For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary Contact: 202-282-8010

SECRETARY CHERTOFF: Well, I’m pleased to be here with Governor Spitzer and I’m pleased to have reached agreement with New York on driver’s license security. As you know, the Department of Homeland Security has been working hard to implement two important laws that will add greatly to our security. Both of them were recommended by the 9/11 Commission.

The first, the REAL Act, raises the bar for the security of driver’s licenses so that we can actually rely on those documents. The REAL Act requires that the federal government accept only driver’s licenses that clearly establishentity and legal presence in the United States.

The second, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, or WHTI, requires passports or similar secure documents, including secure, enhanced driver’s licenses, for everyone who crosses our borders, including the land border with Canada.

I’m pleased that New York has agreed to work with the Department of Homeland Security to move forward with both REAL and enhanced driver’s licenses.

Let me expand. First, New York has announced a number of anti-fraud security measures to meet the requirements of REAL to make their driver’s licenses more secure than they already are. The state is using advanced, facial recognition technology, central issuance procedures, and advanced document verification systems. These techniques will make New York licenses among the most secure in the country. The Governor has also committed to marking licenses that do not meet federal requirements, and to adopting a residency requirement to prevent misuse of New York licenses by people from out of state. This meets the requirement that REAL licenses be tamper-proof, secure and available only to U.S. citizens or those lawfully in the country.

We are pleased to announce that New York State will work with the Department of Homeland Security to launch a program to issue an enhanced driver’s license in accordance with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. This step, which several other states have already taken, will not only help ensure the security of New York’s northern border, but will ensure the economic vitality of upstate New York and the border communities by promoting convenient and secure travel documents.

We have also listened to New York’s concern about REAL, as we have with all states, and we hope to announce a final regulation shortly that provides a sensible solution from a cost, convenience and privacy perspective.

Now, REAL and WHTI licenses are quite obviously not available to people illegally in the United States, either because of illegal entry or overstay. To the extent that New York issues a of license that is not based on lawful presence in the United States, those licenses will not comply with REAL or WHTI requirements. I do not endorse giving licenses to people who are not here legally.

But federal law does allow states to make that choice. What we can do is insist that licenses that do not meet federal requirements be clearly so labeled. New York has agreed to do that. In sum, that clarification, along with implementing REAL and enhanced driver’s licenses, represents a major step forward for security, both for New York and for the country. Accordingly, I’m pleased to have reached this agreement.

GOVERNOR SPITZER: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. With the steps that the Secretary and I are announcing today, we will usher in the most secure licensing system in the nation; one that will offer New Yorkers maximum choice for driver’s licenses to bring people into the system, uphold the strictest security standards, and ensure the economic vitality of upstate New York.

Let me walk through these steps. One, the recent change we made and the anti-fraud security measures we tied to it will continue moving forward. However, given that as a result of the expected final REAL regulations that we understand will address our previous concerns, New York’s license will already be close to compliance with the new federal requirements. So we now believe we can implement both REAL and our policy change at the same time.

Second, I’m also pleased to announce that after several months of discussions with the Department of Homeland Security, state DMV and federal DHS, we will all implement a program to develop an enhanced driver’s license that can be accepted at our northern border instead of a passport, which will be required next year under federal law. This is a critical win for the upstate economy. While we never want to sacrifice security for anything, in the best of all worlds, we would also not have to sacrifice our economic vitality. We expect that this program will achieve both.

Third, we have spoken to DHS about our concerns with REAL, and they have assured us that their final regulations that are coming out soon will address the cost, convenience and privacy concerns we have mentioned in past comments. As we said months ago, it has always been our intention to implement REAL so long as DHS was responsive to our concerns. And we are confident that they have been. We pleased that DHS has been so responsive to New York and all other states in accommodating our concerns to ensure that we have both national standards for licenses and also the ability to implement this in a way that is practical.

In sum, this will be the most secure licensing system in the country; one good for cross-border purposes, one for federal purposes, and one for non-federal purposes. While there may be some cost differences among the licenses, and additional requirements mandated by federal law for those licenses for federal purposes, we are on our way to offering New Yorkers the option of three secure licenses to drive and travel in this state, in this country, and throughout the Western Hemisphere. Thank you. A couple comments?

SECRETARY CHERTOFF: Yes, questions, and please tell us who you are and where you’re from.

QUESTION: Would the licenses for undocumented immigrants require residency, and how is that different from --

GOVERNOR SPITZER: Yes, yes. As I’ve said, and I went on in some length about this in a speech at NYU I guess two Fridays ago now, one of the essential elements of getting any license is establishing residency. And the technical measures we have installed to ensure that will be, I think, above and beyond what any other state has done, we are crafting those as we not only examine the best practices that we can discern from the 27 or so other states that we think are in our sort of same category of specificity on this, but we are putting those in place right now. And this is one of the issues the Secretary and I spoke about. Obviously, you don’t want New York -- people to come to New York to get a license. We are demanding that people be able to prove residency. That has always been part of that plan.

QUESTION: And Secretary Chertoff, you say in your statement that you would prefer not to give licenses to undocumented immigrants, but the states have the right to do that. Does this reassure you? Will this interfere with your enforcement of immigration?

SECRETARY CHERTOFF: Well, I think -- obviously, I’ve said I don’t endorse giving licenses to illegals, but the law permits states to make that choice. What is important and what is within the domain of what my Department has the right to insist upon is, first of all, participation in REAL as a very positive step. Having enhanced driver’s licenses, which I think addresses our security concerns and citizenship concerns, but also makes it more convenient to go back and forth across the border. And I’m sensitive to the fact that people in upstate New York and other border communities are worried about things that would impede that.

And finally, as I said, obviously, there has to be a clear differentiation on the face of a license between licenses that are valid for federal and those that are not so there can’t be any confusion or misleading about it. And I think this agreement addresses those concerns that fall within my authority.

GOVERNOR SPITZER: Let me just echo that. I think the Secretary is exactly right in what he said. This is an option that is available to states pursuant to federal law. I have said from the very beginning that this is a policy option that I agree with, obviously, which is why we have made that choice -- but not to the detriment of security.

And that is why we have worked so diligently with the Secretary and DHS to put in place those security measures and filters and steps and processes that will permit us to, as you’ve just heard, New York will have among the most secure driver’s licenses in the nation because we are being so strict on the issue of residency, which you just raised, or facialentification, etcetera, etcetera. So we are putting in place those policies that will provide the security that we also are obviously insistent on.

QUESTION: How are you, sir? So what is this going to actually look like? I’m a little confused. We’re talking about two different licenses or three? And what will -- how will they appear different?

GOVERNOR SPITZER: The only difference -- I will confess, I don’t know what the EDL, the enhanced driver’s license, will physically look like. That we will actually be able to begin issuing, we hope sometime in the next couple of months.

QUESTION: But it will be like visually -- somebody will be able to tell the difference --

GOVERNOR SPITZER: The only difference -- as the Secretary said, the only difference between the REAL license and the non-REAL license, federal versus the non-federal, will be the demarcation in print that will say, on the non-REAL license, "Not valid for federal entification."

GOVERNOR SPITZER: Yes. The third is the enhanced driver’s license, primarily which will be sought by those who live proximate to the Canadian border, most probably in the Buffalo region, but the entirety of the Canadian border, where this will help with WHTI, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. And that will look essentially the same, but will have certain other metrics and biometrics and maybe an RFID card built in.

QUESTION: So you’ve got the REAL-compliant one. And then you’ve got the basic one --

QUESTION: -- that an illegal alien could get a driver’s license.

GOVERNOR SPITZER: Or, I mean -- well, yes, but that’s not necessarily the nomenclature. In other words, you have individuals who will choose to get a federal license, individuals who will choose to get a non-federal license for a multitude of purposes. The visual distinction between the two will be merely that statement, which the Secretary rightly pointed to, is required by federal law, by the REAL Act, that the non-federal driver’s license say on it, "Not valid for federal."

QUESTION: And the -- I’m sorry -- the bottom of your license --

GOVERNOR SPITZER: The enhanced driver’s license will be --

SECRETARY CHERTOFF:  Let me help with that. Think about it this way: Every enhanced driver’s license complies with REAL. It’ll have some additional features that allow you to cross the border. It will have, like, for example, an RFID chip, which will not be in every REAL license, but will be in licenses that want -- if you want to go back and forth through the border quickly.

So both REAL and enhanced driver’s licenses requires secure proof of entity, and you have to be lawfully present in the country. It’s just that enhanced driver’s licenses will have -- there will be a little chip that you will see. I don’t know visible it will be --

GOVERNOR SPITZER: I’m not sure it’s going to be visible.

SECRETARY CHERTOFF: Yes. And there may be some -- a machine-readable zone, which is a series of letters and numbers. So it may be some visual distinction. Both of those, however, will be restricted to those lawfully in the country. The remaining licenses that New York issues will have to say, "Not valid for federal purposes." So that will the distinction there.

QUESTION: And just to be clear. That will not allow you to get on an airplane?

SECRETARY CHERTOFF: It just -- it will not -- for any federal purpose --

SECRETARY CHERTOFF: Well, I can only tell you -- speak for the federal government. For any federal purpose, it will not be valid.

QUESTION: Two questions. First is logistical -- from a logistical standpoint, are you confident that you could meet your earlier deadline of December of getting these threes up and running, or is there going to be a stopgap?

GOVERNOR SPITZER: There will be -- as I said in the statement, because of the -- what we view as the very affirmative new understanding of what REAL actually necessitates, we believe that that timetable has been accelerated from what we had believed it would be, and we can move forward with both REAL and the new policy of driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants at the same time, sometime probably middle/late next year. So there will be perhaps some delay.

We have begun -- we thought we could begin to implement the policy late this year or early next year. There will be a few months gap -- lag in order to integrate these two policies simultaneously.

QUESTION: So what happens during the gap? What do you have to do -- if somebody --

GOVERNOR SPITZER: As of right now? Right now, policies continue as they have been for years. In other words, the new policies will begin to kick in next year when we can move simultaneously on these policies.

QUESTION: And then the second question is, you know, you had expressed concerns that having a two- or, in this case, a three-tiered system -- the license that an illegal or undocumented person might use could be like a scarlet letter. Is this, in effect --

GOVERNOR SPITZER: No, well, in fact, I had always said -- not always said -- I had said very clearly that -- a couple of points I have made consistently throughout. One, I anticipated New York would participate in REAL. If you go back to my statements, whether at NYU or elsewhere, as this policy has been discussed, I’ve said, participating in REAL is appropriate and important once we understand what the federal regs and rules are. Now that we have a better understanding in terms of cost and integration with our current systems, we look forward to doing that very quickly.

Second, if you take that as the premise, the federal statute that creates the federal -- the REAL requires that there be a demarcation on the non-federal license that says, just as we’ve discussed, "Not valid for federal." So that distinction nece