Real ID Act never faced its critics

It’s always so much easier to find scapegoats than solutions.

The news of the day as Adelante was wrapping up its final issue of the school year was that the Senate had passed the Real ID Act, and the president was expected to sign it. The law goes into effect in three years.

The bill was given a cushy ride on the coattails of an Iraq spending bill. It had the stated purpose of preventing terrorists from gaining driver’s licenses and using them as they did on Sept. 11: to get on airplanes. But the bill’s sponsor also espoused its virtues as an anti-illegal immigration measure.

One of the obvious effects of the law will be to make it harder for working immigrants to get safely and legally to their jobs. Keep in mind that states that have allowed illegal immigrants to legally obtain a driver’s licenses have seen immediate benefits in road safety and a reduction in the number of “leaving the scene” reports.

Worries about the bill were voiced far and wide. State driver’s licensing officials called it an unfunded mandate and noted that in effect, it will turn the local DMV employee into an immigration enforcement official.

Security experts predicted it would result in a business boom for purveyors of falsified documents. If that weren’t bad enough, they warned, the law will create a “mother lode” of private information for hackers — the social security numbers of every citizen living legally in the United States.

A piece of legislation this far-reaching and important should not have been hidden in the pocket of an Iraq spending bill. It should have been exposed in the full light of debate. Now, we appear to be stuck with a very bad law.

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It’s May — the time of year when those of us who work for universities say goodbye to students. At Adelante!, we're losing lots of important people at graduation.

Marina Walker Guevara is one of these. The first Tina Hills fellow, Marina has always had a key role at Adelante, but in this past, transitional year she was absolutely crucial in ensuring that Adelante stayed on target.

Marina’s imprint isn’t always obvious because she's an editor. It has been her voice in our meetings that has helped new reporters and editors — especially me — understand what Adelante! is about. She’s been our institutional memory and an impassioned advocate of the best possible journalism.

She speaks of what she knows, and that’s obvious in the column, “At Home & Abroad,” in this month’s issue. (Marina’s story on the Doe Run company smelter in La Oroya, Peru, ran in the Miami Herald on April 25th.)

Some students leave MU’s School of Journalism with the tools to become great journalists. Marina already is an accomplished practitioner of the craft, and we will miss everything about her. Buena suerte, Marina.

Katherine Reed is editor of Adelante! She can be reached at reedkath@missouri.edu.