Feds, DMV at odds over passport's validity as ID

April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News

Monday, October 30, 2006

Federal officials say they're baffled by Colorado's new edict that a U.S. passport alone is insufficient proof of identity to get a Colorado driver's license.

"We feel the U.S. passport is the premier document in the world used to verify a person's identity and citizenship," said Ann Barrett, acting assistant deputy secretary for passport services within the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs in Washington, D.C.

Since Colorado issued the rule Sept. 6, the Division of Motor Vehicles requires two forms of identification from Colorado's acceptable document list to get a driver's license or state ID. A passport is one acceptable form. A driver's license or government-issued birth certificate are among others.

Michael Cooke, executive director of the Colorado Department of Revenue, which oversees the DMV, said a passport "might be a good travel document, but it is not a good identity document."

"I don't question the security features in the passport, but my problem is that they don't require full legal name, or in rare circumstances, they don't require a state-issued birth certificate or other key documents to prove lawful presence."

For more than nine years - long before this past summer's illegal immigration crackdown in Colorado - the state has required full names on all driver's licenses and state identification cards.

That requirement is much stricter than U.S. passport practices, said Cooke.

A person can get a passport issued in his or her nickname, such as "Andy" or "Christy," if that's the name the applicant has gone by for most of his or her life.

For proof, the applicant must provide affidavits from two people he has known for five years who can attest to his identity. Applicants also must produce records demonstrating that they've paid bills using a nickname for five years or longer.

Cooke says that such an exception presents real problems for Colorado. If a person's driver's license is revoked, for example, that person could apply for a new license using a passport with his nickname on it and successfully skirt the law.

"We have seen a few examples recently where individuals have been able to present two passports in two different names," she said.

But passport officials argue that their security checks far exceed Colorado's standards. Unlike a driver's license, they say, the U.S. passport has layers of security features.

The federal government recently opened a new state-of-the-art passport agency in Aurora that issues passports with an electronic security chip embedded in the back.

When scanned, it verifies all information included in the passport with a federal database.

While criminals still try to make phony passports, their efforts are rarely successful, federal officials said.

"We have rigorous standards of proof of citizenship," said Barrett. "We have to see several forms of documentation to make sure the person applying for the passport and providing certificates of birth is the one we are giving the passport to."

The passport application process takes four to six weeks. Applicants undergo a complete background check in which their birth certificates and other documents are cross-checked with a number of databases to assure their identity.

Since the Colorado legislature's passage this summer of House Bill 1023, which sets up a strict identification check meant to deny many public services to people in the country illegally, the Colorado DMV has found fault with the immigration documents of 3,000 applicants.

Most of those applicants have declined a follow-up meeting with DMV investigators to try to clear their papers.

"It doesn't mean they are all fraudulent," Cooke said. "(But) a majority of them we suspect we won't see again."

The DMV has seen about 150 attempts to pass fraudulent birth certificates, many from Texas and Puerto Rico, and several phony American Indian tribal ID cards.

The strict new ID requirements have brought complaints from longtime residents and newcomers alike.

Sen. Andy McElhany said a Colorado Springs driver's license office refused to issue his 15-year-old stepdaughter a learner's permit when she presented a passport to prove she's a U.S. citizen.

The Colorado Springs Republican said he has since met with Cooke and understands her concerns, but still believes the rules are not clearly spelled out when people are applying for a Colorado license or ID card.

"My main concern is that when you're putting in place new policies, people need to understand and know what's expected of them," he said. "My stepdaughter did have a full legal name on her passport. That should have been acceptable."

Lilliana Bear moved to Colorado two months ago when she was recruited by Denver Public Schools to teach bilingual education. The Mexican immigrant was issued a student and work visa in Texas, where she graduated from the University of Texas.

After going back and forth five times to a DMV office in Denver, she said she was finally told her visa and documentation from DPS weren't good enough to prove residency.

She says she may be forced to either leave Colorado or hire an immigration attorney to help her get the identification needed to remain in the state.

"I'd like to stay here, but it's so much trouble here just to live a normal life," said Bear, 24.

washingtonam@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5086