Stand up to the corrupt REAL ID Act
FAIRBANKS — I am
disappointed that Gov. Bill Walker’s administration has given in to the
fear tactics and misinformation of the Department of Homeland Security
and the Transportation Security Administration by putting forth
legislation to make Alaska implement the Federal REAL ID Act and pay for
it ourselves. It is my duty to set the record straight and make sure
people have the facts they need to defend their rights.
The
Department of Administration has been reporting that if we do not agree
to comply with REAL ID, we will not be allowed to use our state IDs to
get through TSA checkpoints or to get on base. In reality, there is no
existing or proposed federal law or regulation requiring ID to travel at
all. A recent reply to a 4-year-old Freedom of Information Act request
to the DHS has shown that 77,000 people per year fly without IDs, and
only 2 percent who try are ever turned away. Not only that, it is the
Pentagon and individual base commanders who decide what ID is required
to get on base. The Department of Homeland Security does not have
authority over the Pentagon. That is why the DHS instead uses fear
tactics and misinformation to try and force REAL ID on the states.
As
background, the REAL ID Act was never debated by Congress, but rather
was hidden in a 2005 emergency appropriations bill. It is barely six
pages long, but it opens the door for the Department of Homeland
Security, the TSA and outside private organizations to control the
identification cards we need to exercise our inalienable rights of work,
travel, gun ownership and privacy — but only if we give them that power
by putting REAL ID into our state laws.
Alaskans
are being told that under the governor’s bill, they will be allowed to
choose between a REAL ID and a regular ID, but this is inherently false.
Under the REAL ID Act, noncompliant IDs must marked “NOT FOR OFFICIAL
PURPOSES.” The old ID will be gone forever, and if you can’t come up
with the required paperwork to get a REAL ID, you will be stuck with a
bogus ID.
Regardless of which ID you get, your personal
data will be entered into a private nationwide database where you will
no longer be able to obtain any information about it or have control
over it.
The REAL ID Act requires each state to
“provide electronic access to all other states to information contained
in the motor vehicle database of the state.” For years it was impossible
for states to comply with this requirement until a private
organization, the American Association of Automobile Administrators and a
private company in Midlothian, Virginia, named Clerus Solutions,
created a private national database called SPEXS to satisfy this
mandate. Since then, Homeland Security has left it to AAMVA to set the
standards for the national database.
Surprise,
surprise. Clerus Solutions is made up of former AAMVA executives. The
founder and chairman of the board of Clerus Solutions actually helped
Congress write the REAL ID Act. He, the president and CEO, the senior
vice president, and the senior business analyst all were top executives
at AAMVA before forming Clerus Solutions and the SPEXS database.
In
January 2017, without permission from the Legislature, the Department
of Administration uploaded almost every Alaskan’s personal ID data,
including much of our Social Security information, to the SPEXS
database. The Social Security Administration expressly warns against
using Social Security information in this manner, and the REAL ID Act
does not specifically require that such information be shared, but the
administration has defended the practice because it is an AAMVA
requirement.
AAMVA
and its subcontractors are not subject to the Freedom of Information
Act or any other state or federal public information laws. There is no
way to correct mistakes or obtain information about the data they have
compiled on you. In addition, they can change the data requirements and
the states must give it to them or lose REAL ID compliance.
Neither
DHS nor the TSA will appear before any of our committees or truthfully
answer any of our questions about the REAL ID Act. It is almost
pointless to try because they can expand or change the requirements of
the REAL ID Act at any time by publishing them to the Federal Register,
which they have done numerous times.
Rest
assured, I would not be standing up to DHS and the TSA like this if we
did not have a much better alternative available to us. For $55, anyone
who can get a REAL ID can get a passport card. Sixty-five percent of
Alaskans already have a passport or passport card. A passport card is
actually better than a REAL ID because it will get you access to
everywhere a REAL ID will and more. A passport card can be obtained
through a post office and only requires two pieces of documentation,
whereas a REAL ID requires four pieces of documentation and a personal
visit to a DMV, which many communities don’t even have, and a passport
card is protected by federal public records and privacy laws.
If
you or someone you love has ever been wronged by the TSA, you know it
is a bad idea to hand over control of our identity cards to the DHS and
private organizations. Please join me in calling on Gov. Walker to
withdraw his legislation and instead sue the federal government to
defend our state and federal constitutional rights to travel freely, to
have privacy and to manage our own affairs.
Rep. Chris Tuck, D-Anchorage, serves in the Alaska House of Representatives.
From the Fairbanks News-Miner
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