National ID at the Crossroads “The biggest risk of a national ID system is the database. Any national ID card assumes the existence of a national database,

National ID at the Crossroads

“The biggest risk of a national ID system is the database. Any national ID card assumes the existence of a national database, and that database can fail. Large databases of information always have errors and outdated information.”

—Bruce Schneier, "Beyond Fear"


“National IDs could be useful under some limited circumstances, but they don't represent a smart way to spend our security dollars. They are much more likely to be used properly by honest people than by criminals and terrorists, and the 9/11 terrorists have already proven that identification isn't a useful security measure.”

—Bruce Schneier, "Beyond Fear"


“If the protectors appear to have participated fully in the discussion, yet lack the power, the ability, or the will to regulate certain invasive aspects of machine-readable identity cards, the public may wrongly infer that its privacy interests have been safeguarded.”

—David Flaherty, “Protecting Privacy in Surveillance Societies”


“It's not hard to imagine these de facto national ID cards turning into a kind of domestic passport that U.S. citizens would be asked to produce for everyday commercial and financial tasks.”

—Wall Street Journal (February 19, 2005)


“Beginning 3 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, a Federal agency may not accept, for any official purpose, a driver's license or identification card issued by a State to any person unless the State is meeting the requirements of this section.”

—Real ID Act of 2005


“To be eligible to receive any grant or other type of financial assistance made available under this title, a State shall participate in the interstate compact regarding sharing of driver license data, known as the ‘Driver License Agreement’, in order to provide electronic access by a State to information contained in the motor vehicle databases of all other States.”



“Section 7212 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 is repealed.”



“All authority to issue regulations, set standards, and issue grants under this title shall be carried out by the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of Transportation and the States.”



“The elderly, those who are visual handicapped, and those with mental impairment are among those more likely to face problems with the use of a biometric identity card system.”

—London School of Economics


“The UK’s proposed Identity Card system could end up costing the government more than £18b ($32.6b) over the next 10 years.”

—Financial Times (May 30, 2005)


“Critics predict the standardization will prompt many more merchants to scan customer licenses and then pass on the information to such data brokers as ChoicePoint Inc. and LexisNexis. The databases of both ChoicePoint and LexisNexis have been exploited by identity thieves.”

—Los Angeles Times (May 31, 2005)


“The legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security was very specific on the question of a national ID card. They said there will be no national ID card.”

—Tom Ridge, Secretary of Homeland Security


“If you think a trip to the division of motor vehicles is a bad experience today, wait until the Real ID takes effect.”

—Senator Richard Durbin


“Driver’s license examiners trained to decide whether a person can parallel park will have to determine whether an applicant is an al-Qaida terrorist.”

—Senator Lamar Alexander


“Starting three years from now, if you live or work in the United States, you’ll need a federally approved ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments, or take advantage of nearly any government service.”

—Cnet News.com (May 6, 2005)


The Real ID Act “requires that the State DMV verify every document, including birth certificates, presented by every applicant, including American citizens. This means significant expense and long processing delays.”

—Senator Richard Durbin


“REAL ID’s sponsors claim the law will stop terrorists from getting on airplanes. The flaw in this logic is that the 9/11 terrorists did not need state driver’s licenses to board the airplanes they hijacked—they could have used their foreign passports, and at least one of them did.”

—Margaret D. Stock, West Point law professor


“Of 24 agencies surveyed by the Government Accountability Office, 13 have implemented or plan to implement RFID technology in one or more applications.”

—Government Accountability Office


“RFID implementation in National ID cards would allow agencies to track an individual in real-time and profile a person’s movements or transactions.”

—Government Accountability Office


“A recent burglary of a Las Vegas DMV put thousands of driver’s license holders at risk for identity theft. The information of at least 8,738 license and ID card holders was taken during the break-in, and reports of identity theft have already surfaced.”

—Las Vegas Review-Journal (June 3, 2005)


“The Transportation Security Administration plans to have 200,000 employees’ identities recorded by next month as part of a system that will eventually track 6 million people through fingerprints, handprints or eye scans.”

—Washington Post (May 27, 2005)


“In 2004, license-for-bribes schemes were found in at least 10 states.”



“In New Jersey, a license fraud scheme led to the firing of all DMV employees in one Newark office.”



“The Real ID Act will cost the federal government $100 million over the next five years.”

—Congressional Budget Office


“The Real ID Act will cost the states at least $500 million to implement.”

—National Conference of State Legislatures


Several requirements of the Real ID Act, “particularly those having to do with verification of documents used to acquire an ID, are either technologically or fiscally prohibitive.”

—National Governors Association


“It’s one thing to present a document; it’s another thing to accept the document as valid. Verifying digital record information is going to be difficult.”

—Director of Driver Services, Iowa


“There are a lot of people scratching their heads, wondering how they are going to get this done… It is going to be an administrative nightmare.”

—Former Maryland Transportation Secretary


“The Real ID Act would cause chaos and backlogs in thousands of state offices across the country, making the nation less secure.”

—National Conference of State Legislatures


“Keeping any national ID system secure would be even harder than building one.”

—National Academy of Sciences


“What we need are safe and legal avenues for immigrants to come and work here, not more walls.”

—Senator Edward Kennedy


“Mexico is very worried about the Real ID Act for two reasons: one, because it makes it more difficult to issue licenses to undocumented Mexicans; and two, because it approves the construction of a 50-kilometer wall along the San Diego border.”

—Mexican Interior Minister Santiago Creel


“This is a one-way street. We will likely be unable to reverse a national ID card when we discover later that it is oppressive, ineffective as a security precaution, and a drag on American initiative, creativity, and individual autonomy.”

—Robert Ellis Smith, “A National ID Card: A License to Live”


“The question isn't should the government create more databases to track people and what they're doing in the United States. Just the opposite is true. We have too many databases.”

—Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle


“We need to deny driver's licenses to illegal aliens, and I think the proof in the pudding on that is that the 19 September 11th hijackers ended up getting 63 validly issued driver's licenses from several states.”

—U.S. Representative James Sensenbrenner


“The REAL ID Act will close down opportunities for immigrants in the United States. . . . Asylum seekers will be denied refuge when they are fleeing persecution.”

—Juan Jose Gutierrez, Latino Movement USA

Documents

National ID at the Crossroads “The biggest risk of a national ID system is the database. Any national ID card assumes the existence of a national database,