Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― The state rejects an ID plan the government believes can help fight terrorism. The security showdown is over a new kind of driver's license the Feds hope will keep terrorists off planes. Critics call it a costly mistake, as CBS 2's Chief Correpsondent Jay Levine reports.

The feds call it a Real ID. People locally are calling it a real mess, an invasion of privacy, and one stop shopping for identity thieves.

Right now, all it takes is a social security card, something to prove you're old enough, and you are who you say you are. The process is simple: take a test, take a picture, get your license.

But now, the Department of Homeland Security wants more. And Illinois is one of 17 states who've passed laws or resolutions refusing to start checking immigration status, performing other ID checks, and issuing more secure licenses – all of which prompted the threat.

"If a particular state were to say, "We opt out, we're not going to participate at all," then the law is very clear," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. "After May of this year, that state's driver's licenses will no longer be acceptable as a form of federal identification for getting on an airplane or getting into a federal building." 

Chertoff, who was unveiling final details of the REAL ID Act's rules on Friday, said that if states want their licenses to remain valid for air travel after May 2008, those states must seek a waiver indicating they want more time to comply with the legislation.

The deadline is an effort to get states to begin phasing in the REAL ID program. Citizens born after Dec. 1, 1964, would have six years to get a new license; older Americans would have until 2017.

Chertoff said that for any state which doesn't seek such a waiver by May, residents of that state will have to use a passport or certain types of federal border-crossing cards if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening at airport security.

"The last thing I want to do is punish citizens of a state who would love to have a REAL ID license but can't get one," Chertoff said. "But in the end, the rule is the rule as passed by Congress." 

For the federal side, it's a matter of security, but for Secretary of State Jesse White, it's a matter of money -- $150 million.

"Ask the states to participate in a program that is your brainchild, I think you should provide the states with the dollars that are necessary for that to occur," White said.

And still for others it's more than just the time, effort and money it'll take for the Secretary of State to do the extra checking. The plan's chief critic, the American Civil Liberties Union, called Chertoff's deadline a bluff -- and urged state governments to call him on it.

"The problem is creating a massive national database, that can be used and twisted and manipulating to create all kinds of information and dossiers about any one of us," said Ed Yonka, a member of Illinois' ACLU.

And at least some of those waiting for licenses on Friday seemed to agree.

"It's a scam – a government scam in order to scare the people into giving up their freedom and their privacy," said Chicagoan Jared Irish. 

So far, 17 states have passed legislation or resolutions objecting to the REAL ID Act's provisions, many due to concerns it will cost them too much to comply. The 17, according to the ACLU, are Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington.

The Sept. 11 attacks were the main motivation for the changes: The hijacker-pilot who flew into the Pentagon, Hani Hanjour, had four driver's licenses and ID cards from three states.

The Homeland Security Department and other officials say the only way to ensure an ID is safe is to check it against secure government data; critics such as the ACLU say that creates a system that is more likely to be infiltrated and have its personal data pilfered.

Congress passed the REAL ID law in 2005, but the effort has been delayed by opposition from states worried about the cost and civil libertarians upset about what they believe are invasions of privacy. A key deadline would come in 2011, when federal authorities hope all states will be in compliance.

To make the plan more appealing to cost-conscious states, federal authorities drastically reduced the expected cost from $14.6 billion to $3.9 billion, a 73 percent decline, said Homeland Security officials familiar with the plan. 

Among other details of the REAL ID plan:

--The traditional driver's license photograph would be taken at the beginning of the application instead of the end so that if someone is rejected for failure to prove identity and citizenship, the applicant's photo would be kept on file and checked if that person tried to con the system again.

--The cards will have three layers of security measures but will not contain microchips as some had expected. States will be able to choose from a menu which security measures they will put in their cards.

--After Social Security and immigration status checks become nationwide practice, officials plan to move on to more expansive security checks. State DMV offices would be required to verify birth certificates; check with other states to ensure an applicant doesn't have more than one license; and check with the State Department to verify applicants who use passports to get a driver's license. 

By 2014, anyone seeking to board an airplane or enter a federal building would have to present a REAL ID-compliant card, with the notable exception of those older than 50, Homeland Security officials said.

The over-50 exemption was created to give states more time to get everyone new licenses, and officials say the risk of someone in that age group being a terrorist, illegal immigrant or con artist is much less. By 2017, even those over 50 must have a REAL ID-compliant card to board a plane.

And so a program prompted by a desire to keep terrorists off airplanes, has become a federal hot-potato, with no real hope for universal real ID for years to come.

Friday evening, CBS 2 learned that Illinois hopes to get off that list of states whose people won't be able to board planes without a lot of extra screening. White said he'll ask for an extension until 2010 to come up with the $150 million dollars he says it'll cost to implement the plan.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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