News Update - June 28, 2008

By Alan Lee, Esq.

Failure to Show Identification May Cost You Your Flight

As of June 21, 2008, passengers who decline to show identification at the security checkpoints in airports will be denied entry to any secure areas. This change in regulations will only affect those individuals who refuse to provide any form of identification or fail to assist airport personnel in discovering their identity.

However, this does not mean passengers who do not have, misplaced, or lost their ID are out of luck. Cooperative passengers in these situations may still board by volunteering to additional screening protocols, which include enhanced physical screening of both the passenger and his/her baggage.

This change is made under the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (TSA), whose administrators are charged with overseeing aviation security (P.L. 107-71) and is therefore vested with authority to establish and modify security procedures at airports as is deemed necessary (49 C.F. R. § 1540.107). Passengers who choose not to comply with these security processes risk being denied entry to the secure area, and missing their flights (49 C.F.R. § 1540.105(a)(2).

How this regulatory change dovetails with immigration enforcement efforts or the later implementation of the secure document requirement of the REAL ID Act remains to be seen.

Homeland Security Approves $80 Million Grant Towards REAL ID Program

The Department of Homeland Security announced its Fiscal Year 2008 REAL ID Demonstration Grant awards totaling nearly $80 million towards assisting states in their venture to improve the security of state-issued driver’s licenses (DL) and other identification documents. All of the 48 states and territories which applied will be awarded a portion of this available funding.

The grants were designed to enhance the physical security of licenses, upgrade facility protection, and upgrade document scanning and storage. In addition, funding will also be available for the development and testing of a verification hub. Said hub would provide states with an official communication link to federal and non-federal document-issuing authorities and allow them to verify applicant source documents.


The author is a 26+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004.

This article © 2008 Alan Lee, Esq.

 

Copyright © 2003-2012 Alan Lee, Esq.
The information provided here is of a general nature and may not apply to any particular set of facts or circumstances. It should not be construed as legal advice and does not constitute an engagement of the Law Office of Alan Lee or establish an attorney-client relationship.