According to new legislation approved by the House of Representatives, state authorities responsible for issuing driver’s licenses would have to check the citizenship and legal status of all applicants. The main goal of the new regulation, the REAL ID Act, would prevent terrorists from obtaining this most important ID document in the United States. Before the legislation goes into effect, it will have to be approved by the Senate and signed by the President.

The new regulation, voted on Feb. 10th, passed by a majority vote (261-161), of mostly Republicans in favor. Several state governors and departments of motor vehicles opposed the REAL ID Act, claiming it would increase their work load.

“We don’t want to do work for U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services,” they argued. Governors claim that background checks would be too costly. Nonetheless, they will have to obey the REAL ID Act if it goes into effect. They new law would also apply to the non-driver’s IDs also issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

Lack of Access without ID

All electronically produced documents will be equipped with a digital picture and a magnetic stripe containing encrypted information about the owner of the ID and his or her fingerprints. The new security measures will make it more difficult to forge identity documents as well as eliminate the possibility that undocumented immigrants obtain driver’s licenses. At present some states issue these documents based on other documents that are easy to forge. The new regulation would help solve this problem as well as make it impossible for those who don’t posses official U.S. identification documents to board airplanes, access federal buildings and buy firearms.

Easier to deport

The same regulation would also make it much easier for judges to deport all those suspected of terrorism. “It’s just not logical to allow those who may potentially harm us all stay in the country,” said Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

“We now have over 350 different designs of driver’s licenses issued by 50 states. It is practically impossible to tell a fake from a real ID at airports,” said Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-WI) a sponsor of the new regulation. “Apart from checking their status, individual states will have to implement uniform security measures pertaining to driver’s licenses,” he added. Before this regulation becomes effective, it will have to be approved by the Senate.

Too much work

Governors put pressure on lawmakers by complaining that verifying Social Security numbers and immigration status of all applicants is too big a responsibility for them, and argue they don’t have appropriate budgets to handle this added workload.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) supports the regulation, but believes that it needs to be looked at from the wider perspective of immigration issues. During the debate on driver’s licenses, Bush’s Guest Worker Program was not mentioned. According to the president’s program, anyone with a job offer would be eligible to apply for a three-year visa in the United States with a possibility of getting an extension. A mention of the worker program would only make the debate on preventing terrorists from obtaining driver’s licenses more difficult. “The recent debate and Bush’s Guest Worker Program are two separate issues,” said Rep. Sensenbrenner.