New Mexico governor uses Real ID to push for repeal of driver's licenses for illegal immigrants

October 11, 2012 | By David Perera
FierceHomelandSecurity

In what's being called a publicity stunt by many, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) says her state won't comply with the Real ID Jan. 15 deadline because it issues driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

In an Oct. 10 letter (.pdf) to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Martinez says she will "once again be asking our legislature to bring our driver's license laws into full compliance," but until then, it's her understanding that since New Mexico driver's licenses fall short of the Real ID standard, they won't be accepted for entry to federal facilities and for boarding airplanes.

"New Mexico's practice of giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants…poses a significant and well-documented public safety threat," Martinez said in a statement.

Critics of the governor have noted that New Mexico is hardly the only state that will fall short of the 2005 law's requiring uniform state identification card eligibility verification standards and shared databases. Fifteen states with more than 20 percent of the U.S. population (New Mexico is not among them) have passed laws prohibiting Real ID compliance, noted Peter Simonson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico.

"Today's statement from the Governor is a scare tactic meant to advance her agenda of dismantling New Mexico's drivers' license law," he added.

The federal government has extended the compliance deadline for Real ID three times so far, but Homeland Security Department officials said earlier this year that they won't do so again. However, David Heyman, DHS assistant secretary for policy, told a March 21 House panel that DHS will assess compliance based "on the totality of what states have done."

That hedge could leave the door open for DHS to simply declare that every state is "materially compliant based on their independent actions to improve security (even the states that have opted out)," said American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel Christopher Calabrese in a March 21 blog post written shortly after the hearing.

In an emailed statement, DHS spokeswoman Marsha Catron said that "secure driver's licenses and identification documents are a vital component of a holistic national security strategy."

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New Mexico governor uses Real ID to push for repeal of driver's licenses for illegal immigrants - FierceHomelandSecurity