Homeland Security to Unveil New Driver's License Rules

[Pudge]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,321925,00.html


WASHINGTON — Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get more secure driver's licenses in the next six years under ambitious post-9/11 security rules to be unveiled Friday by federal officials.
The Homeland Security Department has spent years crafting the final regulations for the REAL ID Act, a law designed to make it harder for terrorists, illegal immigrants and con artists to get government-issued identification. The effort once envisioned to take effect in 2008 has been pushed back in the hopes of winning over skeptical state officials.
Even with more time, more federal help and technical advances, REAL ID still faces stiff opposition from civil liberties groups.
To address some of those concerns, the government now plans to phase in a secure ID initiative that Congress passed into law in 2005. Now, DHS plans a key deadline in 2011, and then further measures to be enacted three years later, according to congressional staffers who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because an announcement had not yet been made. DHS officials briefed legislative aides on the details late Thursday.
Without discussing details, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff promoted the final rules for REAL ID during a meeting Thursday with an advisory council.

"We worked very closely with the states in terms of developing a plan that I think will be inexpensive, reasonable to implement and produce the results," he said. "This is a win-win. As long as people use driver's licenses to identify themselves for whatever reason there's no reason for those licenses to be easily counterfeited or tampered with."
In order to make the plan more appealing to cost-conscious states, federal authorities drastically reduced the expected cost from $14.6 billion to $3.9 billion, a 73 percent decline, according to Homeland Security officials familiar with the plan.
The American Civil Liberties Union has fiercely objected to the effort, particularly the sharing of personal data among government agencies. The DHS and other officials say the only way to make sure an ID is safe is to check it against secure government data; critics like the ACLU say that creates a system that is more likely to be infiltrated and have its personal data pilfered.
In its written objection to the law, the ACLU claims REAL ID amounts to the "first-ever national identity card system," which "would irreparably damage the fabric of American life."
The Sept. 11 attacks were the main motivation for the changes.
The hijacker-pilot who flew into the Pentagon, Hani Hanjour, had a total of four driver's licenses and ID cards from three states. The DHS, which was created in response to the attacks, has created a slogan for REAL ID: "One driver, one license."
By 2014, anyone seeking to board an airplane or enter a federal building would have to present a REAL ID-compliant driver's license, with the notable exception of those more than 50 years old, Homeland Security officials said.
The over-50 exemption was created to give states more time to get everyone new licenses, and officials say the risk of someone in that age group being a terrorist, illegal immigrant or con artist is much less. By 2017, even those over 50 must have a REAL ID-compliant card to board a plane.
Among other details of the REAL ID plan:
—The traditional driver's license photograph would be taken at the beginning of the application instead of the end so that should someone be rejected for failure to prove identity and citizenship, the applicant's photo would be kept on file and checked in the future if that person attempted to con the system again.
—The cards will have three layers of security measures but will not contain microchips as some had expected. States will be able to choose from a menu which security measures they will put in their cards.
Over the next year, the government expects all states to begin checking both the Social Security numbers and immigration status of license applicants.
Most states currently check Social Security numbers and about half check immigration status. Some, like New York, Virginia, North Carolina and California, already have implemented many of the security measures envisioned in REAL ID. In California, for example, officials expect the only major change to adopt the first phase would be to take the photograph at the beginning of the application process instead of the end.
After the Social Security and immigration status checks become nationwide practice, officials plan to move on to more expansive security checks, including state DMV offices checking with the State Department to verify those applicants who use passports to get a driver's license, verifying birth certificates and checking with other states to ensure an applicant doesn't have more than one license.
A handful of states have already signed written agreements indicating plans to comply with REAL ID. Seventeen others, though, have passed legislation or resolutions objecting to it, often based on concerns about the billions of dollars such extra security is expected to cost.

[Hannibal]

Its about time if you ask me.



On top of that they are also doing this, you should start seeing these soon around the bordertowns.


Travelers to Canada, Mexico can apply for passport alternative
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/...rt-cards_N.htm


WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department says it will begin accepting applications Feb. 1 for passport cards as alternatives to passports for Americans who travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
The wallet-sized cards will be available to U.S. citizens by this spring.
They will cost $45 for adults and $35 for children, cheaper than a regular passport, and adults who have passports will have to pay only $20. They will be accepted for land and sea crossings between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, but not for flights.
The new passport cards are being offered as part of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. The first phase of that went into effect last year, requiring U.S. travelers returning by plane from Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean to carry a passport. That led to a temporary surge in demand for passports, with wait times for passports increasing from four to six weeks to 12 weeks, although they since have returned to normal.
The Bush administration wants to begin requiring passports or passport cards for land and sea border crossings in mid-2008, but Congress is trying to force a delay on that requirement until summer 2009.

More information on passport cards is available at the State Department's travel site: http://travel.state.gov/pdf/WHTI_Passport_Sheet.pdf
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[bayern]

Anything the ACLU is against, I am for.

[BEK]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department says it will begin accepting applications Feb. 1 for passport cards as alternatives to passports for Americans who travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
The wallet-sized cards will be available to U.S. citizens by this spring.
They will cost $45 for adults and $35 for children, cheaper than a regular passport, and adults who have passports will have to pay only $20. They will be accepted for land and sea crossings between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, but not for flights.
The new passport cards are being offered as part of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. The first phase of that went into effect last year, requiring U.S. travelers returning by plane from Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean to carry a passport. That led to a temporary surge in demand for passports, with wait times for passports increasing from four to six weeks to 12 weeks, although they since have returned to normal.
The Bush administration wants to begin requiring passports or passport cards for land and sea border crossings in mid-2008, but Congress is trying to force a delay on that requirement until summer 2009.

More information on passport cards is available at the State Department's travel site: http://travel.state.gov/pdf/WHTI_Passport_Sheet.pdf
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Get ready for the screwin. There starting this so that there wont be any problems for the NAFTA superhighway that they are building from canada to mexico and the day that mexicanadamerica dollar starts going into effect. This is a sign of bad things to come.

[OXCOPS]

So, would this be phased in when you go renew your DL? What would that do for me since mine doesn't expire until 2042.

[MacLean]

Get ready for the screwin. There starting this so that there wont be any problems for the NAFTA superhighway that they are building from canada to mexico and the day that mexicanadamerica dollar starts going into effect. This is a sign of bad things to come.

You know the "super highway" already exists, right?

[BEK]

You know the "super highway" already exists, right?

yes but its not finished

[MacLean]

yes but its not finished

For others joining the conversation, it isn't an actual road highway - that isn't what they mean by "superhighway."

[NCC1701]

Anything the ACLU is against, I am for.

Agreed.
They do not have the every day working class American interests in mind.