Editorial
By Janice Kephart
Washington Times
The September 11 Commission called for setting standards to ensure secure IDs for a reason: Between them, the 19 hijackers of September 11, 2001, obtained 30 IDs, seven using two false residency certificates in Virginia. The REAL ID Act of 2005 was drafted to fulfill this recommendation, and after much effort, is on the verge of implementation.
Final regulations should be out by early next year at the latest. Cost estimates are coming down. States' concerns are being addressed. And one state, New York — after much ado — has agreed to comply with REAL ID even prior to final regulations being issued. Others are quietly discussing following suit in the coming months, as the law requires states to say whether they intend to comply by spring 2008.
REAL ID deals directly with the abuse of the state ID issuance system that the September 11 Commission sought to address by enabling states to verify identities. States do so by checking other state databases about identity and license issuance, and by pinging the federal government's Social Security Administration and legal status databases. Queries are made through the private network of the American Association of Motor Vehicles, and no entity other than the state holds an applicant's data. Identities and privacy are assured, while fake breeder documents such as imitation Social Security cards and birth certificates will have a hard time receiving a green light when entered into the system.
The ID cards themselves are also hardened against counterfeiting. This simultaneously helps law enforcement protect national security, prevent identity theft, combat drug trafficking and address other important societal concerns affected by counterfeit ID documents.
The nefarious underground that supports fraud and counterfeiting in the United States will be undercut. ID counterfeiting is alive and well in the United States, with New York and federal authorities together taking down six fake ID document mills in New York alone in the last six weeks. One criminal enterprise stretched from New York to California and was worth $1.5 million a year. Of particular note was the 2006 bust of the Castorena Family organization, which beginning in the 1980s operated a Mexico-based counterfeiting operation with cells in every major U.S. city. Annual sales in Chicago alone were $2.5 million. According to informants, they could make IDs “as good as any we carry in our pockets.”
The major source for the case, the stepdaughter of the organization's leader, asked her grandfather whether the organization sold to terrorists. She was told: “We do this for business, for money. So it doesn't really count whether you're a Mohammed or a Julio or somebody else, as long as you have the money to pay for it. Terrorism is not our problem.”
A solidly written law like REAL ID, grounded in the practical recommendations of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, counters the booming business of counterfeiting. However, that business will continue to thrive if REAL ID is not fully implemented.
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