Washington – Congress is moving quickly toward setting strict rules on how states issue driver’s licenses, requiring them to verify whether each applicant for a new license or a renewal is in this country legally.
A House and Senate conference now taking place has included the requirements, which apply to all 50 states and other jurisdictions that issue licenses, in a spending bill for Iraq, aides involved in the process said.The draft legislation will be finished in the next few days and is all but certain to pass.
State officials complain that the new requirements will add a costly, complicated burden to the issuing of driver’s licenses, which has been their responsibility for almost a century.
Civil rights organizations and privacy advocates say they are concerned that a standardized driver’s license would amount to a national identification card and that a central database would be vulnerable to identify theft.
Eleven states now grant driver’s licenses to noncitizens who do not have visas. There is no reliable estimate of how many licenses have been issued to noncitizens, whether in the country legally or illegally.
Under the rules being considered, before granting a driver’s license, a state would have to require proof of citizenship or legal presence, of an address, and of a Social Security number. It would need to check the legal status of noncitizens against a national immigration database, to save copies of any documents shown and to store a digital image of the face of each applicant.
The licenses issued would include the driver’s address and a digital photograph and would incorporate new authentication features designed to prevent counterfeits.
The new law would require that the licenses of legal temporary residents expire when their visas do.
Supporters of the law say it addresses important security problems, and they note that some of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks used driver’s licenses as identification when checking in, and that a few had expired visas.
Supporters also say the measure will help control illegal immigration.
State officials and some senators say the new provision, known as the Real ID measure, imposes verification procedures – such as the authentication of birth certificates – that would be difficult for even the federal government.
Cheye Calvo, the director of the transportation committee at the National Council of State Legislatures, predicted that unintended conflicts would emerge from the measure, which he noted would become law without any hearings.
Many state licensing officials, however, have long recognized a need for tighter standards and for better linking of databases, because many drivers whose licenses are revoked in one state quickly get a license in another.
Colorado already checks for proof of legal resident status. The state requires applicants for a driver’s license to submit proof of lawful presence, which could include showing a resident alien/permanent resident card or a certified birth certificate. The documents must be originals.
Denver Post staff writer Alicia Caldwell contributed to this report.