Please read Section 201(3)-(4) of the Real ID Act:
(3) OFFICIAL PURPOSE- The term ‘official purpose’ includes but is not limited to accessing Federal facilities, boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft, entering nuclear power plants, and any other purposes that the Secretary shall determine.
(4) SECRETARY- The term ‘Secretary’ means the Secretary of Homeland Security.
Source: https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/real-id-act-text.pdf
In other words, the Secretary of Homeland Security has unilateral authority to expand the uses of real IDs. In their 2008 rule, DHS even doubled down:
“DHS does not agree that it must seek the approval of Congress as a prerequisite to changing the definition in the future (except of course to remove one of the three statutorily-mandated official purposes) as § 201(3) of the Act gives discretion to the Secretary of Homeland Security to determine other purposes.”
That could include voting, accessing medical care, etc. Do you trust Kristi Noem with this power? Do you trust every future secretary with this power?
If not, I urge you to not get a real id if you don’t have one, or turn in your real id for a state one if you do have one, and instead get a passport. The DHS cannot enforce anything if the majority of Americans refuse to get real ids. Let us not just bow down to a national id that invades our privacy and could be used to control us.
Having a passport is a legal form of ID, and is covered under Real ID. Some people claim this is about a digital ID, which I’m torn on (despite the evidence of age verification in multiple states in the US) at the moment.
There are indeed plans to create a digital id that can be updated in real time according to AAMVA testimony: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/HM/HM07/20231205/116640/HHRG-118-HM07-Wstate-GrossmanI-20231205.pdf
Suppose the Secretary of Homeland Security says you need a real id to vote or receive medical care. And suppose we now have digital real ids. What’s gonna happen to you if you do something the government or corporations don’t like? Well, your real id will be revoked in real time and you won’t be able to access medical care.
We must stand up to this now. Passports will generally be safe this century from digitalization because the US would need to convince 150+ countries to accept a digital passport.