The Real ID Act and why everyone's so upset about it

The Real ID Act was passed into law in 2005. It largely reflects American national attention on homeland security and immigration issues.

The main points of the Act include:

The creation of national standards for driver's licenses and other state-issued identification cards.
The changing of visa limits for temporary workers, Australian citizens and nurses.
The negation of any laws that inhibit the construction of physical barriers (e.g. walls) at borders.
The updating and general "tightening up" of laws regarding deportation of aliens for terrorist activity and incoming foreigner application for asylum.
The creation of "delivery bonds," which are like bail bonds but for foreigners released for pending hearings.
Funding for studies and reports that assess border security.

Many opposition groups bring up a potential serious threat to privacy should a national identity card be made for American citizens. Although the databases would be created at the state level, they would all be compatible... meaning we would only be a hop-skip-and-a-jump away from having a national database of American living and personal information.

Many opponents state that this will help the government track the movements of Americans. Even more pertinent, many opponents also site that the U.S. government doesn't have the best track record of protecting its databases from hackers or thieves. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how valuable and enticing a national identity database would be to thieves.

Many states oppose the Act and have passed state-based laws that negate its implementation or minimize certain of its elements. These states are generally against the Act: Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Washington.

Interestingly enough, many of the so-called "pro-Real ID" states are border states with illegal immigration problems such as California and Texas.

Comments

Steven J

January 14, 2008 at 9:18 PM

How concerned should I be over the new version of the REAL ID ACT?

Rate this article

Questions about this topic? Ask them on our Contact Us page.

Bookmark this page