder if there will be a slot for religion, sexuality, or other similar things included? It’s just one step further down the road.
I guessed you missed the NPR story on how congress is planning on getting this repealed in the next week or two. Many states are refusing to issue them, including New York, Texas, and California. I think the head of public safety for Kansas was even in the story on the negative, but I can’t remember if they were going to try and comply or not. They said HS has changed their mind so much on what they want in this “unfunded mandate” that they couldn’t meet the date even if they wanted to…which they don’t. The FAA has said if the state will not issue them, they will not keep people off planes. Chertoff has no political capital to change anything.
Call your congressperson and tell them you want them to vote for the repeal.