Free Republic

Air travelers will now have two more years to upgrade their licenses and other forms of identification to be Real ID-compliant. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Monday the new deadline will be May 7, 2025, allowing Americans more time following delays caused by the COVID pandemic. The old cutoff was slated for May 3, 2023. The Real ID Act was passed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks after several of the hijackers improperly obtained state IDs. All 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and four of five U.S. territories are covered by the REAL ID...

Four states have passed laws that reject federal rules regarding a national identification system. This casts serious doubt on the future of the 2005 Real ID Act that goes into effect in December 2009. New Hampshire and Oklahoma joined Montana and Washington state in the passage of statutes that refute guidelines set forth in the Act. However, these actions could eventually lead to drivers licenses issued in these states to not be accepted as official identification when boarding airplanes or accessing federal buildings. In addition to these four states, members of the Idaho legislature intentionally left out money in...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is going to have a Town Hall Meeting in California on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007. This meeting is scheduled for 10AM to 2PM PDT, which is 12PM to 4PM CDT. It will broadcast over TV, radio and the Internet. State Rep. Jim Guest of Missouri , is the head of a 32 state coalition to stop REAL ID. DHS’s purpose of this meeting is to stop the growing opposition to the REAL ID ACT of 2005. We believe that DHS will GLUT the audience, phone lines and emails with “favorable questions” about REAL ID....

Driver’s licenses across the country are going high-tech, with invisible features to stop identity thieves scheming to commit credit card fraud or just hoping to buy a beer before turning 21. Almost half of the states now use specialized technology to make driver’s licenses more secure, spelling an end to the days when the most personal information they carried was a driver’s name, age and weight. In November, Iowa became the latest state to adopt biometric facial-recognition technology to defend against identity theft. It joins Georgia, Massachusetts, Texas and West Virginia in using computer software to digitally map an applicant’s...