Good intentions of government gone bad -- AGAIN!

Your grandfather who has lived here for all of his 79 years, fought for this country in World War II, and is considered a Virginia resident when the state comes around every year to collect his income taxes, now has to prove to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles that he really is allowed to be here and that he’s not an illegal alien.

He recently gave up his driver’s license due to medical reasons, and now he needs to get a state-issued DMV ID card (identification for non-drivers), because he needs an official photo ID that he can use like a driver’s license – to open a bank account, to show at the airport in order to board a plane, or to simply cash a check at the local grocery store.

But according to the Virginia DMV, the driver’s license that he has held for 63 years, 60 years of state income tax returns, 14 years of Social Security check stubs, and an honorable discharge from the U.S. Army just aren’t enough documentation to prove that he’s not an illegal alien.

Nope. Virginia’s DMV bureaucracy is very specific about what types of identification it will accept as proof that he’s a citizen so they can issue him a photo ID card or even another driver’s license. But none of his documentation is on their “approved” list, and no one at DMV is allowed to make a judgment call in his case and issue him an ID.

It’s all because of Virginia’s new “legal presence” law, which is supposed to protect us from terrorists, but in the process, it’s causing a lot of headaches for citizens, including many veterans who fought for our freedoms in the first place.

As a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks, several states – including Virginia – have enacted stricter rules for obtaining driver’s licenses and state-issued ID cards. The new requirement makes an applicant prove that he or she is either a U.S. citizen or is legally authorized to be in the United States. Previously, applicants only had to prove their identity and the fact that they resided in Virginia.

Seven of the 19 terrorist hijackers of September 11 had illegally obtained Virginia’s drivers licenses.

The legal presence law, effective January 1, 2004, may be preventing illegal aliens and terrorists from getting drivers’ licenses, but it’s also preventing citizens who already have licenses but let them expire inadvertently, as well as many senior citizens, from getting new licenses and ID cards.

The problem is that the DMV’s list of acceptable documents to prove legal presence is too narrow. The list basically includes birth certificates, unexpired or expired passports, unexpired U.S. military ID cards, or official federal government documents proving that you are a naturalized citizen, a resident alien, a refugee seeking asylum, or that you have a work visa. All documents must be originals, not copies.

If you are a native born U.S. citizen, you only have the choice of three types of documents: a birth certificate, a passport, or a military ID. Many people don’t have passports or military ID cards. That leaves birth certificates. How many people have their original birth certificate with the original seal? I don’t. I didn’t lose it – my parents never gave me one, they only gave me a copy.

This is a big problem for seniors because many don’t have birth certificates, since a lot of states didn’t issue them years ago. As they get older, many seniors give up their drivers’ licenses and apply for DMV photo ID cards to replace them. The DMV says that when any citizen switches from one form of ID to the other, they now must provide new documentation to prove legal presence, even if their old IDs have not expired.

When I talked to DMV staffers in Richmond about this problem, they were pleasant and helpful but they kept implying that their hands were tied – “the law is the law.”

But what was really tying them up was their own bureaucratic red tape.

They said the 2003 General Assembly was responsible for the strictness of the law. I read the law that the General Assembly passed, and it simply told the DMV to require proof of legal presence for any new licenses and ID cards issued. Then a DMV panel came up with the rules and the list of acceptable forms of ID that prove legal presence, not the General Assembly. Ultimately, the General Assembly gave the Commissioner of the DMV the responsibility for maintaining the rules and the list.

To be fair to the DMV, its staffers consulted with other public agencies and law enforcement, and allowed for public input before the official proof of legal presence list became policy. But now that the policy has been put into practice, we can see that there are some big problems. These problems need to be resolved now – the ID requirements need to change, or a process has to be created to allow for judgment calls to be made by the commissioner or his top staff.

The DMV says that the process of changing the policy involves a DMV Driver’s License ID committee to make recommendations, then “legal presence specialists” must analyze the recommendations, then the commissioner may run it by other interested departments (ex. Transportation) before finally approving it. When asked how long a process like this takes, no one knew.

The wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly. Meanwhile, grandma can’t get on a plane to visit her new grandson because she doesn’t have a photo ID to show the screeners. She can’t cash her Social Security check at the grocery store to buy milk and bread either. Too bad, granny.

The DMV could still keep within the spirit and intent of the law that the General Assembly passed, while making reasonable judgments on a case-by-case basis for 70, 80, and 90-year olds and others that don’t pose a terrorist threat. Denying honest citizens and military veterans drivers’ licenses because you are so rigid about following your own made-up rules with no common sense exceptions seems to be more about bureaucratic arrogance than about protecting our borders from terrorists.

Ultimately, this strict interpretation is adversely affecting the very people who have devoted their lives to making this country great and who have fought wars to secure the freedoms we have today. Are we really willing to be so strict that we take away their freedom in order to make ourselves feel more secure?