LTE: What can the TSA do that airport police cannot?
Published on June 7th, 2015
Letter to the Editor
Don Rosenberg
June 7, 2015
As seen in:
The LA Times
The Real ID Act was born after 9/11. Some of the hijackers had multiple driver's licenses. The act passed in 2005 but has not yet been fully implemented.
Only driver's licenses that meet certain criteria can be used as identification to board an aircraft. Currently, licenses granted to those in the country illegally cannot meet Real ID standards. The process to obtain a license does not guarantee the applicant's identity. California fingerprints applicants but never runs them against a database of potential criminals or terrorists who may be on the no-fly list. Illinois and other states do not even fingerprint applicants.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has the authority to deny use of these licenses for boarding purposes. However, in his infinite wisdom he has "cleared them" for boarding.
So 95% of bombs can make it on planes and 100% of noncompliant government IDs can be used to board. What could possibly go wrong?
Don Rosenberg, Westlake Village
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