DETROIT – The Secretary of State is working feverishly to put systems in place that will allow Michigan residents that wish to opt for a REAL ID Enhanced Drivers license for an additional fee. The new and improved driver’s license will be available after April 21. Expect to see a lot of ads about it starting next week.
If you go to the SOS website Michigan.Gov/SOS click on the lower left of the SOS home page for the Branch Office Locator, and hit the drop down for specific service, you will see the option to select based on Enhanced License / ID. Of course if you select it now, your search will return nothing, since no branches are ready to provide the service yet.
If you want to get the new and improved license, it won’t be available until April 21st, and it will only be available at a few select locations in the state. Make sure that you call ahead or check the locator first. The enhanced license will also cost you $10 to $15 more than a traditional drivers license and requires you to provide a plethora of additional documentation to validate your citizenship.
Why go through the trouble to get an enhanced Michigan drivers license? For those that have lived in the State prior to 9/11, they can fondly remember the days of making snap decisions to go have dinner in Windsor, or if in Canada, coming over to Detroit for lunch. Weekend shopping trips, sports tournaments for the kids, lost of other daily reasons to visit our neighbors to the south that no longer apply. Since 9/11, travel across our border has become increasingly difficult, and so the casual decisions that make Canada a part of our regular neighborhood have stopped happening. With an enhanced Michigan drivers license, those options are suddenly available again, without having to pre-plan to have a passport, birth certificate or other documentation along on any trip getting close to a border crossing.
Many privacy advocates have complained that the mandating of a drivers license that validates citizenship goes too far and discriminates against those that do not have citizenship. That too much information is being shared. Michigan has done a nice job of providing options that will allow Michigan residents to determine if they want to spend the additional money and provide the documents for the additional freedom of easy travel across our border with Canada. The alternatives still exist – pay lots more and wait longer for a passport, or stay put and don’t travel.
In both security and economic circles, WHTI (Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative) and REAL ID (the DHS initiative to validate citizenship with drivers licenses) mandates have been a topic for conversation and concern. If done incorrectly, the implementation of the two closely overlapping security initiatives could cost taxpayers enormous amounts to implement, tie up travelers at entry points and severely reduce revenue on both sides of the Michigan / Canada border, Canada’s largest trading partner and source of $1Billion of Michigan trade weekly. Michigan is on the path to providing a real solution to this looming security issue that promises the best of both worlds – to increase our security AND increase our economic traffic with Canada.
This column was written by Hans Erickson, CIO of the Detroit Regional Chamber and information officer for Michigan InfraGard. If you’d like to reach Erickson, you can email him at [email protected]
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