REAL ID to Become American Reality

New, nationally approved driver's licenses are in store for Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964. It's part of the REAL ID program created by the Department of Homeland Security as a measure to thwart the ability of terrorists and illegal immigrants to obtain "valid" identification cards. REAL ID is a concept three years in the making as the DHS attempted to address privacy concerns from civil liberty organizations and security researchers. "For terrorists, travel documents are like weapons. We do have a right and an obligation to see that those licenses reflect the identity of the person who's presenting it," argues Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "It is simply unreasonable to expect our border inspectors to be able to detect forgeries on documents that range from baptismal certificates from small towns in Texas to cards that purport to reflect citizenship privileges in a province somewhere in Canada."

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