Real ID: Will the Empire Strike Back?

Written by Stephen Yates

Aug 22, 2007 at 12:00 AM

As most readers of this column already know, in June the South Carolina General Assembly passed—and Governor Mark Sanford publicly signed—S.449, declaring that South Carolina “shall not participate in the implementation of the Federal Real ID Act [of 2005].”  Approximately two thirds of the states have now either passed similar bills declining to implement Real ID, weaker measures demanding that the federal government pony up the money for Real ID, or resolutions calling on Congress to repeal Real ID. No one in his right mind thinks we’re out of the woods. Homeland Security is again making noises about the supposed necessity of Real ID. This despite the obvious rebellion in the states, the Senate’s having killed an amendment last month that would have expropriated $300 million in federal money for Real ID, and evidence that the incorporation of a national identification scheme was a factor in the demise of immigration reform this year. Homeland Security continues to insist that Real ID is crucial to the war on terror. “For terrorists,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff stated before the National Conference of State Legislatures a few weeks ago, “travel documents are like weapons. We do have a right and an obligation to see that those licenses reflect the identity of the person who’s presenting it [sic.].” Chertoff continued, “Travel documents are what allow terrorists to enter countries, establish false identities, plan and execute their attacks. So one of the highest priorities for my department is to seal off this very significant vulnerability, particularly along our land borders where we face an ongoing threat.” According to Chertoff, customs and border protection officers have to evaluate 8,000 different kinds of identity documents. Addressing the Real ID rebellion during a brief question and answer period, Chertoff said, “I understand part of it is money….  I mean frankly the immigration bill actually authorizes a slug of money for Real ID because the current version of the bill in the Senate if I recall correctly actually envisions Real ID as being an employment verification document….  Then there are some people who seem to have a philosophical problem with a secure driver’s license. And here I do want to say something…. Whether it be terrorism or identity theft, the fact remains that increasingly we rely upon driver’s licenses as a form of identification….  I’m waiting to hear the compelling civil liberties argument to enable people to forge documents and steal the identities of others.” Chertoff does not identity the real “philosophical problem” many of us have with Real ID: it violates the U.S. Constitution, which nowhere authorizes the federal government to create a national identification system and compel states and individuals to sign on board. At times I get the impression that the feds realize this. Hence Chertoff’s remark, “This is not a mandate.” He explained, “A state doesn’t have to do this, but if the state doesn’t have—at the end of the day, at the end of the deadline—Real ID-compliant licenses then the state cannot expect that those licenses will be accepted for federal purposes.” Thus the Pickwickian choice the federal government may force upon noncompliant states such as South Carolina: either back down and accept the federal driver’s license, or leave your citizens in a position of having to obtain a passport, e.g., to enter a federal building or collect social security or open an account with a federal bank. With Chertoff’s frank admission that Real ID was built into the immigration bill that was torpedoed twice a few weeks back, another potential strategy becomes clear: begin the job of welding together the federalized identification system with existing employment verification until it becomes increasingly difficult and eventually impossible to find legal employment without the Real ID. At present, Homeland Secur-ity’s deadline for states to be considered Real ID compliant is December 31, 2009. The final deadline for all compliance is May 10, 2013. Following this date, non-compliant IDs will no longer be accepted for official, federal purposes. There is no indication that Chertoff or others in the upper echelons of the federal government intend to back down. Thus far, Homeland Security has not released a full and final statement on Real ID compliance. Is the Empire about to strike back? I can see Chertoff and others in Homeland Security keeping their fingers crossed and hoping for a rebellion by people who suddenly find their driver’s licenses unacceptable for federal and banking purposes—hoping, that is, that hundreds of thousands of citizens will cry foul to their state legislators and demand that they repeal anti-Real ID statutes. Given today’s levels of Constitutional illiteracy, this could happen. I can also see federal officials fuming at those of us who pontificate on and on about the Constitution. I can almost hear the retort, “The Constitution was never intended to be a suicide pact!” At least they aren’t (yet) saying the document is obsolete. Chertoff’s remarks simply dodge Constitutional issues. I have previously spilled ink in this space wondering why, if our federal officials are really so interested on our safety, they do not secure our borders and decrease the likelihood that someone who means us harm can get into this country—as opposed to forcing a national identification system on Americans who obviously represent no threat. For decades we’ve labored under the misguided belief that anyone who wants entry into America ought to be granted it. Now, because of the number of unassimilated peoples who have come in and been allowed to stay and work here, we’ve got a problem of some magnitude on our hands. The problem is worsened by those politically correct doctrines that forbid “racial profiling,” in accordance with all-cultures-are-moral-equals dogma. Without this dogma, which controls academia and much of the legal system in this country today, singling out suspicious Muslim groups and even acquiring legal warrants to search Mosques would be a whole lot easier. It would be possible to root out and deport dangerous individuals without violating the liberties of native-born Americans. An increasing number of Americans are becoming convinced that the real reason the federal government will not institute genuine border security is that at the uppermost echelons of both government and the multinational corporations of three nations is a scheme to create a borderless North American Union. You would not expect Chertoff (assuming he knows) or anyone else in the Bush Administration to come right out and say this. The idea of erasing national borders has been kicking around at least since the early 1970s, which Michael Gartner (a former Ambassador to the UN) wrote in the Council of Foreign Relations’ flagship journal Foreign Affairs about the need for “an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece,” that this would “accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault” (“The Hard Road to World Order,” April 1974 issue).   The New World Orderlies discovered the key to making this work in North America—appeal to the profit motive. Speak the language of free markets while quietly instituting corporatism (big business and big government work together to design and implement centralized national and international economic planning). Thus, secretive organizations like the North American Competitiveness Council are in the Security and Prosperity Partnership driver’s seat. By the time this is in print, the SPP will have met in Canada, amidst protests kept outside a 15 mile “security” perimeter by armed troops. It will have disbanded to continue its work eroding our borders. It should go without saying that most SPP-era prosperity will go to the top, as with a pyramid scheme. The poor will get poorer, and the middle class will continue to be squeezed. Many Americans are already too worried about job security / job prospects to pay attention to debates about Real ID, or the SPP. As long as this corporatist agenda remains dominant among the superrich and those in the upper echelons of our government, we will not have real border security; and whatever risk we face from overseas terrorists will persist despite forcing Americans to have a national ID card—which once instituted, as I have argued elsewhere (The New American, Oct. 2, 2006), could easily be transformed into a North American ID card. --------------------------------------- Steven Yates teaches philosophy at the University of South Carolina Upstate and Greenville Technical College, and is on the board of the South Carolina chapter of Citizens Committee to Stop the FTAA. The views expressed in his columns are his own, and do not reflect official views of any of these institutions or organizations. His latest book World-views: Christian Theism versus Modern Materialism, was published last year by The Worldviews Project (for more information call 864-288-0043). He is at work on a new book tentatively entitled The Real Matrix. His email address is: