Editorial Board Opposition to Real ID

Below is a sampling of the widespread opposition to the Real ID Act voiced by newspaper editorial boards throughout New York:

One of the nation's bedrock principles - sanctuary - would be badly crimped by the measure…It would require political asylum applicants to offer greater evidence of persecution and give judges less power to reverse asylum denials by immigration officials.
       -- New York Times, “On Guard, America,” Feb. 15, 2005

Aside from the privacy implications of this show-us-your-papers Sensenbrenner approach, and the fact that governors, state legislatures and motor vehicle departments have denounced the bill as expensive and burdensome, there's another reality: Even if the Real ID Act had been in place prior to 9/11, it's unlikely that the license provisions would have prevented the attacks.
       -- Wall Street Journal, “National ID Party,” Feb. 19, 2005

The issuance of a driver's license is maybe the most basic interaction between a state and its citizens. The feds would rudely intrude on this relationship with a hopelessly complex set of (unfunded) mandates and one-size-fits-all strictures. They could turn a routine process for all Americans into an intractable mess.
    -- Newsday, “Wrong way to ID immigrants,” April 28, 2005

By now, the nation's lawmakers could have had a long and serious discussion about how to create a sensible national ID that would provide identification and security while protecting privacy. This is, after all, a critical issue in terms of both safety and civil liberties.
Too bad. What Congress is doing instead is to ram through a bill that turns state-issued driver's licenses into a kind of phony national identity card through the mislabeled "Real ID" provision.
    -- New York Times, “An Unrealistic 'Real ID,'” May 4, 2005

At a National Governors' Association meeting in Iowa last week, Democrats and Republicans alike denounced the measure, known as the Real ID Act, as impractical and vastly underfunded. Republican Mike Huckabee of Arkansas said his Motor Vehicle clerks, whose pay starts at $8.27 an hour, haven't the knowledge or skills to verify whether license applicants are legal residents of the U.S. Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia said such training could easily cost each state upward of $100 million, or the amount Congress appropriated for all 50 states. Our guess is that these costs ultimately will be passed on to drivers in the form higher fees.
    -- Wall Street Journal, “Deputizing the DMV” July 25, 2005

Stiffer requirements for identification cards, as recommended by the 9/11 Commission, would be wise. But the federal government can't push the bulk of that burden onto states.
    -- Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, “Real ID Confusion” Aug. 14, 2005

Under Real ID, all 245 million existing holders of drivers’ licenses must apply – in person – for new, standardized identification cards. The report says that state motor vehicle department staffs will need to be more than doubled, and workers will have to be trained to verify copies of original birth certificates, Social Security cards and the like. Misplaced your Social Security card? Have fun getting a new one.
    -- Wall Street Journal, “A Real Bad ID,” Oct. 10, 2006

There’s also anxiety about the unaddressed vulnerabilities attached to storing personal data, like social security numbers and photos. Privacy advocates maintain that the REAL ID leaves open ground for both identify theft and government misuse.
    -- El Diario, “A Real Mess,” March 5, 2007

The governor could be turning his constituents into the nation’s guinea pigs for the controversial Real ID, a kind of national identification card. Passed in 2005, the Real ID law offers little money to states that are being asked to come up with a super-secure identification card by 2013.
    -- New York Times, “Governor Spitzer Retreats,” Oct. 30, 2007

In any case, there is less reason now for critics to accuse the governor of ignoring national security concerns by allowing illegal immigrants to apply for licenses. Indeed, he is moving rapidly in the other direction by quickly embracing the federal Real ID program, even though many civil libertarians and several states have expressed concerns about privacy and cost.
    -- Albany Times Union, “N.Y.’s license furor,” Oct. 30, 2007

It is disturbing that the governor has committed New York to this path so hastily, with so little public input, and in an apparent attempt to extract himself from a political quandary.
    -- Syracuse Post-Standard, “Spitzer drives deeper into the morass” Oct. 31, 2007

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