REAL ID Act

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The '''REAL ID Act'''<ref group="note">Full long title; An Act to establish and rapidly implement regulations for state driver's license and identification document security standards, to prevent terrorists from abusing the asylum laws of the United States, to unify terrorism-related grounds for inadmissibility and removal, and to ensure expeditious construction of the San Diego border fence.</ref> was passed by the [[U.S.]] [[Congress]] and signed by [[George W. Bush|Bush]] in 2005. REAL ID stands for '''Radical [[Xenophobic|Exophobic]] American Licensing and [[Ignorance]] Department''' for those that hate unnecessary all-caps.{{fact|joke}}

REAL ID 
violates [[No True Scotsman]]
 sets minimum standards for both the documents state governments must be provided before issuing a driver's license or other official identification card, and for what features<ref group="note">*Full legal name 
*Signature (for some reason)
*Date of birth
*Gender
*Unique identity number
*Residence address
*Photograph of the applicant</ref> must be on the ID card itself. REAL ID essentially makes state IDs into a ''de facto'' national identification card. REAL ID also includes provisions that [[Big Brother|ban anyone from boarding an aircraft]] without a REAL ID compliant card, and requires states to link their state motor vehicle databases with those of the other 49 states plus all of [[Canada]] and [[Mexico]].

To date, several states have passed legislation either denouncing REAL ID or declaring their noncompliance. ''All 50'' states have either explicitly asked for extensions or been summarily granted them by the federal government for meeting the original May 11, 2008 deadline for compliance with REAL ID. This means the deadline for REAL ID compliance has been postponed to 
2009
 
2011
 
2020
 
2023
 May 7, 2025.<ref group="note">2025 is a hard date where Real ID compliant ID must be used for domestic air travel. It will also be required to access federal facilities with security checks, like nuclear power stations and military bases.</ref> As of May 2023, all but [[American Samoa]]<ref group="note">American Samoa has an extension, per the DHS's website.</ref> are compliant in offering REAL ID licenses.

Predictably, the official excuses for passing REAL ID had something to do with [[homeland security]], [[illegal immigration]], [[voter fraud]], and perhaps [[Mothers Against Drunk Driving|kids buying beer with fake IDs]], and most importantly [[War on Terror|That Big Terrorism Threat Lurking Out There]]. {{wpl|Papers, Please|Your papers, please|?}}

==National ID Cards==
Real ID has been criticized as being 
another attempt to turn America into a [[Euroscepticism|Euro-socialist]] hellscape
 a national ID card, which has critics across the political spectrum.

Both sides see it as a big brother problem and a {{wpl|data security}} issue, due to the types and amount of information being stored and requirements to share it among other states, Canada, and Mexico. This, of course, overlooks that [[Social Security|the current ''de facto'' national ID card/number]] is [[Security theater|orders of magnitude worse security-wise]].

The [[Right wing|Right]] also find fault with it being expensive, expanding government, additional government regulations, impairing [[Sovereign citizen|their]] right to travel as a [[freeman on the land|freeman on the land]], and sounding European.

==Overlooked Aspects==
The Real ID Act contains rules having nothing to do with identification cards.
* Grants waivers for any law slowing down border wall construction, and limiting judicial review of them.
* Defining 'terrorist activities', 'terrorist organization', and 'engaging in terrorist activity' for other laws.
* Introducing rules for "delivery bonds", bail bonds for aliens released pending hearings.

==See also==
*[[Tony Blair]]
*[[PATRIOT Act]]
*[[Secure the border]]
*{{wpa|Real ID Act}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

{{stub|politics}}

[[Category:Authoritarianism]]
[[Category:Government incompetence]]
[[Category:United States law]]

Categories: Authoritarianism, Government incompetence, United States law