Like it or not, it's effectively a federal ID. Look at some old state drivers licenses and they would be laughably easy to forge today without even photos. And that's not even getting into the back-end information exchange.
I mean, if your position is that state IDs shouldn't really mean much, that's fine. But say that. But without REAL ID we'd require at least passport cards for air travel and a lot of other federal-related purposes. Which is fine I guess but probably a more expensive and heavyweight process than it needs to be.
We already are able to travel without any “passport cards”, with the IDs we already have. And with pervasive facial recognition they already know who we are. If I were to guess it’s not just the ID that’s changing, it’s also the backends, which would no longer be per-state. But I’m just hypothesizing here. I’d appreciate if someone knowledgeable chimed in
There was definitely some standardized data exchange stuff involved though I never dove into the details. REAL ID effectively does as a federal ID, albeit in a somewhat more politically palatable way in a country where a lot of people have an aversion to federal IDs and databases at least as they relate to domestic travel.
If I read the legislation correctly, states are required to check the relevant federal databases to validate status of non-citizens (if you provide a document attesting citizenship, that check needn't be performed), and the social security numbers of anyone providing it.
I don't know if the immigration status checks are tracked, but the social security number checks are, as part of the check is to verify no cross-state usage of the same number for different identities.
I mean, if your position is that state IDs shouldn't really mean much, that's fine. But say that. But without REAL ID we'd require at least passport cards for air travel and a lot of other federal-related purposes. Which is fine I guess but probably a more expensive and heavyweight process than it needs to be.