Real ID on horizon for licenses
Jason Hornick/Staff Photographer
People conduct business at various windows at the Woodbridge DMV on Canton Hill Road on Wednesday, April 23, 2008.
Published: April 24, 2008
Updated: April 28, 2008
As the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles learns more about Real ID requirements, holders of driver's licenses should prepare to stand in line.
By 2017, all Virginia residents will have to replace their ID cards and driver's licenses in person at DMVs across the state. Younger license holders will have to replace theirs by 2014.
With the changes come an estimated 200 percent increase in wait times, said Melanie Stokes, DMV spokes-woman.
The 9/11 Commission recommended the changes and Congress passed the Real ID Act in 2005.
The Department of Homeland Security is charging the DMV and similar agencies in every state with making major changes in document capturing and verification operations.
If a state doesn't begin complying with certain DHS rules by next summer, residents of those states won't be able to use their driver's license to fly on an airplane, said Amy Kudwa, DHS spokeswoman. Virginia has already met those requirements.
Virginia's General Assembly this year appropriated $5.2 million to start the changes, and expects to spend that much more every year forward as Real ID cards become the norm throughout the U.S.
LONGER LINES
In total, wait times at DMV offices could at least double.
"Everyone will need to visit a DMV office before those deadlines so they'll have a lot more people getting those Real ID-compliance licenses," Stokes said.
DMV tellers will continue to ask for a number of documents to prove legal presence in Virginia, then capture a digital image of those documents.
New customer service employees will be hired and all existing employees will have to be trained on using interstate communication systems that don't yet exist.
Kudwa stressed that there will not be a national database of vital records.
"It would all happen electronically and within a matter of moments," she said. "That mechanism does not exist today for all states, although it does for commercial driver's licenses."
DHS will fund the electronic communications hub that would be used to query each state's records, she said.
DMVs will be required to use that hub to contact agencies that create birth certificates and marriage licenses, for instance, to verify their legitimacy. That's why customers can expect longer lines.
"That will take much longer than it does today," Stokes said.
REAL ID COMPLIANCE
"A lot of the requirements under [Virginia's] legal presence law are going to be similar under Real ID, but I can't be sure because DMV hasn't finished going through the requirements," Stokes said.
Virginia is working toward compliance, but because officials haven't analyzed all of the Real ID require-ments, they won't say for sure that they're agreeing to them yet, she said.
What they are sure of is its new "central issue" program, designed in anticipation of the new federal mandate.
New Real ID-compliant driver's licenses will be made of polycarbonate, created in a central office then mailed to Virginia residents, instead of handed over on the spot.
One of the goals of the Real ID Act is to increase security and the central issue design reduces the number of people who know how the laser engraving works, Stokes said.
Kudwa said preventing identity theft is the law's major goal.
"Fake IDs are not just used by kids trying to buy beer," she said. "It can be people with very serious criminal intentions for identity theft."
The fraudulent documents a terrorist uses to move around the country and rent apartments, for example, are just as important as weapons they use, Kudwa said.
To further prevent fraud, the process for getting a new license is going to change, and some transactions won't be available online anymore, Stokes said.
Virginia residents will have to bring their documents to the DMV, then wait about a week to receive a new card in the mail.
By 2014, anyone under the age of 50 won't be able to fly on an airplane or enter a federal facility without a Real ID-compliant license or ID card. People older than 50 will have to meet that requirement by 2017.
CARD SECURITY
The new laser-engraved licenses will have a number of security features. They will include tamper-resistant features such as a hologram or micro filament.
Although Virginia doesn't know what the new licenses will look like, Kudwa said each state's license can maintain a unique design.
"A Virginia license will continue to look like Virginia license," she said.
As some states move toward a system to provide residents with Real ID-compliant licenses and ID cards, some states bordering Canada and Mexico are looking at enhanced driver's licenses.
These optional driver's licenses are intended to speed border crossings because they contain a radio frequency ID that can be read up to 20 or 30 feet away.
Border Patrol agents can check the citizenship of a person with one of the enhanced driver's licenses, which were created to comply with the federal Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.
Only U.S. citizens can obtain an enhanced driver's license.
Enhanced driver's licenses are "an excellent recommendation from the Department of Homeland Secu-rity and it's something Virginia DMV wants to work toward," Stokes said.
Currently Virginia does not have the resources to create these driver's licenses, she said.
Washington state began issuing these cards in January and Arizona could issue them as early as this year, Kudwa said.
Vermont and New York have committed to producing enhanced driver's licenses with embedded radio fre-quency IDs, according to the Customs and Border Patrol. Texas, California and Michigan are in discussions with DHS to develop enhanced driver's license projects.
Staff writer Lillian Kafka can be reached at 703-878-8065.
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Reader Reactions
Well you apparently are unaware of the US Constitution.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The real ID keeps a datbase of your information available to anyone who has a scanner… and it can be read while still in your pocket.
It is not against the law to be annonomous. You dont have to show ID when asked. So why would you allow our govt to control your movements?
I for one will stick to how the founders saw it… Government has no right to stick there nose in our business… It reminds me of what B. Franklin said…
“Those who sacrifice essential liberty for temporary safety are not deserving of either liberty or safety.“—Ben Franklin, 1776
In the wake of 9/11 and subsequent terrorist attacks around the world, there is a real temptation to allow the government to take away some of our most precious rights in exchange for greater security. We must resist this temptation. In order to have a free society, there are certain prices that have to be paid. One of those is the possibility that someone will take advantage of our freedom and use it as an opportunity to endanger us. So what if they do? Giving up any part of our freedom is not the answer. In fact, that’s exactly what the terrorists want. When we do that, they win.
As they say terrorists and illegals as well as criminals are the only ones that have anything to hide. If done properly it should curtail the illegal population. Current laws on the books are what mandates deportation. RealID or enhanced ID either is coming beware illegals and criminals. Chris Cummings
Everyone should stand up and refuse this blatant form of control the likes of which the soviet union and other totalitarian governments used to control their citizens. Remember (Show me your papers!)
Here in the US we are supposed to be free of this type of govenment survielance.
It also creates huge administrative burdens for state governments, while providing no federal funds for implementing its onerous requirements. At the same time, it does nothing to combat terrorism, and puts us at greater risk for invasions of privacy and identity theft.
Supporters claim it is not a national ID because it is voluntary. However, any state that opts out will automatically make non-persons out of its citizens. The citizens of that state will be unable to have any dealings with the federal government because their ID will not be accepted. They will not be able to fly or to take a train. In essence, in the eyes of the federal government they will cease to exist. It is absurd to call this voluntary.
What will all of this mean for us? When this new program is implemented, every time we are required to show our driver’s license we will, in fact, be showing a national identification card. We will be handing over a card that includes our personal and likely biometric information, information which is connected to a national and international database.
H.R. 418 does nothing to solve the growing threat to national security posed by people who are already in the U.S. illegally. Instead, H.R. 418 states what we already know: that certain people here illegally are “deportable.“ But it does nothing to mandate deportation.
Although Congress funded an additional 2,000 border guards last year, the administration has announced that it will only ask for an additional 210 guards. Why are we not pursuing these avenues as a way of safeguarding our country? Why are we punishing Americans by taking away their freedoms instead of making life more difficult for those who would enter our country illegally?
H.R. 418 does what legislation restricting firearm ownership does. It punishes law-abiding citizens. Criminals will ignore it. H.R. 418 offers us a false sense of greater security at the cost of taking a gigantic step toward making America a police state.
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