Signed into law on May 11, 2005, the REAL ID Act requires that a person applying for a state issued driver’s license or identification card has to prove who they are, when they were born, where they live, and that they are in the United States legally. In addition, states will be required to electronically ensure applicants hold no other valid state issued license or ID card. Specifically, the REAL ID Act says:

Beginning 3 years after the date of the enactment of this division, 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.

The Act secures the primary identification cards used by those legally here within the United States for federal purposes. Without such a card, a person would have to show a valid passport and, if not a U.S. citizen, all required visas. If a state chooses to not comply with the Act’s requirements, then a license or card they issue must:

clearly state on its face that it may not be accepted by any Federal agency for federal identification or any other official purpose and use a unique design or color indicator to alert Federal agency and other law enforcement personnel that it may not be accepted for any such purpose.

Those licenses and IDs could not be used to board airliners or to enter a federal building.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) voted to enact REAL ID. In fact, he was on the conference committee that negotiated with the House about the bill. In addition, the Congressional Record shows this amendment to the Act was introduced less than a month before the bill was signed:

ADDITIONAL COSPONSORS — (Senate – April 18, 2005)[Page: S3817] AMENDMENT NO. 459

At the request of Mr. FEINGOLD, the names of the Senator from Vermont (Mr. LEAHY), the Senator from Oregon (Mr. WYDEN) and the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. DODD) were added as cosponsors of amendment No. 459 proposed to H.R. 1268, making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2005, to establish and rapidly implement regulations for State driver’s license and identification document security standards [emphasis added mine], to prevent terrorists from abusing the asylum laws of the United States, to unify terrorism-related grounds for inadmissibility and removal, to ensure expeditious construction of the San Diego border fence, and for other purposes. [Ed. — Amendment 459 was “tabled” the next day]

Yet Senator Leahy now has “privacy” concerns.

Earlier this year he co-sponsored legislation (S. 717) to repeal the REAL ID Act. He would replace it with the language of a previous bill that would continue to assist terrorists and illegal aliens in avoiding detection. Specifically, his bill states it:

may not require a single design to which driver’s licenses or personal identification cards issued by all States must conform; and [Ed. — (Added here in an update) This provision is clearly designed to say all state issued licenses and ID cards could be used for federal purposes and did not have to state “not be accepted by any Federal agency for federal identification” on their face]
…
shall not preempt state privacy laws that are more protective of personal privacy than the standards, or regulations promulgated to implement this Act; and shall neither permit nor require verification of birth certificates until a nationwide system is designed to facilitate such verification.

It is no coincidence that his concerns are being made public just as the Senate considers immigration reform. On May 8, 2007, Senator Leahy made this statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee that he chairs:

The Wall Street Journal noted in an editorial that “Real Id was always more about harassing Mexican illegals than stopping Islamic terrorists” and continued to explain how “in an effort to placate noisy anti-immigration conservatives amid the GOP’s poll-driven election panic,” the Republican House in the last Congress attached this REAL ID bill onto a “must-pass military spending bill without hearings or much debate, and Mr. Bush made the mistake of signing it.” That is from the Wall Street Journal.

Given my own concerns, I have joined with Senators Akaka, Sununu, and Tester to introduce a bill that would repeal the driver’s license provisions of the REAL ID Act, and replace those provisions with the negotiated rulemaking provisions of the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004.

In addition, Senator Leahy complained [that under the READ ID Act]:

State motor vehicle officials will be required to verify the legal status of applicants, adding to the responsibilities of already heavily burdened State offices.

To be clear, I am not questioning Senator Leahy’s patriotism; I am questioning his judgement. He wants to repeal the REAL ID Act and the result would be states can continue to issue driver’s licenses and identifications to terrorists and illegal aliens.