How would REAL-ID affect the right to travel?
In the latest step in the implementation of the REAL-ID Act and the establishment of a de facto national ID card and database, the Department of Homeland Security has requested OMB approval for the collection of additional information from states and individuals.
The public response to the DHS request, particularly these comments submitted by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), highlight the important unanswered questions about how REAL-ID Act implementation will affect the right to travel:
EPIC’s comments focus on the widely-publicized recent case of Lewis Brown, a former high school and college basketball star who died on a street in Southern California homeless, earlier this month:
EPIC writes today to draw the agency’s attention to the death of Lewis Brown, a former college basketball prodigy, who died on the streets of Los Angeles because he could not scrape together the money to obtain a state-issued identity document…. According to the New York Times, Brown, a basketball legend at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, planned to fly to visit his family in New York and could not. Homeless and destitute, living on the sidewalks of Hollywood, Brown had developed cancer and planned to go to the hospital. Brown’s mother learned about his condition and stated that she wanted to see him “before he died.” Brown’s sister, Anita, told him to visit New York. Brown told confidants that he lacked funds to qualify for a California identification card, and was taking donations and borrowing money.