IE 11 Not Supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

REAL ID Act Noncompliance Affects Military Base Visitors

Since Jan. 10, military installations have turned away visitors with licenses from Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico and Minnesota because their states have not complied with federal REAL ID standards.

(TNS) -- Unsuspecting tourists, parents coming to town for ship homecomings and even some pizza delivery drivers could start having trouble getting onto military bases.

Residents of five states and a U.S. territory no longer can use driver’s licenses to gain access to military installations because they don’t comply with Department of Homeland Security regulations. Licenses from another three territories similarly could be deemed unacceptable any day.

That also could happen to Virginians and residents of 25 other states within the next year if federal officials don’t approve efforts to comply with the REAL ID Act.

“I’m extraordinarily concerned,” said Jennifer Hurst-Wender, director of museum operations for Preservation Virginia. The group manages the 18th-century Cape Henry Lighthouse on Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia Beach that’s open to the public.

Attendance at the lighthouse has declined over the years as base security increased, including checking IDs, inspecting vehicles and requiring proof of insurance. About 56,000 visitors came to the lighthouse last year, down from about 80,000 in 2002. She said she was unaware of the changes that require an alternate form of ID such as a passport for residents of noncompliant states until contacted by The Virginian-Pilot.

“This is scary,” she said.

Congress passed the lawin 2005 to keep fraudulent IDs out of the hands of would-be terrorists . The act requires states to incorporate anti-counterfeit technology in their driver’s licenses, verify applicants’ identities and conduct background checks for employees involved in issuing the documents.

The REAL ID Act is best known for its requirement that states have compliant IDs in order for their residents to use them to board a commercial flight. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson this month pushed back to 2018 the deadline for states to comply, with extensions ending in 2020. The District of Columbia and 22 states already are in compliance.

But since Jan. 10, military installations have turned away visitors with licenses from Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, Minnesota and American Samoa unless they have an escort, a military ID or another form of secure identification, such as a passport, as part of REAL ID’s phased implementation. Licenses from Washington state already were unacceptable unless they were enhanced with features that allow travelers back into the U.S. from Canada without passports.

The general public isn’t allowed to just drive onto a military base, but there routinely are scenarios where invited visitors and workers can enter an installation for events such as a change of command or ship’s homecoming that can draw thousands who are on a list for admittance.

“The state ID card or state driver license is going to be problematic,” said Milt Hemmingsen, regional deputy security director for Norfolk-based Navy Region Mid-Atlantic, which oversees Navy facilities in 20 states. “At least for the first visit, they might need a passport to gain access.”

Virginia, 25 other states and Puerto Rico are not in compliance with the REAL ID Act but were given extensions until Oct. 10{%%note} {/%%note}. New Hampshire is the only state whose extension expires June 1, while extensions for the Virgin Islands, Guam and Northern Mariana Islands go through at least Jan 10.

The extensions were granted to states that showed they were making efforts toward compliance, according to Homeland Security.

An Oct. 14 letter from the DHS to Virginia’s DMV commissioner says Virginia meets more than two dozen of REAL ID’s requirements but fails in another nine areas. That includes committing to mark compliant identification cards and licenses with a DHS-approved stamp.

The document says Virginia already has submitted proposals to address the other issues, which involve providing satisfactory evidence of an applicant’s Social Security number, how the state permits online renewal of its licenses and how copies of application documents are retained. Last spring, Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Maine Gov. Paul LePage sent a letter decrying the regulations . The governors submitted six pages of concerns with their recommendations on how to address them.

“Virginia has one of the nation’s most secure credentials,” Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles spokeswoman Brandy Brubaker said in an email. “Because of that, we have proposed several alternative processes to meet the intent and spirit of REAL ID regulations and are awaiting feedback from DHS. We are confident that DHS will agree that Virginia’s driver’s license issuance process exceeds REAL ID regulations and that the 2018 enforcement phase will have no impact on Virginians.”

Unless the DHS approves Virginia’s proposals, another popular tourist attraction also could be off-limits to locals without alternate forms of ID. Each year, about 44,000 visitors from all 50 states take a guided bus tour of Norfolk Naval Station. The tours are promoted on the homepage of the city’s tourism website.

The act’s effect on military bases has drawn little attention, even leaving the Marine Corps scrambling to comply.

“Until our policies are updated, current access control measures remain in place,” Marine Corps Installations command spokesman Rex A. Runyon said in an email.

A Facebook post Tuesday about the restrictions on Fort Lee near Petersburg drew questions from several people who have access to the base, including one woman whose mother already was in town from Minnesota and unaware of the change. In that scenario, base officials said, security personnel can make decisions on a case-by-case basis and entry could be allowed after a background check.

“A lot of the things would be case-by-case basis, based upon what the local commander had decided orwhat their policy would be,” said Nate Allen, a spokesman for the Army Installation Management Command in San Antonio. “In one way, shape or form, we’re finding ways to be compliant with the law. In most cases on a day-to-day basis, if a person is not able to provide a REAL ID-compliant form of identification, they’re not going to be granted access to the installation unless they are able to have a chaperone .”

The Navy also doesn’t have a blanket rule covering access for those with noncompliant IDs, Hemmingsen said. For example, he said, security staff at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach wouldn’t keep people from attending itsannual air show if they’re from a noncompliant state. He said security doesn’t check every attendee’s ID because other security precautions are in place, which he declined to detail. The Navy said nearly 300,000 people attended last year’s show.

In most other situations, visitors from noncompliant states will need a passport or other form of ID to get credentials to come on base. That includes pizza delivery drivers, taxi drivers and contractors working on an installation. Hemmingsen said Lyft and Uber drivers haven’t been authorized to pick up passengers on the region’s military installations.

Hemmingsen said if someone is escorted onto a base, their ID shouldn’t be an issue, althoughsecurity conditions can change from day to day. Security officials don’t always check the IDs of escorted passengers, but he said if installations are operating under a 100 percent ID check, the passenger’s state ID would need to be from a compliant state.

“We have different levels of force protection conditions. Not all of these are always true at all levels,” Hemmingsen said. “There’s not a general rule that this always fits.”

©2016 The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.