More than 300,000 Californians need to get new Real IDs because the DMV screwed up – Jalopnik

Visiting the DMV is often a miserable experience, one that most people would like to limit to an annual visit – if that is the case. Unfortunately for approximately 325,000 California residents, a bug in some old software code may have resulted in this painful visit being in vain, as their real IDs are not as real as they seem.

As if Real IDs weren’t difficult enough to begin with. From the DMV of California:

“We proactively reviewed our records, identified an issue with an outdated system dating to 2006, and notified affected customers with clear guidance on how to maintain a valid California-issued ID,” said DMV Director Steve Gordon. “For nearly 99% of REAL ID holders, no action is required. The DMV remains committed to serving all Californians and ensuring REAL ID data meets federal standards.”

If you are a U.S. citizen, rest assured you are not being asked to engage in an intellectual battle with an unarmed opponent behind the desk at the DMV, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The problem only affects certain immigrants who have been issued a Real ID. Before anyone jumps into the comments and complains about California giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, the federal government allows lawful permanent residents, green card holders, and visa holders to obtain a Real ID license in the state where they live. Anyone affected by this outage has already proven that they are in the US legally. In fact, that is the nature of the fault. If their authorized stay expires before the standard five-year interval in California, their Real ID must expire at the same time, making it harder for them to overstay their welcome. The software bug wrongly gave them the standard five years, regardless of when their authorization expires.

The DMV has not said exactly what its “clear guidelines for maintaining a valid California-issued ID” will be. Since it was the DMV’s fault, hopefully it can issue new licenses with the correct dates at no cost. But this is the DMV, so who knows what extra unnecessary hoops people will have to jump through to get them.

Even after all these problems, a Real ID may not even fulfill the purpose for which it was originally intended Rode. In a recent court filing on behalf of Leo Garcia Venegas, a U.S. citizen who was detained twice during immigration raids earlier this year, Philip Lavoie, the Acting Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) of the Department of Homeland Security’s office in Mobile, Alabama, said: stated that:

…because each state has its own REAL ID compliance laws, which may provide for the issuance of a REAL ID to an alien and therefore based on the training and experience of HSI Special Agents, REAL ID may be unreliable for confirming US citizenship.

A real ID is not intended to be proof of citizenship, but of legal presence in the country, which is what DHS should verify. DHS’s own website reads:

REAL ID is a national set of standards, not a national ID card. REAL ID does not create a federal database of driver’s license information. Each jurisdiction continues to issue its own unique license, maintains its own documents, and controls who gets access to those documents and under what circumstances. The goal of REAL ID is to make our identity documents more consistent and secure.

In short, DHS says that Real ID, whose sole purpose is to prove one’s legal presence in the US, is inadequate proof of legal presence in the US, even though DHS sets the rules for states to follow but also allows them to set their own compliance laws, all at the same time. That’s as clear as mud. So why are we doing this again?