The state of Vermont has partnered with the Department of Homeland Security to develop a new driver license document which will be accepted in lieu of a passport for border crossings, the department announced Tuesday.
Following the lead of Washington state, which announced plans earlier this year to develop a secure identification card which would be acceptable for land border crossing under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, Vermont plans to have the licenses available by the end of 2008. Residents would have to provide proof of identity and citizenship and pay an extra fee, not yet announced, for the card.
“I applaud the leadership of the state of Vermont who came forward to join us in our effort to bolster security through secure identification,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. “This partnership helps us strike the right balance between security and facilitation, incorporating 21st century technology and innovation.”
That’s right; it was apparently Vermont’s idea to join the national ID program.
Next summer, people returning to the U.S. will be required to present a passport or other proof of citizenship approved by the Department of Homeland Security under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. The requirement has already taken effect for people returning by air, leading to months-long backlogs in passport applications.
In the Washington state pilot, the driver license/border crossing cards will contain RFID chips readable from as much as 30 feet away. Though the chips contain only a single number referencing a DHS database entry, the technology could be used by terrorists to pick Americans out of a crowd.
But DHS spokeswoman Laura Keehner said that the specific technology to be used in the Vermont card has yet to be determined.
DHS has not determined whether the Vermont passport will be using the same radio frequency identification tag technology as in Washington State’s hybrid driver’s license/border crossing card, Keenher said.
Washington State officials have said they will place on the cards Generation 2 RFID tags that can be scanned at 30 feet. Critics also contend those types of RFID tags cannot be encrypted and can be easily cloned. To protect privacy, DHS and Washington State have said the RFID tag will transmit wirelessly only a reference number, which must be matched to a database to obtain personal information. DHS is planning to use a similar technology in its People Access Security Services identification card to be created for people who frequently cross the borders.
For Vermont, the technology decisions for the identification card are not yet final, Keehner said. “We are still determining the technology,” she said. “We are working together to finalize those details.” — Washington Technology
“I’m pleased we will be able to provide this more reasonable option for Vermonters who travel frequently to Canada,” Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas said in a statement. “As we move forward with this innovative project, we must continue to include our northern neighbors whose economic and security interests are linked directly to our own.”
Douglas spokesman Jason Gibbs said the governor is pushing for Quebec to adopt similar identification for Québécois visitors to the U.S.
DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said that the secure licenses would “take that use of fake IDs off the table for terrorists, as well as for other criminals.”
It doesn’t, of course, take identity theft off the table. Today, identity theft is easier than ever, and this sort of “secure” document will make it even more attractive to terrorists and other criminals.
For the moment, as in Washington, the new Vermont ID and passport card is voluntary. But it, like REAL ID, lays the groundwork for nationally standardized identification documents which everyone may eventually be required to carry at all times. And like all bad government programs, it will cause additional expense for ordinary people through duplication of effort with the REAL ID program, and will make people who accept it even less secure. The only thing made secure by this program, and others like it, is the government — secure from We the People.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Karl Marx would love the popular moves among politicians in various state governments and the federal government to ban so-called "junk" food in schools, and to "put healthy food in" convenience stores and on the tables of those they define as poor. It's a very elitist and arrogant mindset that promotes this ideology, and it needs to be addressed.
Ultimately, the war supporters in Congress prevailed in the vote on the resolution. Still, the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us. This vote should serve as an important reminder to the American people of where their representatives really stand when it comes to policing the world, empire building, and war.
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Technology
Aug 23, 2007
The CIA can already identify you by the Iris of your eye. They should make this available on everyone’s ID card and all identification because, no iris is ever identical just like a fingerprint. This would solve and prevent a great deal of crimes because, the camera never lies!! Speak up America!! Do what is just!! Protect one another. No more false IDs for terrorists.!!!
Ray
Aug 24, 2007
I know that my next passport will be kept in a rf proof bag until actually needed, and I would assume I would do the same thing with this type of thing.
My driver’s license has a fancy bar code which can be read from a distance on it. The bar code has a piece of black tape over it, just in case.
It is high time everyone started doing this.
Cool
Aug 25, 2007
I agree. Other things that would be neat are an ID that would self destruct if someone with the wrong finger print or iris tried to use it. Clerks could look at the photo( not needed with this device) and the person with the ID could run it through a computer device like that of a debit card. This would work because, I have heard of clerks ( at stores ect) that could memorize ID numbers to make false ids ect… You have to be so careful now. They are even stealing plates of cars ect..
Patrick Sears
Aug 25, 2007
In the history of mankind, only two other nations have enacted a system of national identification required for passage between political zones: Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.
For all our posturing about how superior our nation is, we certainly seem to be more than willing to follow in their footsteps.
Not so
Aug 26, 2007
If we do not protect our own identities than we are leaving ourselves open to be a victim of a crime. This is not Natzi or Communist, this is for our own protection. We would rather have a safe ID than have someone else use ours while they walk on us in a grave. Life is priceless!!!!
christian
Sep 02, 2007
An RFID chip is an intermediate step , the next is a implanted CHIP
and remember it is for your “safety” being navie, and or ignorant to the patterns of opression in history is your own fault
james grey
Sep 04, 2007
way to many sheep in the formerly free and former republic known as usa
billy
Oct 11, 2007
Most of you people are nuts! This is communist Russia and this is nazi Germany some of the worst horrors in history are about to befall the people in this country and you think youll be safe with your national Id card with a chip in it. Lambs being led to the slaughter.
loch
Oct 13, 2007
In response to “Not So” and “Technology”: Oh, you poor idiots! You need to go and read The Gulag Archipelago, and the rest of the body of totalitarian literature. The USSR suspended all liberties in the name of preventing terrorism, and in the name of protecting the Soviet way of life (read, the “American Dream”). There IS a root cause of terrorism. If that is dealt with, terrorism would go away. The main obstacle to a One World Government is the armed and aware populace of the United States of America, a free people who possess the ability to travel freely and speak freely and to think freely. The assault on our liberties is nothing short of awesome in its intensity. So you want to be SAFE? The chances of being kidnapped and never seen again by a gang of middle eastern terrorists is practically nil. The chances of being kidnapped and never seen again by agents of a fascist government are frighteningly high. I would rather take my chances with a few foreign terrorists than a giant corporo-government juggernaut intent on totalitarian control over every aspect of my life.
Blaze
Oct 31, 2007
loch and Patrick, you make an excellent point… although, as unfortunate as it may seem, i believe your wisdom is lost on these ignorant folks.
when we’re all lining up to have our id’s verified and those of us who refuse to be numbered and inventoried like product are subsequently rounded up into FEMA detention centers, perhaps they will think back to this article…
but probably not.
Blaze
Oct 31, 2007
loch and Patrick, you make an excellent point… although, as unfortunate as it may seem, i believe your wisdom is lost on these ignorant folks.
when we’re all lining up to have our id’s verified and those of us who refuse to be numbered and inventoried like product are subsequently rounded up into FEMA detention centers, perhaps they will think back to this article…
but probably not.
j
Jan 22, 2008
i can proudly say that there is a very strong group in vermont who oppose the real id card. We will be fighting to the end for the basic rights that we all have!
RuleofLaw
Feb 10, 2010
Cry me a river about the dangers/inconveniences of a national ID. I’ve carried with me a military ID my entire life, first as a military dependent, then during the 20 years I served, and then for the rest of my life as a military retiree. If service members can survive carrying an ID card their whole life, why can’t the rest of you? If we had a national ID and required this for employment and every government benefit for the past 30 years we wouldn’t have the 20 million illegals running rampant and God only knows who else running around our country at will getting drivers licenses, taking American jobs, swamping our public housing complexe, and hospital, and jails, and putting our country into bankruptcy. You non ID folks…you’ve had it your way the past decades…how’s the non ID thing been working out for you. Our country is hitting the skids and you still don’t get it.
Michael Hampton
Feb 10, 2010
You should at least disclose that you still work for the government, when you make inflammatory statements like that.
RuleofLaw
Feb 10, 2010
How LAME. I’m speaking as a military retiree and after 20 years of getting shot at I have just as much right as you to free speech. How typical of the segment you apparently represent by calling inflammatory any free speech that doesn’t tow your line. Maybe you can’t handle democracy? What are you doing here in an open forum if you can stomach free speech. WEAK! Instead of attacking the person,and changing the subject, how about responding with a logical argument supporting your apparent view that lack of a national ID has soooooo tremendously benefited our country the past 30 years, rampant now with identity theft and 20 million illegals.
Michael Hampton
Feb 10, 2010
I’m not arguing you should not have free speech. I’m saying you should disclose your conflict of interest — or, rather, disclosing it for you.
RuleofLaw
Feb 10, 2010
As a military retiree I have NO conflict of interest in what I have stated. I spoke on behalf of no one but myself and as such have disclosed all I need to. What brings on this Gestapo like behavior? Who / What gives you the authority to disclose anything or anybody? Or do you possess the moral highground over everyone posting here? WEAK! I’m still waiting for what this forum was designed for…a sharing of free speech and ideas. I’m still waiting for your long laundry list of how lack of a national ID has benefitted this country so tremendously.
Michael Hampton
Feb 10, 2010
Do you have any idea who you’re talking to or where you are?
What makes you think this country doesn’t already have a national ID, de facto if not de jure?
What makes you think identifying all the Americans will have any effect whatsoever on non-Americans who are “illegal”?
And finally, yes, I have the moral high ground over you, at least.
RuleofLaw
Feb 10, 2010
Per your moral high ground theory, you have obviously convinced yourself that you are some sort of deity….that being said it’s hard to imagine that a deity would forget yet again (for the third time) to address even the most finite part of my arguments that having a national ID the past 30 years that would have been required to gain access to public housing, welfare benefits, employment, hospitalization, education, etc would have prevented the mess our country finds itself in today. All anybody has to do to see the effects of not having a national ID is to tune in to current news about California’s bankruptcy. Are you going to address my arguments with any sort of logical reasoning of your own or just continue to blow hot air about your “supremacy”.