Congress Wants Action on Law Against Fake Drivers Licenses
March 20, 2012
By AHN
Tom Ramstack – AHN News Legal Correspondent
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The progress of states in developing drivers licenses that are difficult to forge is scheduled to be reviewed Wednesday during a hearing of a House Judiciary subcommittee.
Drivers licenses by themselves are the least concern of the committee members.
They are more worried about forgers and illegal immigrants using fake drivers licenses to open bank accounts, engage in fraud, find illegal employment and obtain passports or other government identification.
Some of the people obtaining the fake identification could be terrorists seeking to strike the United States from within its own borders, according to sponsors of the REAL ID Act.
The September 11 hijackers carried a total of 30 state drivers licenses and non-driver identification cards.
The 2005 REAL ID Act requires states to develop drivers licenses that evade forgery attempts, such as by imprinting biometric information that can scanned and linked to a central database.
At the current pace, at least 36 states will comply fully with the REAL ID Act by January 2013, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
However, the chance for any federal government assistance to the states to comply with the law is losing ground.
The Obama administration proposed no funding for the REAL ID Act in its 2013 budget.
The administration already delayed the deadline for the law’s standards to take effect.
Obama’s reluctance to fund the law is angering some Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee as well as state government officials.
State officials reported to the Center for Immigration Studies that they no longer get guidance or support from the Department of Homeland Security in implementing the REAL ID Act.
The Center for Immigration Studies says even if the federal government is falling behind in supporting the law, the states might be willing to do it on their own.
“While the Department of Homeland Security lets REAL ID languish with a looming compliance deadline of Jan. 15, 2013, the states are pushing on with securing driver license issuance standards not because the feds or Congress seems to give a hoot, but because they realize that the DMV counter can be a defense against identity theft and fraud, the kind that terrorists, illegal aliens and criminals use to switch their identities to that of an unsuspecting American,” said Janice Kephart, the Center for Immigration Studies’ national security policy director.
The fact states are acting alone to implement the REAL ID Act while the federal government gives the law only tepid support could underscore a divide between Washington and state governments, the Center for Immigration Studies says.
Its report on the REAL ID Act found that state officials generally reported benefits from forgery-resistant drivers licenses that include reductions in fraud, increasing efficiencies, improved customer service and assistance to law enforcement.
States are willing to pay for drivers license improvements from their own budgets instead of waiting for federal grants, the report said. They also are willing to implement anti-forgery standards that exceed federal requirements, the report said.
Other evidence of different opinions between states and the federal government can be found in state laws that seek to enforce immigration rules.
Some states, such as Arizona, Alabama, Georgia and Utah, have enacted laws that empower local police to question suspected illegal immigrants and arrest them for deportation if they cannot prove legal residency.
The federal government is trying to block the state laws through court action.
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Congress Wants Action on Law Against Fake Drivers Licenses : GantDaily.com
