HOMELAND SECURITY Bill would increase ID restrictions

Driver's license applicants would have to present photo identification.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
From driver's licenses to passports to plane tickets, the paperwork necessary to enter and move about America may soon be subject to more restrictive rules -- all in the name of homeland security.
In some cases, such as licenses, the paperwork may be difficult to get. In others, such as passports, it may have to be proffered more often. The changes, added together, may have the biggest effect on Americans' routines of any made for security's sake since the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.
Some analysts say the changes are more oriented toward controlling illegal immigration than fighting terrorism. Others argue that those two efforts are inextricably linked -- and that the United States has to start somewhere, given the number of undocumented people that cross the nation's borders every year.
"Unless we discourage people from entering the U.S., our border security problem is unsolvable," said James Jay Carafano, senior fellow for national security and homeland security at the Heritage Foundation.
The prospective change that may affect the most people is probably the move to make it more difficult to obtain driver's licenses. Historically, the rules and regulations surrounding driver registration have been left to the states, which issue some 70 million licenses a year. Today, getting one usually requires simply proof of age, plus a few other basic forms of identification.
Under the terms of the Real ID Act, currently attached to the $81 million emergency spending plan for Iraq and Afghanistan, applicants for driver licenses would be required to prove that they are in the country legally. They also would have to provide a valid Social Security number, home address and photo identification.
The Real ID measure was attached to the supplemental spending bill only after weeks of wrangling between House and Senate negotiators. The measure was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday 368-58. The Senate is expected to pass a similar measure next week.
Opposition
Not that the tightening is uncontroversial. Far from it -- it has been decried as everything from a back-door attempt to establish a national identification card to a method of making U.S. roads less safe, via forcing undocumented workers further underground.
It is much more an anti-immigrant move than an antiterrorism one, according to Juliette Kayyem, a security expert at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Some of the Sept. 11 hijackers would still have qualified for licenses under the new rule, Kayyem said. There are other homeland security changes she would set as having higher priority -- such as getting the FBI a computer system that works.
"In an ideal world, in which information flowed smoothly, I guess the [licensing change] could have some effect," Kayyem said.
Flying regulations
But the driver's licenses might not be the only thing that will soon take more documents to obtain. The Transportation Security Administration has announced that it will require airlines to ask for passengers' full names and birth dates when selling tickets.
Ticket-buyers won't actually be required to provide the information.
But if they don't, there will be a much better chance of their being pulled aside for extra security checks before being allowed to board.
The change should help keep people from being confused with others who have the same or a similar name and are on terrorist watch lists, said TSA officials. It also will help them implement Secure Flight, a computerized passenger screening program set to enter tests this August.
In addition, new rules proposed by the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security would eventually require Americans returning from nearby destinations -- such as Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean -- to proffer their passports upon reentry. Previously, returning from those destinations did not require such documentation.
Under the rules -- which are now in a comment phase, and have yet to be adopted -- U.S. travelers coming from the Caribbean and Panama would need passports beginning next January 1. A similar requirement for return from Canada and Mexico would be phased in over subsequent years.
Cruise lines and other modes of travel to the popular warm islands just south of the United States are particularly unhappy about this prospective change.
Foundation
In some ways, the total effect of all the tightening is beside the point, argues Carafano of the Heritage Foundation.
Requiring ID to get a driver's license might not by itself snag the next Mohammed Atta. But it is a step the United States has to take as it moves inevitably toward keeping greater track of who is in the country.
"Is digging a hole in the ground going to give you a home to live in? No," Carafano said. "But you have to dig a hole to lay the foundation."
Among other changes he would recommend is establishment of a simple method for employers to check whether potential employees have a right to work in the United States.