For our own protection, the Department of Homeland Security has informed Illinois that the driver’s licenses it issues are not in compliance with the 2005 Real ID Act and so will soon not be accepted as a means of identification for gaining entrance to federal buildings, and by sometime this summer may not be accepted by TSA agents at airport security checkpoints.
That means that Illinois residents trying to board commercial passenger planes for domestic flights will either have to present a passport for identification purposes, or go through an extra level of security at airport security checkpoints, meaning longer delays for passengers.
There was quite a bit of news coverage about Homeland Security’s announcement last month not to grant Illinois’ request for an extension to implement the Real ID requirements and most of it cast this state in a pretty bad light. Illinois is politically dysfunctional, after all, and never seems to get anything right.
Although the new rules are scheduled to go into effect 120 days after the first of this year, Dave Druker, a spokesman for Illinois Secretary of State has said Homeland Security has given his office assurance that residents of this state will be given plenty of warning before implementation begins and that it most likely will not begin extensive screening at airports until early this summer.
Back in 2007, the Illinois General Assembly passed a resolution opposing implementation of the Real ID Act and it hasn’t backed off from that position since.
The strongly worded message touting the importance of the U.S. Constitution and the oath elected officials take to uphold the Bill of Rights, the resolution states, “Whereas, the federal Real ID Act of 2005 creates a national identification card by requiring uniform information be placed on every state drivers’ license, requiring this information to be machine-readable in a standard format and requiring this card for any federal purpose including air travel…”
“Whereas, Real ID requires the creation of a massive public sector database containing the driver’s’ license information on every American, accessible to every state motor vehicle employee and state and federal law enforcement officer…”
And after a lot of other “whereasing” and “thereforeing,” including a mention that the federal government is not providing any money to create the new system it mandates, the Illinois General Assembly resolves that its members “oppose any portion of the Real ID Act that violates the rights and liberties guaranteed under the state Constitution or the United States Constitution, including the Bill of Rights.
Among the Southland legislators listed as co-sponsors of the resolution are state Rep. Al Riley, D-Olympia Fields, state Rep. Robert Rita, D-Blue Island, Rep. Will Davis, D-Hazel Crest, and former state Rep. Kevin McCarthy, D-Orland Park.
It should be noted that around this time, eight years ago, the National Governors Association and organizations representing state legislatures throughout the country opposed the Real ID Act. Since that time Homeland Security has given assurances that it has no intention of creating a national identity card, made some revisions in its procedures and, most importantly, the fear of terrorism has increased dramatically.
Nevertheless, the American Civil Liberties Union still opposes the Real ID Act on the grounds that it establishes a database that can be used, eventually, to keep tabs on every American.
Once upon a time, this was the sort of thing that would unite conservatives, libertarians and liberals. Creating any sort of database that would allow governments and law enforcement agencies to track the travel habits, gather personal information about citizens, and potentially restrict their ability to freely move about the country was seen as unAmerican.
But times have changed. National security is a national obsession. We agree to be probed and searched at airport checkpoints, we want video cameras tracking the movements of every person, people can be held without trial for decades if suspected of terrorist acts, torture is allowable under Justice Department rulings and all sorts of private communications have been subject to government searches without the knowledge of the person whose phone records and text messages were being tracked.
It’s for our own good.
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For national security.
All needed to protect the lives of innocent Americans who could be shot or blown apart by terrorists at any time, anywhere.
Anyone who raises an objection, who indicates a reluctance to go along, is denounced as unpatriotic. Who in their right mind would deny our government, the CIA, FBI, NSA and Homeland Security, the weapons they need to fight the war on terror, even if no such war has been declared by Congress?
I am among those who can remember a time when law enforcement officials abused their power to spy on Americans during the Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. While they claimed they were fighting Communists, it turned out their agents often provoked illegal activities to justify arrests, and that the groups targeted were sometimes selected because they were critics of local or federal elected officials.
It was the sort of thing our Founding Fathers tried to warn us about when they wrote the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, when they created all sorts of ways to protect citizens from abuses by people in power.
It’s sort of strange to see the attack on civil liberties continuing and gaining steam today because if you asked most Americans they would tell you they don’t trust the president, Congress or the U.S. Supreme Court. Democrats claim the rich have too much power. The political right contends that America is heading toward socialism. Many protesters contend local police officers have no respect for the lives of minority residents. Gun owners contend government officials are out to eliminate the Second Amendment.
Yet, when it comes to terrorism, well, the Constitution just seems outdated.
“This may not be a national identity card yet and may not create a national database, per se, but it creates a series of data bases in states throughout the country that governments can search and that can eventually be used as a method of surveillance on citizens,” said Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the ACLU of Illinois. “In Illinois, the state passed a law that allows school officials to inspect and make copies of driver’s licenses for people who want access to the schools and they can do some things to check their validity, but they cannot store that information in a database. The Real ID Act creates no such protections. And once you have a database like that, what happens the next time there’s a San Bernardino-type incident. Don’t you think there will be calls for the federal government to use that database to see where citizens have traveled?
“This law came about because after 9-11 some of the terrorists were found to have multiple driver’s licenses. But it turned out they had purchased forged driver’s licenses and this law doesn’t do anything to stop that sort of thing.”
Illinois is not the only state not conforming to the Real ID Act. California, Missouri, New Mexico and Washington also were denied extensions and ruled in non-compliance.
Extensions for 20 other states will expire later this year.
Instead of howling in protest, people are rushing to their local U.S. Post Office branch to get passport forms because, well, no one wants to be stuck on the ground the next time the family leaves on vacation.
And who wants to be seen as standing up for the silly old U.S. Constitution the next time there are dead bodies strewn on American streets as the result of a terrorist attack? That’s not very smart politics.
This is for our own safety, to protect the lives of women and children. It’s for the Homeland.
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