Real ID Again

We have been discussing the issue of drivers license renewals going to Washington, DC for federal oversight under the “Real ID” provisions of Homeland Security. Elyn decided to call he local (New Mexico) Department of Motor Vehicles to see what is going on.

After going through several persons who gave incomplete and misleading information, Elyn was transferred to the “Compliance Division” and talked with a person named Anthony. He explained that the State of New Mexico is using a private company housed somewhere in or near Washington, DC (the location of this company is secret and even state officials don’t know where it is, what it is called, or any information about it). Elyn was assured that they weren’t collecting data for themselves or the Feds (do you believe that??).

Anthony went on to explain that the current system is NOT Real ID and he said that the Real ID system may never go into effect (which doesn’t agree with the Homeland Security website). It is clear to me that we are gradually moving to a national ID system and I sensed uneasiness on the part of the state official we spoke to regarding this trend. (I was listening in on Elyn’s call at her request.)

I believe that it behooves all citizens to keep a careful watch on what our federal government is doing. It is our patriotic duty to do so. We should be able to ask for information and be given accurate and complete information by any government official we speak to. I don’t trust anything I am hearing about this matter. I am quoting Elyn’s email to me exactly as she sent it:

Just talked to Anthony at 476-3229, the supervisor for compliance at NM MVDivision in Sta Fe, who says: the driver's license ID info is sent to a private agency in Washington, DC--he doesn't know the name or location--in order to avoid the problem of breakins and theft of ID materials/equipment from local field offices and MVD Expresses. NM and 21 other states participate in this. CO's been doing it for 6 years. So the MVD sends the driver's license info to this unnamed secret agency and they make the license there and send it back to you. It isn't REAL ID (yet) but it is a step towards compliance if that happens. He says that they don't send ALL your info--and the secret agency doesn't have a central computer gathering all of it. Anthony can search other states' MVD records to see if you have a license issues but this secret agency can't. At least he doesn't think it has access to that kind of information. He was quite upset about all the misinformation I'd been given (this a.m. when I called the MVD I was told the info was sent to Washington State and that they did searches there among other states' records....) and talked to the supervisor of the phone bank to get that kind of misinfo stopped.