The Center for Immigration Studies and Janice Kephart have released a remarkable new study about REAL ID, the controversial drivers license security requirements adopted to implement one of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations. The law sets security standards for state licenses. It was attacked from the start by civil libertarians as a privacy violation and by the National Governors Association as an $11 billion unfunded mandate. Reluctant either to wade into the controversy or to visibly retreat, the Obama Administration has been frozen at the stick since 2009, doing little to push the states to comply.
What the Kephart study shows is that, despite all its enemies and despite the Administration’s visible reluctance to act, REAL ID is in fact being widely implemented – and at a cost of roughly one-twentieth of what NGA claimed. This is good news for security and good news for people victimized by identity theft.
UPDATE: Fixed link