ID

Sent in from Nate:

The so-called Real ID Act now heads to President Bush, who is expected to sign the bill into law this month. Its backers, including the Bush administration, say it's needed to stop illegal immigrants from obtaining drivers' licenses.

If the act's mandates take effect in May 2008, as expected, Americans will be required to obtain federally approved ID cards with "machine readable technology" that abides by Department of Homeland Security specifications. Anyone without such an ID card will be effectively prohibited from traveling by air or Amtrak, opening a bank account, or entering federal buildings.
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Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican and Real ID Act sponsor, applauded the Senate vote on Tuesday. "The Real ID is vital to preventing foreign terrorists from hiding in plain sight while conducting their operations and planning attacks," Sensenbrenner said. "By targeting terrorist travel, the Real ID will assist in our war-on-terror efforts to disrupt terrorist operations and help secure our borders."

Anybody want to take a guess whether this will be even beuraucratically feasible? Can the DMV in rural Idaho ["Kip, I'm concerned about your transporation situation. Do you have a car, one you can borrow?" "Well that's the problem right now. Nothing seems to come to mind..."] cross reference the required amount [5-6] of supporting identifiers? Will the thousands of migrant natural-born Americans be left out to dry as they attempt to sort out their lives and can't even get a driver's license? Remains to be seen..