Thread: Need proof? Don't count on driver's license

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/colu ... i-news-col


Need proof? Don't count on driver's license


Published January 4, 2007

When my wife went to renew her Illinois driver's license recently, the clerks and supervisors at the secretary of state's office were not satisfied that she was who she claimed to be.

The main piece of ID she had was the license they themselves had renewed at that same counter four years earlier; the license she'd held for the last 21 years. But that wasn't good enough.

The rules had changed since last time. Now, as part of the effort to control identity theft by illegal immigrants, Social Security numbers have to be cross-checked with names. And hers didn't match. The explanation was simple: She changed her last name when we married in 1985, and though she updated most of her records at the time, she had neglected to alert the Social Security Administration.

The government had never seemed to mind. It took her tax payments every year under her married name and issued refunds when appropriate, renewed her driver's license five times, issued a U.S. passport, let her go back and forth through customs and so on.

Then came the outcry about the growing problem of undocumented workers using phony Social Security numbers to help them masquerade as legal residents of the U.S. The REAL ID Act, passed by Congress in 2005, will require that states be far stricter about issuing driver's licenses by May 2008.

In theory, it's not a bad idea. Driver's licenses have long been the gold standard of personal identification, and nothing good comes when impostors get them. When the state says you are Bill Smith, by God, you oughta be Bill Smith.

In practice, though ...

Johanna is a born U.S. citizen with a paper trail from here to Pittsburgh. But all that the computer database knew was that the name and number didn't jibe.

A red flag, sure. But an opaque one. The Social Security database did not tell the clerk that the number belongs to a woman named Johanna born on the same day as Johanna Zorn. And the clerk was unwilling or unable to run checks using Johanna's maiden name to show that a woman by that name officially changed her name to Johanna Zorn with the Illinois secretary of state shortly after she was married in 1985.

What we had was a failure to communicate along with a failure of common sense and, then, a failure of the secretary of state's employees to be helpful.

Neglectful married women have been encountering this problem since Illinois got out in front of the REAL ID act and began cross-checking Social Security numbers several years ago, said secretary of state spokesman Dave Druker.

But the clerks at the Northwest Side office gave us vague, impatient and ultimately inaccurate instructions to drive to the nearest Social Security office where, they promised, she could straighten things out quickly.

Not a chance. We drove home, dug out her passport and headed back to the driver's license facility. Sorry, they said. That may be good enough for the Department of Homeland Security, but it's not good enough for Jesse White.

This column is not intended to be an expose. Druker couldn't have been nicer in explaining, apologizing and agreeing that instructions to citizens should be clearer and that the security net needs adjustments.

This is a cautionary tale. Get your papers in order in 2007, folks, and have them handy from here on in.

The feds have yet to firm up the list of original, official documents they will require of drivers when REAL ID kicks in next year, Druker said. But it's likely to be longer than it is now.

A photocopy of a wedding certificate signed by a clergyman and a passport aren't likely to do the trick as they ultimately did for Johanna. She solved her whole problem--and forestalled problems she would have faced down the line trying to collect Social Security--by going back to the Social Security office a week later and getting her old number assigned to her married name.

Actually, there was one other thing she used to prove herself to Social Security. You guessed it: Her old Illinois driver's license.

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Post comments to www.chicagotribune.com/zorn

It is to bad it had to come to that but unfortunately it is a necessary evil in this day and age. There is one thing I always tell people now and that is don't carry alot of ID on you. If a purse or wallet gets stolen it is very difficult to replace it all as some people have virtually no ID after that. I have heard alot of people complain about it.

This is a problem in UT as well. Many places in WY and CO do not consider a UT driver's liscense a valid form of ID because our elected idiots seem to think illegals need driver's liscenses, and practically hand them out like gift certificates.

In Florida it is hard for them to get a driver's license. In fact any of the ones given to them in the past cannot be renewed. Also people who are here on any type of visa have their license expire on the visa expirary date. Once that visa expires it is immediately put into the system that if that person is pulled over than ICE should be notified. That is why if you drive and look at the expirary stickers on license plates you now see many that expired a long time ago. They also tend to drive more often when the roads are busy to avoid getting caught.

Originally Posted by swatchick

In Florida it is hard for them to get a driver's license. In fact any of the ones given to them in the past cannot be renewed. Also people who are here on any type of visa have their license expire on the visa expirary date. Once that visa expires it is immediately put into the system that if that person is pulled over than ICE should be notified. That is why if you drive and look at the expirary stickers on license plates you now see many that expired a long time ago. They also tend to drive more often when the roads are busy to avoid getting caught.

Should be adopted throughout the U.S. for a start.

I am sure others will follow if they haven't already.