“The biggest risk of a national ID system is the

database. Any national ID card assumes the

existence of a national database, and that database
can fail. Large databases of information always have
errors and outdated information.”

—Bruce Schneier, "Beyond Fear"

National ID at the Crossroads

“National IDs could be useful under some limited
circumstances, but they don't represent a smart way
to spend our security dollars. They are much more
likely to be used properly by honest people than by
criminals and terrorists, and the 9/11 terrorists have
already proven that identification isn't a useful
security measure.”

—Bruce Schneier, "Beyond Fear"

National ID at the Crossroads

“If the protectors appear to have participated fully in
the discussion, yet lack the power, the ability, or the
will to regulate certain invasive aspects of machine-
readable identity cards, the public may wrongly infer
that its privacy interests have been safeguarded.”

—David Flaherty, “Protecting Privacy in

Surveillance
Societies”

National ID at the Crossroads

“It's not hard to imagine these de facto national ID
cards turning into a kind of domestic passport that
U.S. citizens would be asked to produce for
everyday commercial and financial tasks.”

—Wall Street Journal (February 19, 2005)

National ID at the Crossroads

“Beginning 3 years after the date of the enactment of
this Act, a Federal agency may not accept, for any
official purpose, a driver's license or identification
card issued by a State to any person unless the State
is meeting the requirements of this section.”

—Real ID Act of 2005

National ID at the Crossroads

“To be eligible to receive any grant or other type of
financial assistance made available under this title, a
State shall participate in the interstate compact
regarding sharing of driver license data, known as
the ‘Driver License Agreement’, in order to provide
electronic access by a State to information contained
in the motor vehicle databases of all other States.”

—Real ID Act of 2005

National ID at the Crossroads

“Section 7212 of the Intelligence Reform and
Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 is repealed.”

—Real ID Act of 2005

National ID at the Crossroads

“All authority to issue regulations, set standards, and
issue grants under this title shall be carried out by the
Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of
Transportation and the States.”

—Real ID Act of 2005

National ID at the Crossroads

“The elderly, those who are visual handicapped, and
those with mental impairment are among those more
likely to face problems with the use of a biometric
identity card system.”

—London School of Economics

National ID at the Crossroads

“The UK’s proposed Identity Card system could end
up costing the government more than £18b ($32.6b)
over the next 10 years.”

—Financial Times (May 30, 2005)

National ID at the Crossroads

“Critics predict the standardization will prompt
many more merchants to scan customer licenses and
then pass on the information to such data brokers as
ChoicePoint Inc. and LexisNexis. The databases of
both ChoicePoint and LexisNexis have been
exploited by identity thieves.”

—Los Angeles Times (May 31, 2005)

National ID at the Crossroads

“The legislation that created the Department of
Homeland Security was very specific on the question
of a national ID card. They said there will be no
national ID card.”

—Tom Ridge, Secretary of Homeland Security

National ID at the Crossroads

“If you think a trip to the division of motor vehicles
is a bad experience today, wait until the Real ID
takes effect.”

—Senator Richard Durbin

National ID at the Crossroads

“Driver’s license examiners trained to decide
whether a person can parallel park will have to
determine whether an applicant is an al-Qaida
terrorist.”

—Senator Lamar Alexander

National ID at the Crossroads

“Starting three years from now, if you live or work in
the United States, you’ll need a federally approved
ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank
account, collect Social Security payments, or take
advantage of nearly any government service.”

—Cnet News.com (May 6, 2005)

National ID at the Crossroads

The Real ID Act “requires that the State DMV verify
every document, including birth certificates,
presented by every applicant, including American
citizens. This means significant expense and long
processing delays.”

—Senator Richard Durbin

National ID at the Crossroads

“REAL ID’s sponsors claim the law will stop
terrorists from getting on airplanes. The flaw in this
logic is that the 9/11 terrorists did not need state
driver’s licenses to board the airplanes they hijacked
—they could have used their foreign passports, and
at least one of them did.”

—Margaret D. Stock, West Point law professor

National ID at the Crossroads

“Of 24 agencies surveyed by the Government
Accountability Office, 13 have implemented or plan
to implement RFID technology in one or more
applications.”

—Government Accountability Office

National ID at the Crossroads

“RFID implementation in National ID cards would
allow agencies to track an individual in real-time and
profile a person’s movements or transactions.”

—Government Accountability Office

National ID at the Crossroads

“A recent burglary of a Las Vegas DMV put
thousands of driver’s license holders at risk for
identity theft. The information of at least 8,738
license and ID card holders was taken during the
break-in, and reports of identity theft have already
surfaced.”

—Las Vegas Review-Journal (June 3, 2005)

National ID at the Crossroads

“The Transportation Security Administration plans
to have 200,000 employees’ identities recorded by
next month as part of a system that will eventually
track 6 million people through fingerprints,
handprints or eye scans.”

—Washington Post (May 27, 2005)

National ID at the Crossroads

“In 2004, license-for-bribes schemes were found in
at least 10 states.”

—Los Angeles Times (May 31, 2005)

National ID at the Crossroads

“In New Jersey, a license fraud scheme led to the
firing of all DMV employees in one Newark office.”

—Los Angeles Times (May 31, 2005)

National ID at the Crossroads

“The Real ID Act will cost the federal government
$100 million over the next five years.”

—Congressional Budget Office

National ID at the Crossroads

“The Real ID Act will cost the states at least $500
million to implement.”

—National Conference of State Legislatures

National ID at the Crossroads

Several requirements of the Real ID Act,
“particularly those having to do with verification of
documents used to acquire an ID, are either
technologically or fiscally prohibitive.”

—National Governors Association

National ID at the Crossroads

“It’s one thing to present a document; it’s another
thing to accept the document as valid. Verifying
digital record information is going to be difficult.”

—Director of Driver Services, Iowa

National ID at the Crossroads

“There are a lot of people scratching their heads,
wondering how they are going to get this done… It
is going to be an administrative nightmare.”

—Former Maryland Transportation Secretary

National ID at the Crossroads

“The Real ID Act would cause chaos and backlogs in
thousands of state offices across the country, making
the nation less secure.”

—National Conference of State Legislatures

National ID at the Crossroads

“Keeping any national ID system secure would be
even harder than building one.”

—National Academy of Sciences

National ID at the Crossroads

“What we need are safe and legal avenues for
immigrants to come and work here, not more walls.”

—Senator Edward Kennedy

National ID at the Crossroads

“Mexico is very worried about the Real ID Act for
two reasons: one, because it makes it more difficult
to issue licenses to undocumented Mexicans; and
two, because it approves the construction of a 50-
kilometer wall along the San Diego border.”

—Mexican Interior Minister Santiago Creel

National ID at the Crossroads

“This is a one-way street. We will likely be unable to
reverse a national ID card when we discover later
that it is oppressive, ineffective as a security
precaution, and a drag on American initiative,
creativity, and individual autonomy.”

—Robert Ellis Smith, “A National ID Card:

A License to Live”

National ID at the Crossroads

“The question isn't should the government create
more databases to track people and what they're
doing in the United States. Just the opposite is true.
We have too many databases.”

—Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle

National ID at the Crossroads

“We need to deny driver's licenses to illegal aliens,
and I think the proof in the pudding on that is that
the 19 September 11th hijackers ended up getting 63
validly issued driver's licenses from several states.”

—U.S. Representative James Sensenbrenner

National ID at the Crossroads

“The REAL ID Act will close down opportunities
for immigrants in the United States. . . . Asylum
seekers will be denied refuge when they are fleeing
persecution.”

—Juan Jose Gutierrez, Latino Movement USA

National ID at the Crossroads