National ID

DMV Officials Issued Driver's Licenses for Cash. Why Will REAL ID Be Any Different?

Bureaucratic requirements impose burdens only on people not inclined to break the law.

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New York residents line up at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to apply for a REAL ID. | Niyi Fote/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom
(Niyi Fote/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom)

In New York, several employees of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) were recently caught doing the one thing at which government drones seem efficient: corruptly profiting from their positions. They weren't alone in selling driver's licenses to ineligible customers; similar stories frequently appear around the country wherever public workers see a way to make a few bucks by providing official identification documents, often in fake names, to anybody with cash in hand. As common as the practice is, it's an interesting commentary on the long-delayed recent introduction of REAL ID requirements, which are supposed to make us more secure.

Sure, they will. Except for that part about workarounds being for sale to all-comers at reasonable prices.

Countless Licenses Issued With No Exam Required

"State and federal law enforcement officials on Tuesday announced several arrests for an alleged scheme in which countless individuals were issued driver's permits and licenses on Staten Island without having to pass the exams," the New York Offices of the Inspector General announced July 2. "A joint investigation revealed countless acts of tampering with state records and identity theft carried out by a Queens-based driving school in conjunction with DMV workers on Staten Island."

In this case, most of the customers for the scheme were Chinese immigrants. For $2,000, employees of the driving school would take the test in place of customers and then bought-off DMV employees would score passing grades, alter the database, and issue licenses. The operation "guaranteed individuals driver's licenses regardless of immigration status, language, and even their ability to actually operate a vehicle," according to Homeland Security Investigations New York Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel.

And all that drama we just went through about requiring people to get standardized REAL ID-compliant identification to fly on commercial airlines or enter federal facilities was bypassed in the process. You may have had to stand in line with documentation to get a new driver's license with a federally approved star in the corner, but the customers of this operation just paid people to fiddle with the records. According to the report, "the illegal operation also raises concerns about security in certain buildings and airplanes that require a state identification card to enter or board."

Of course, it's not like the crew in New York invented this dodge. It's been going on for years.

You Can Get Better Prices on Bogus ID if You Shop Around

"Eight people have been arrested after a joint investigation by the Bay County Sheriff's Office and Homeland Security Investigations, where illegal immigrants were allegedly paying to get fraudulent driver's licenses," Panama City, Florida's WJHG reported last month. "Investigators say suspicious driver's license transactions were occurring at the Bay County Tax Collector's Office, and two DMV employees were being financially compensated to provide driver's licenses to those who did not qualify for them."

The group apparently was doing a bang-up business. According to the county tax collector, the ring was busted because they were processing so many driver's licenses. While it's normal for driver's license examiners to do between 20 and 25 tests per month, one administered 295 in one month.

Well, you have to work hard when there's so much competition for issuing fraudulent documents.

"Three former employees of the Maryland Vehicle Administration were sentenced in a driver's license fraud scheme," CBS News reported in January. According to the story, the trio were "advertising MVA credentials, which included driver's licenses and learners' permits, for $600 each on Instagram."

That sounds like a bargain. Then again, everything is more expensive in New York. Really, people need to shop around. The prices were often better elsewhere.

"An indictment was unsealed yesterday charging five individuals with conspiring to obtain driver's licenses for ineligible applicants, principally undocumented individuals without legal status residing in the United States," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts announced in December 2024. "The defendants allegedly conspired to fraudulently obtain New York driver's licenses for customers who did not reside in New York, including Massachusetts residents, and after July 2023 they also conspired to fraudulently obtain Massachusetts driver's licenses for customers who did not reside in Massachusetts. The defendants allegedly typically charged the customers approximately $1,400 to obtain the driver's licenses."

And on and on it goes across the country. To judge by reports, most customers for these driver's license schemes are undocumented immigrants who see official identification as a stepping stone to working and living in the United States. As our society has become more rule-bound and driven by demands to produce papers to "prove" our identities and our authorization to work, it's created demand for documents that will pass muster. Most of the people paying to have their bogus details inserted into databases aren't dangerous, but the market is available to anybody.

Just How Does REAL ID Improve Security?

Keep in mind that this goes on as the federal government declares victory in a decades-long battle to make states standardize their driver's licenses into a combination national ID card and domestic passport. According to the feds, "the REAL ID Act is a law that sets higher security standards for state-issued driver's licenses and identification cards." To get REAL-ID-compliant licenses, people who long ago passed their road tests have to apply again with more documentation. As the requirement went into effect this year, that meant long lines at many DMV offices around the country. In Chicago, hopefuls began lining up at 4:30 in the morning in the hope of securing an appointment. It was much the same elsewhere.

You know who didn't have to line up for hours in hopes of getting a "more secure" version of a document they already possessed? People who are willing to pay corrupt state officials to insert fraudulent passing grades and information into a database and then issue shiny, fresh-from-the-printer driver's licenses based on bogus entries that entirely bypass all the new security checks.

Really, isn't convenience worth a little extra expense?

"The Real ID requirement bolsters safety by making fraudulent IDs harder to forge, thwarting criminals and terrorists," Transportation Security Administration senior official Adam Stahl insisted in April.

Dream on, Adam. REAL ID requirements impose burdens on people not inclined to break the law. But workarounds are always available for those not so compulsively law-abiding—for a price.