Today in Inside Tucson Business:

Feds’ Real ID is an invitation to even more identity theft

This month Arizona joined 13 other states that have passed laws prohibiting state compliance with the 2005 federal Real ID law. Little news was reported when Gov. Janet Napolitano signed it into law. If the federal law is enforced – which is not a certainty given the rebellion of a respectable number of states – it is said the consequences could be real for the residents of Arizona and the other 13 states.

The Real ID law requires states to adopt new procedures by 2010 for making driver’s licenses more secure. Opponents say the new licenses will become de facto national identity cards. They will contain unique identifier numbers which may be used in place of the Social Security number, a number that has been thoroughly debauched.

The cost of implementing the requirements of Real ID are about $3.9 billion nationwide. The federal government will provide some of the funds necessary but not nearly all. So it will be yet another federal burden on the states.

The effect of not complying is that Arizonans will not be able to use their driver’s license to board commercial aircraft or enter a federal building unless they have other acceptable identification, like a passport. The federal government is using the threat of terrorism as an excuse for implementing far more onerous identification requirements than we might otherwise tolerate. Its enforcing agency of choice is the Department of Homeland Security.

The Real ID card will start out innocuously enough with only a low power radio transponder chip in it. Federal officials hasten to assure us the card could be read only within about 20 feet. That would be a circle roughly 40 feet across. That is enough space for someone to lose himself in a crowd, activate your chip, and steal the information on the card. It will not be powerful enough to track by satellite. Not now. But technology is always making the impossible possible.

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