It's ironic that the next big threat to America's airports is likely to be the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The federal government and 17 states are fighting over the REAL ID program, which seeks to make a driver's license the standard of identification across the country instead of a check as to a person's ability to operate a motor vehicle.

The costly program forces states to change their procedures for handing out driver's licenses and includes new security features in the cards themselves along with requirement to pass personal information along to the federal government.

Residents of states that don't comply will be forced to endure rigorous secondary screenings at all airports unless they present a U.S. passport instead. The resulting backlogs are sure to ground most airports in noncompliant states and disrupt travel throughout the entire country.

It's not the first time a card and number issued to be U.S. citizens has been hijacked for another purpose. As hard as it is to imagine now, there was a time that people didn't apply for Social Security cards until they were teenagers, since the numbers were used by employers for benefits later in life. Now, infants have cards they can't sign. Of course, the old cards also said they were not to be used for identification purposes, but that also changed.

Government officials say that changes are necessary since illegal immigrants and terrorists can potentially get driver's license cards and use them to gain access elsewhere. But that's because the federal government has failed to implement any substantial immigration reform or standardize its own paperwork and identification papers.

More people use driver's licenses because the states do a better job of keeping the records straight.

Forcing every Department of Motor Vehicles to police each person who steps into the country is a poor shortcut at best to real immigration reform.