General background information about the National ID Card system
... as it appears to be taking shape
Identity
Cards: Frequently Asked Questions
National ID Card FAQ
National ID Cards are a solution looking for a problem.
Proposal
Sets National Rules For State IDs. Sen. Richard J. Durbin
(D-Ill.) outlined legislation that would set national standards for state-issued
driver's licenses, permitting rapid data-sharing among certain government
agencies. The measure marks Congress's first attempt at a comprehensive
overhaul of state identification systems since [the 2001] terrorist attacks.
The latest:
Administration
Plans to Scale Back Real ID Law. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wants to repeal
and replace the controversial, $4 billion domestic security initiative known as Real ID, which calls
for placing more secure licenses in the hands of 245 million Americans by 2017. The new proposal,
called Pass ID, would be cheaper, less rigorous and partly funded by federal grants, according to draft
legislation that Napolitano's Senate allies plan to introduce as early as tomorrow [6/15/2009].
After Long Delay, Regulations Issued for Flawed
National ID Plan. More than two years after Congress rushed through passage of the REAL ID
Act, the Department of Homeland Security announced proposed regulations on March 1 that would turn the
state driver's license into a national identity card. The estimated cost of the plan could be as high
as $23.1 billion, according to the federal government, and the national ID system will increase security
risks as well as the threats to personal privacy.
REAL-ID: speed-pass to slavery.
The government has no constitutional authority to gather this information unless a warrant has been issued by a judge
after reviewing an affidavit showing probable cause of a crime; unless, of course, the information is given
voluntarily. So far, no one is "forced" to obtain an Enhanced Drivers' License, unless, of course, he
wants to drive a car, board an airplane, or visit a federal building.
Virginia's
General Assembly rejects REAL ID provisions. The Virginia House and Senate have overwhelmingly passed
legislation rejecting elements of the federal government's Real ID law, which requires states to issue federally
mandated drivers' licenses or similar forms of identification that would become part of a national database.
REAL ID Expensive, Not Better.
Some security experts question whether licenses and documents compliant with REAL ID will be more
effective than the existing state-run license systems. As Timothy D. Ringgold, CEO of Defense
Solutions, pointed out, some of the 9/11 hijackers had real drivers' licenses — they were who they
said they were. "The driver's license is a credible i.d. card and probably as good a system
as we'll get," said Ringgold.
DHS
and the Voter Identification Problem: The new requirements include a digital photograph and a
security measure within the cards to prevent counterfeiting. Also, states must verify each applicant's
personal information and legal status by comparing it against the Federal Social Security database and passport
databases. … What was not included in the new regulations was a controversial provision to implant a computer
chip which would store personal information in each driver's license.
National Governors Association (NGA) Backs
National ID Card. Limited government advocates, who have made significant progress in fighting the
implementation of a national identification (ID) card, were recently bushwhacked by the National Governors
Association (NGA) when the organization began a stealth lobbying effort to push the measure.
E-Verify and the Emerging Surveillance State. The
Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 made it illegal for employers to "knowingly" employ unauthorized workers, and
E-Verify (then known as "Basic Pilot") grew out of the requirement for work-eligibility verification. Since its
inception the program has been voluntary for all businesses. However, that's about to change. In 2007, after
the dramatic defeat of the illegal immigration amnesty bills, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced
several changes to the E-Verify System.
Biometrics Pinned to Social
Security Cards. The Social Security card faces its first major upgrade in 70 years under
two immigration-reform proposals slated for debate this week that would add biometric information to the card
and finally complete its slow metamorphosis into a national ID.
Real-ID: Costs and Benefits. Most
Americans have been and continue to be opposed to a national ID card. Even just after 9/11, polls
showed a bare majority (51%) in favor — and that quickly became a minority opinion again. As
such, both political parties came out against the card, which meant that the only way it could become law was
to sneak it through. Republican Cong. F. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin did just that.
3 states told to comply with ID
rule. Millions of residents of three states will soon face tougher and longer screening at airport
checkpoints if their governors defy a federal law requiring new, more-secure driver's licenses. Maine, New
Hampshire and South Carolina have until March 31 to say whether they plan to comply with the law, which they say
is costly and will inconvenience residents by forcing them to get new licenses.
More on REAL ID. In March, the
Department of Homeland Security released its long-awaited guidance document regarding national implementation
of the Real ID program, as part of its post-9/11 national security initiatives. It is perhaps quite
telling that despite bipartisan opposition, Real ID was buried in a 2005 "must-pass" military spending
bill and enacted into law without public debate or congressional hearings.
Real ID game of chicken:
In recent remarks about carrying out the 2005 Real ID Act, Mr. Chertoff put state governments and American
citizens alike on notice that no opposition would be tolerated in complying with the mandates of the federal
law, even if it means citizens of those states expressing concerns about the law's provisions will be unable to
board commercial aircraft. While disingenuously professing no desire to "punish" citizens because the
government of the state in which they live might not be ready to jump onto the federal government's Real ID
bandwagon, Mr. Chertoff said this was precisely what the department would do.
REAL ID Implementation Slow in States.
With the federal deadline for issuing drivers' licenses that meet the criteria of the REAL ID Act of 2005 barely
five months away, few if any states appear ready to comply. Seventeen states have passed legislation that
specifically prevents them from complying with what many are calling a de facto "national ID" law. As
of press time, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had yet to issue final REAL ID technical rules.
States Resist REAL ID
Implementation. Opponents of REAL ID cite two main problems: privacy
and financial issues. For certain states, the privacy implications are paramount.
"The very idea that Americans would need an ID card to travel around their own country
is a huge privacy issue," said New Hampshire State Rep. Joel Winters (D-Manchester). For
other states, cost issues drive opposition. "State leaders got serious about privacy
when they saw the cost of REAL ID compliance," said Jim Harper, director of information
policy studies at the Cato Institute and a member of DHS's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory
Committee. … He points out his state was offered a $3 million grant to test REAL ID
and turned it down.
Oppose REAL ID and "no work list" in
immigration bill. The current debate on immigration reform in the U.S. Senate has
been highly secretive. The text of the bill has still not been officially released,
though it has been leaked, and the mainstream media reports have been largely superficial.
Did you know that this bill would reinstate the REAL ID card, which has already been
rejected by fifteen states? Indeed, the legislation makes it impossible for Americans to
work without either a national REAL ID card or U.S. passport.
Real ID Dropouts Leave
Security Holes. Defying Uncle Sam, four states have passed laws refusing to comply with federal
rules to make state-issued driver's licenses more secure, casting further doubt on the future of the 2005
Real ID Act. Although it is rare for states to reject an act of Congress, New Hampshire and Oklahoma
in May joined Montana and Washington state in passing statutes this year refusing to go along with Real ID.
The refusals mean those states' driver's licenses eventually won't be accepted as official identification when
boarding airplanes or federal buildings.
Minnesota and Alaska Legislatures Reject Real ID.
In May Minnesota and Alaska became the eighth and ninth states whose legislatures have rejected Real ID,
joining Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Washington. A dozen more states have
approved resolutions calling for the costs of the Real ID program to be fully covered by Congress or the act repealed.
California Goes Too Easy on Real ID
Act. New Hampshire, on the other hand, is kicking up a storm warning of big brother and what
some consider "the mark of the beast." In March, the New Hampshire House passed a bill barring the
state from taking part in Real ID, rejecting it as a de facto national ID system. Testifying at
a hearing on the issue, the Cato Institute's Jim Harper said, "Americans and New Hampshirites should be free
to go about their lawful business without being asked to identify themselves at government checkpoints.
We are increasingly seeing this freedom restricted."
Feds
Try To Tighten Driver's License Rules. 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 [1/11/2007] 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.
Court to decide if illegal immigrants' use
of Social Security numbers is ID theft. The Supreme Court agreed Monday [10/20/2008] to decide whether
people picked up on immigration violations also can face charges of identity theft if they use Social
Security and other identification numbers that belong to others. Federal appeals courts have split
over whether the defendant must know that the phony ID numbers belong to a real person and the court
said it will resolve the question.
REAL
ID Implementation Delayed. The Department of Homeland Security rolled out its final
regulations Friday [1/18/2008] for the REAL ID program and delayed the deadlines for states to
comply with the law. Critics, however, say the law cannot be implemented effectively and
should be abandoned.
REAL ID timeline.
REAL ID: A Real Good
Idea. Driver's licenses and state IDs are not party favors for guests, but privileges extended to
citizens and permanent legal residents, no matter where they came from or what religion they practice.
Some States Welcome National
ID. Even as rebellion grows in some state capitals against the looming Real ID mandate from
Congress, proponents speaking Thursday [2/8/2007] on a panel at the RSA Conference could barely contain their
enthusiasm for putting standard government-issued ID cards in the hands of all citizens.
On the other hand...
"Real ID" — Real Rebellion Brewing.
Last month, Maine became the first state to pass legislation declining participation in the national ID system
mandated by the Real ID Act of 2005. State-level legislation either repudiating Real ID, asking
Congress to repeal its worst privacy-violating provisions, or asking for a delay while states study the issue,
exists in various stages [in several states]. … In other words, a state-led rebellion against Real ID
is brewing.
Rebellion
Growing as States Challenge a Federal Law to Standardize Driver's Licenses. Opposition among
state officials is turning into an open revolt against a federal law calling for the creation of standardized
driver's licenses nationwide that are meant to be less vulnerable to fraud. Maine legislators started off
the rebellion late last month by passing a nonbinding resolution that rejected the law, called the Real ID
Act, which Congress passed in 2005.
34 States Align Against National
I.D. Card. A revolt against a national driver's license, begun in Maine last month, is quickly
spreading to other states. The Maine Legislature on Jan. 26 overwhelmingly passed a resolution
objecting to the Real ID Act of 2005. The federal law sets a national standard for driver's
licenses and requires states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases.
Pushing National IDs: [Scroll down] Under this new
program it won't be the names of terrorists or suspected terrorists that inhabit the new, gargantuan federal
database; it will be the names and personal information of ordinary law-abiding Americans. The measure
in question is the Real ID Act, which creates a de facto national ID for all Americans by requiring
states to both issue licenses that conform to federal Department of Homeland Security guidelines and to link
state driver's-license databases together in a massive new federally administered database.
N.H. Backs Real ID Ban. Calling
the federal Real ID Act "repugnant" to the state and federal constitutions, New Hampshire lawmakers have voted
to join other states in rejecting the federal Real ID Act as tantamount to requiring a national ID card.
Governor to sign bill to block
Real ID plan. Gov. John Baldacci [of Maine] is expected to sign a bill prohibiting Maine from
implementing Real ID, the national identity card system that's been vilified by critics as unworkable
and too expensive, a spokesman said Wednesday [6/6/2007].
Social Security
card to be national ID. Two proposals being floated around Capitol Hill call for the Social
Security card to be updated with biometric information and for U.S. employers to be required to verify it
with the Department of Homeland Security when hiring. Scared yet? You should be. While
everyone was off fighting the REAL ID battle, national identification proponents were sneaking in the
back door, arguing that the Social Security card should be updated with the latest technology to prevent
illegal immigrants from working.
Real ID Dropouts Leave
Security Holes. Defying Uncle Sam, four states have passed laws refusing to comply with federal
rules to make state-issued driver's licenses more secure, casting further doubt on the future of the 2005
Real ID Act. Although it is rare for states to reject an act of Congress, New Hampshire and
Oklahoma in May joined Montana and Washington state in passing statutes this year refusing to go along
with Real ID.
New
Hampshire can stop the coming federal police state. The New Hampshire Senate will soon vote on
what might be the most important bill to protect our freedoms in many years. House Bill 1582, which the
House overwhelmingly passed last month, would preclude New Hampshire from participating in the REAL ID
Act, a federal law passed last year establishing a de facto national ID card.
To get the opposing viewpoint on the Real ID Act, visit
the Coalition
for a Secure Driver's License.
Speaking of opposing viewpoints...
The Real Importance of REAL ID.
Billions of dollars is (sic) lost each year due to identity theft, the fraudulent obtaining of government
benefits, and other criminal activities. … Any costs involved in implementing reasonably secure standard
identification cards will be more than recouped by the contribution that secure IDs make to facilitating travel
and commerce while combating criminal exploitation of the freedoms of a free society.
Group warns bill contains
national ID. An umbrella organization of dozens of groups that monitor legislation affecting
civil liberties says a new immigration-reform measure contains a provision that could lead to de facto
establishment of a national identification scheme. Officials with Liberty Coalition say the bill,
called the "Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act," ominously "creates
a dangerous new national identity database system and firmly establishes the predicate for a new
national ID card system."
ID card trials to start next week.
Trials of identity cards are to be launched next week, the BBC has learnt.
Illegal
immigrants with state IDs arrested at CIM. Three illegal immigrants with
state-issued identification cards were arrested last week at the California Institution
for Men, officials said Tuesday [4/12/2005]. … One was under a "final order," meaning
he had been ordered deported but had never left the country. Despite this, all three
men were able to enter the prison with state-issued identification.
Citizen
of the Republic: The National ID Card Debate (Abstract)
Bruce Schneier on National
ID Cards: My primary objection isn't the totalitarian potential of national
IDs, nor the likelihood that they'll create a whole immense new class of social and economic
dislocations. Nor is it the opportunities they will create for colossal boondoggles by
government contractors. My objection to the national ID card, at least for the purposes
of this essay, is much simpler. It won't work. It won't make us more secure.
Campaigns
of Opposition to ID Card Schemes: Proposals for identity (ID) cards have
provoked public outrage and political division in several countries. In this paper Simon
Davies analyses the key elements of public opposition to ID Card schemes, and profiles the
massive 1987 Australian campaign against a national ID card.
National ID
FAQs: Such a card has three characteristics: 1) All citizens and residents "of
a given jurisdiction" must have it. 2) All who have it must carry it, and present it upon
request by authorities. (Even when there is no specific evidence that a crime has been
committed or a regulation violated.) Finally, the card must be linked to a database with
other information about the person.
Establishing
a National ID Card: Definition and Debate [PDF]
What's
Our National Identity? A National ID card is not really about
identity. It is about authorization. A modern National ID System will
require Americans to obtain federal government authorization to travel, work, rent
or buy housing, obtain medical care, use financial services, and make many
purchases. This federal authorization could be denied for many reasons
including database errors, a suspicious transaction profile, being a deadbeat parent,
failure to pay taxes or fines, and any other social control measures Congress
wishes to hang on the system.
National I.D.: At
first it will be no big deal, carry the card if you want to or decline to have
the card. Later you will need the card to buy gasoline for your car as gasoline will
considered a dangerous weapon that can be used by terrorists. After that you will need
the card for medical services. Soon all credit cards will be "attached" to it, so if
you desire to charge anything, you have to have the card. All of your medical, dental,
driving, arrest, and education records will be on the card.
"We Don't Need No Stinkin' National ID
Card…" In February [2002], the American Association of Motor Vehicle
Administrators (AAMVA) began lobbying Congress
for $100 million plus federal legislation for a plan to nationalize and standardize the
state-issued driver's license and link up databases across the country. In other words,
to create a national ID card.
Excellent!
Statement for the Government Reform Committee Hearing on
National ID Card Proposals by Congressman Ron Paul, MD. [N]ational ID cards are a
trademark of totalitarianism that contribute nothing to the security of the American people. I therefore
urge my colleagues to reject all proposals for a national ID, and focus instead on measures that will
effectively protect both security and liberty.
National ID System Fails the "Duck
Test": If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is a DUCK! The
push for a national identification system is in full swing by state driver's license bureaucrats.
Video: U.S. to use national ID cards?
Do we need a national ID plan? A recent
White House proposal says federal agencies should "coordinate suggested minimum standards for state driver's
licenses." Here is their leverage: The federal government hands billions of dollars a year in
transportation cash to the states. There has already been talk in Congress about tying money for highways
to the introduction of ID standards.
National Identification
Systems: A Solution in Search of a Problem. The EFF views impending moves towards a
National ID system with alarm. Public officials, in their zeal to appear to be doing something about
terrorism post 9-11, are sending us on a perilous course into a future in which every movement and transaction
is subject to monitoring and surveillance.
Who Goes There? Authentication
Through the Lens of Privacy. This report explores authentication
technologies (including passwords, PKI, biometrics, etc.) and their implications
for the privacy of the individuals being authenticated. As authentication becomes
ever more ubiquitous, understanding its interplay with privacy is vital. The report
examines numerous concepts, including authentication, authorization, identification,
privacy, and security.
Finding 6.5: State-issued driver's licenses are a de facto nationwide identity system. They are
widely accepted for transactions that require a form of government-issued photo ID.
Finding 6.6: Nationwide identity systems by definition create a widespread and widely
used form of identification, which could easily result in inappropriate linkages among
nominally independent databases.
Coalition
letter to members of Congress opposing National ID. [PDF file]
Privacy
International's National ID Card FAQ Page
Everything
You Ever Wanted to Know About a National ID Card, But Were Afraid To Ask
We Must Not Give in to a National
ID: Calls for a national identification number have sounded with alarming frequency since
terrorists bombed the World Trade Center on September 11 [2001]. Members of Congress and
government officials insist that a national ID system can protect citizens, and the American public appears all
too willing to relinquish its civil liberties for a superficial sense of security.
ID Nation: The wrong way
to go. If a national ID card system had been in place years ago, and if all the new security
measures now in place at America's airports had been in effect on September 11, those 19 men would
still have been able to board their flights and carry out their plan. They jumped through every hoop they
needed to in order to commit their barbarous crime. It is inconceivable that they wouldn't have somehow
obtained national ID cards if such cards had been required to obtain their airline tickets.
A National Identification System:
Testimony (against it) by Stephen Moore, an economist at the Cato Institute.
A Libertarian Conservative Case Against Identity Cards
National ID — Our Line in the
Sand: National ID isn't a new idea. American politicians and bureaucrats have been
proposing it since the Great Depression. "Infallible" national ID has been proposed over the years as a
means of fighting communism, illegal immigration, crime, census undercounting, terrorism, welfare fraud, and a
variety of other disasters du jour. If we accept national ID, we'll all have a problem. We won't be
one bit safer from violence. And we will have crossed a crucial line that forever divides the free from
the unfree.
Reckless ID card plan
will destroy nation's freedom: The Government has embarked on its most reckless policy to date in
pursuing the idea of national identity cards. The initiative will fundamentally change the nature of
government and the character of the nation. This is inevitable because the modern ID card is no simple
piece of plastic. It is the visible component of a web of interactive technology that fuses the most
intimate characteristics of the individual with the machinery of state.
Campaigns of opposition to ID card
schemes: Proposals for identity (ID) cards have provoked public outrage and political division in
several countries. In this paper Simon Davies analyses the key elements of public opposition to ID Card
schemes, and profiles the massive 1987 Australian campaign against a national ID card.
Too late to stop national
ID: It has long since been understood that safeguarding our freedom requires limiting the
government's access to personal information. Where a legitimate purpose is served, government agencies
have been allowed to accumulate limited information for specific purposes. Over the past decade a
dramatic shift has taken place. The government has developed the ability to accumulate the maximum amount
of information and provided central access to an army of low level bureaucrats. All signs indicate that
this is just a beginning.
Government
Trade Group Promoting National ID Cards: A government trade association Monday [1/14/2002] called
for a national, standardized identification system based on state-issued drivers' licenses.
Democrat Group Backs "Smart
IDs": A Democrat policy group said Friday [1/18/2002] that domestic terrorism could best be
fought by using more information technology, including computer chips embedded in driver's licenses and more
sharing of data between law enforcement agencies.
National ID Cards: New Technologies, Same Bad Idea.
National ID System on
Horizon? The United States may be closer to issuing national ID than many think.
Show your papers: Looking for
something -- anything -- to prevent repetitions of the savage attack on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon, some politicians have turned to a favorite nostrum: national ID cards. Schemes to
stuff wallets with standardized identification documents have emerged in the past as a proposed solution to
illegal immigration; terrorism is just the latest motive for tagging Americans like cattle on a ranch.
But as any college kid could testify, ID cards are hardly an insurmountable obstacle.
The National ID Card: It's Baaack!:
We've certainly come a long way from the original purpose of the Social Security card. When the system was
created in 1935, individual workers were assigned numbers so that the Treasury could properly account for the
contributions made to the Social Security fund. To assuage the privacy concerns of American citizens,
Congress insisted that the card would never be used for identification purposes. Sixty years later,
Congress is thinking about breaking that promise. [Written September 23, 1997]
Expansive Police Powers Threaten Our
Constitutional Rights: Those who wrote our Constitution sought to ensure our freedoms by creating
a document that protects our God-given rights at all times, even when we are engaged in war. It is a
document that has since been used as the model for so many other nations seeking freedom. We must
remember that it is how we conduct ourselves in times of peril and war that reflects the values we truly
embody. The ideals of freedom that have made this nation great — indeed, all the freedoms guaranteed
in our Bill of Rights — are the same freedoms we must guard and protect at this critical time.
Libertarians
Say Americans Should Reject National ID Card: The Libertarian Party on Thursday [10/11/2001]
criticized the idea of forcing Americans to carry a national identification card. The party believes that
such card would inconvenience ordinary Americans while international terrorists could simply forge one
for themselves.
Group Urges
Competition, Not ID Cards, To Improve Airline Security: The National Consumer Coalition's Privacy
Group has labeled the Air Transport Association (an airline trade and lobbying group) as its "privacy villain of
the week," because the ATA is pushing the federal government to create a new federal database of air travelers
for the sake of security.
ID Card: The Password to the
Police State. The current attempt to inflict Americans with the burden of having to carry a
national ID card did not begin on 9-11 and, indeed, is unrelated to it. The attack on the
World Trade Center is just a convenient excuse to promote this thoroughly un-American idea.
Liberty Is Not A Plastic I.D.
Card: There is no time ever when Americans should surrender their liberty to the constant
surveillance by the government. It is quintessentially un-American.
Pushing papers: ID cards
not only destroy our anonymity, they also make identity theft easier.
Against ID Cards: The worse way
to fight terrorism.
National I.D. Card: That Irresistible Urge to Control.
Mandatory National ID Cards …for Our
Politicians: I think ID cards are a great idea — every politician should carry
one. Crisis is good for statist-leaning governments such as ours because it affords them the opportunity
to package new oppressions under the guise of needed security. Lately, we've been treated to the idea of
a national ID card so our police can tell good guys from bad ones. Such a system will never, of course,
be abused. Like all government programs it will be competently and economically implemented, and will,
in fact, produce the desired results because it's not motivated by profit. Indeed, it will be anti-profit
in nature, like most government programs, making it more virtuous still. And thankfully, it will be a
cinch to implement, especially if we behave ourselves and don't blather on about erosion of our rights and
other such irrelevancies.
Talk of
National ID Card Increases: Increased talk about the possibility of a national identification
card is drawing increased fire from privacy advocates. Discussions about an ID card began to re-percolate
following the September 11 attack on the United States, with several Members of Congress saying the issue
was one that merits fresh consideration as the nation looks for ways to improve national security from terrorist
attacks like those on New York and Washington, D.C.
NO National ID Card —
Not Now, Not Ever.
Identity
Crisis: How Identification Is Overused and Misunderstood. Does an increase in
identification really lead to increased security or an invasion of privacy?
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