4,000 enhanced licenses recalled
Toolbox
By Thatcher Moats STAFF WRITER - Published: September 18, 2009
BARRE – The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles recalled about 4,000 enhanced state driver's licenses and identification cards last week that had been issued in response to a federal law designed to heighten border security.
The enhanced driver's licenses and nondriver ID cards were issued this summer to help Vermonters comply with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which took effect June 1. The law requires U.S. citizens returning from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and the Bahamas to present a greater level of identification than was previously required, such as a passport or one of the enhanced identification cards, according to the DMV Web site.
Vermont has issued about 8,000 of the enhanced cards so far, but there have been problems with some of them. The equipment that U.S. Customs and Border Protection uses to scan the licenses and verify they are authentic has been unable to read some of the identification cards, causing people to be delayed at the border as officials try to sort through the problem.
The DMV first learned of the faulty cards in late August when the department received a call saying that someone trying to get back into the U.S. was having trouble with the card, said Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Robert Ide.
"We do know that a few people have had problems at the border," Ide said.
Ide said the problem with the cards is entirely the fault of L-1 Identity Solutions, the company hired to produce the cards.
"It's L-1's fault, and they admit that," Ide said. "The state of Vermont did everything perfectly, and the contractor did not produce exactly what they agreed to."
On the back of the enhanced licenses and identification cards is an area called a "machine readable zone" that has electronically coded letters and symbols, Ide said.
"And it's within that zone that it has proven to be impossible for the electronic scanning machine to read," Ide said.
L-1 Identity Solutions is paying for the entire cost of the recall, from the manufacturing of the new cards to postage, Ide said.
The DMV started mailing out recall envelopes around Sept. 10. The envelopes contain new identification cards and explain that people should return their old cards to the DMV.
The recall pertains to enhanced licenses and identification cards issued between July 18 and Aug. 20, Ide said.
It's unclear how many out of the 4,000 cards were faulty, but the DMV determined the dates when the problematic cards were issued and decided to recall all the cards within that range, Ide said.
In the past two days, the department has received hundreds of the recalled licenses and IDs in the mail, Ide said.
L-1 produces driver's licenses for the majority of states, according to Lisa Cradit, who works in the communications department at the company. But she would not say whether other states were having problems.
New York, which used a different company to produce the enhanced driver's licenses, has had no problems, said Jackie McGinnis, a spokesperson for the New York Department of Motor Vehicles. And Maine and New Hampshire don't offer enhanced licenses, officials there said.
The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative was a result of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, and was implemented after the 9/11 Commission recommended the changes. The changes were delayed after state officials — including Vermont politicians – complained that restrictions would hurt commercial traffic and border towns dependent on international crossings.
Ide stressed that the older licenses are still valid, so people don't have to worry that they are driving with an invalid license, though they would have problems trying to cross the border.
The recall of the licenses in Vermont has gone smoothly and Ide praised employees at the DMV for their response to the problems.
"We caught it very quickly and worked aggressively," Ide said.
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