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Campaign for Justice
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By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 13 minutes ago



Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get more secure
driver's licenses in the next six years under ambitious post-9/11
security rules to be unveiled Friday by federal officials.

The Homeland Security Department has spent years crafting the
final regulations for the REAL ID Act, a law designed to make it
harder for terrorists, illegal immigrants and con artists to get
government-issued identification. The effort once envisioned to
take effect in 2008 has been pushed back in the hopes of winning
over skeptical state officials.

Even with more time, more federal help and technical advances,
REAL ID still faces stiff opposition from civil liberties groups.

To address some of those concerns, the government now plans to
phase in a secure ID initiative that Congress passed into law in
2005. Now, DHS plans a key deadline in 2011 — when federal
authorities hope all states will be in compliance — and then further
measures to be enacted three years later, according to
congressional staffers who spoke to The Associated Press on
condition of anonymity because an announcement had not yet
been made. DHS officials briefed legislative aides on the details late
Thursday.

Without discussing details, Homeland Security Secretary Michael
Chertoff promoted the final rules for REAL ID during a meeting
Thursday with an advisory council.

"We worked very closely with the states in terms of developing a
plan that I think will be inexpensive, reasonable to implement and
produce the results," he said. "This is a win-win. As long as people
use driver's licenses to identify themselves for whatever reason
there's no reason for those licenses to be easily counterfeited or
tampered with."

In order to make the plan more appealing to cost-conscious states,
federal authorities drastically reduced the expected cost from
$14.6 billion to $3.9 billion, a 73 percent decline, according to
Homeland Security officials familiar with the plan.

The American Civil Liberties Union has fiercely objected to the
effort, particularly the sharing of personal data among government
agencies. The DHS and other officials say the only way to make
sure an ID is safe is to check it against secure government data;
critics like the ACLU say that creates a system that is more likely to
be infiltrated and have its personal data pilfered.

In its written objection to the law, the ACLU claims REAL ID
amounts to the "first-ever national identity card system," which
"would irreparably damage the fabric of American life."

The Sept. 11 attacks were the main motivation for the changes.

The hijacker-pilot who flew into the Pentagon, Hani Hanjour, had a
total of four driver's licenses and ID cards from three states. The
DHS, which was created in response to the attacks, has created a
slogan for REAL ID: "One driver, one license."

By 2014, anyone seeking to board an airplane or enter a federal
building would have to present a REAL ID-compliant driver's
license, with the notable exception of those more than 50 years
old, Homeland Security officials said.

The over-50 exemption was created to give states more time to get
everyone new licenses, and officials say the risk of someone in
that age group being a terrorist, illegal immigrant or con artist is
much less. By 2017, even those over 50 must have a REAL ID-
compliant card to board a plane.

Among other details of the REAL ID plan:

_The traditional driver's license photograph would be taken at the
beginning of the application instead of the end so that should
someone be rejected for failure to prove identity and citizenship,
the applicant's photo would be kept on file and checked in the
future if that person attempted to con the system again.

_The cards will have three layers of security measures but will not
contain microchips as some had expected. States will be able to
choose from a menu which security measures they will put in their
cards.

Over the next year, the government expects all states to begin
checking both the Social Security numbers and immigration status
of license applicants.

Most states currently check Social Security numbers and about
half check immigration status. Some, like New York, Virginia, North
Carolina and California, already have implemented many of the
security measures envisioned in REAL ID. In California, for
example, officials expect the only major change to adopt the first
phase would be to take the photograph at the beginning of the
application process instead of the end.

After the Social Security and immigration status checks become
nationwide practice, officials plan to move on to more expansive
security checks, including state DMV offices checking with the
State Department to verify those applicants who use passports to
get a driver's license, verifying birth certificates and checking with
other states to ensure an applicant doesn't have more than one
license.

A handful of states have already signed written agreements
indicating plans to comply with REAL ID. Seventeen others,
though, have passed legislation or resolutions objecting to it, often
based on concerns about the billions of dollars such extra security
is expected to cost.

____

Associated Press writer Eileen Sullivan contributed to this report.