Legislators, residents speak out against REAL ID program

Daily American  | Dec. 4, 2007

By DAN DiPAOLO

JOHNSTOWN — The federal REAL ID program is beginning to see some real opposition in Pennsylvania.

Legislators in both the House and Senate have recently introduced bills to kill the licensing act and the groundswell touched this area when the American Civil Liberties Union hosted a town hall meeting on Nov. 29.
State Rep. Tom Yewcic, D-Johnstown, joined more than 60 people who came out to the Heritage Discovery Center to learn more about the act. “It’s a fundamental attack on our individual and state rights,” he said.

Strong rhetoric marked the evening speeches and commentary from the crowd, which included residents, local business leaders and a representative from Congressman John Murtha’s office.

The act, which was added to a supplemental spending bill for the Iraq war effort in 2005, is only now beginning to meet resistance because the Department of Homeland Security is looking to begin implementing the program in 2008, organizers said.

According to the homeland security Web site, a REAL ID will establish common standards for issuing driver’s licenses across the country. Those new licenses must have a digital photograph, documented addressing, date of birth, signature, gender and be machine readable.

Additionally, it encourages but does not mandate, states to collect biometric data including fingerprints, facial feature recognition data and other individual physical markers of cardholders.

Once the program is started, anyone without a REAL ID could be prevented from entering federal buildings, commercial aircraft and nuclear power plants, according to the Website.

The problem begins with a number of constitutional issues, opposition leaders say, and will only get worse when the identity database created by the act begins to be linked to financial institutions and essentially becomes a national identity card.

Yewcic opposes the act on a number of levels, saying that it will not only impact the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 10th amendments, but will cost the state millions of dollars to implement. “It’s fundamentally un-American, he said.

Essentially, he said that he’s worried licensing, which is a state right under the 10th amendment, could be used to curb free speech and privacy (1st amendment), nationally register gun owners (2nd amendment), and lead to unreasonable searches for those who don’t have the card (4th amendment).

He urged those present to contact their local representatives to show support for state House Bill 1351, which would prevent biometric data from being collected and opposes the act.

The DHS, which did not return calls for comment, has maintained in press releases that the ID would prevent terrorism, reduce fraud and improve the reliability and accuracy of identification documents.

Additionally, the program would not require states to submit more information to the federal level than it already does through individual departments of motor vehicles, according to the site. But, once the program has started, the “DHS may consider expanding these official purposes through future rulemakings to maximize the security benefits of REAL ID.”

That’s a troubling statement to James Scofield, president of the local chapter of the ACLU. “It’s a ‘show your papers’ mentality,” he said.

Many of the residents attending the event were uncomfortable with the program. Chris Faris, of Somerset, said that the act is not about security. “It’s about money. There’s a cottage industry of buying and selling information. They’re going to profit from it and say that we’re alarmists crying Fascism,” he said.

Yewcic agreed that the program will cost the state more than $150 million to implement. Every Pennsylvania Department of Transporation center will have to be upgraded, he said.

“Congress has to go back and repeal the REAL ID act, go back and start over. If someone had come to me with this 25 years ago, I’d have told them that they’re nothing but a nutty right-wing conspiracy theorist,” Yewcic said.