After two decades marked by delays, Americans planning to board an airplane for a domestic flight Wednesday will need a Real ID. Well, sort of.
What appears to be a soft launch of the program aimed at enhancing security at airports nationwide began at midnight amid questions about how the new requirement — and lack of compliance by travelers in many states — will affect air travel.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told lawmakers Tuesday that travelers without the Real ID cards will still be able to board their flights — for now — after undergoing additional identity verification steps at airport security checkpoints.
If people show up without a Real ID at airport security “they may be diverted to a different line, have an extra step, but people will still be allowed to fly,” Noem told a House Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday. “We recognize this is a security issue.”
The Real ID rollout has been years in the making in the United States. Congress passed the Real ID Act in 2005, establishing specific requirements for states issuing IDs that make them harder to counterfeit and calls for enhanced verification of the information contained on the cards. The law stems from a 9/11 Commission recommendation that the federal government establish a nationwide standard for identification at a time when national security was top of mind for many Americans.
“I think it’s going to enhance security at our airports because before, you could board a plane with a regular old driver’s license and it’s been possible for people to get driver’s licenses in false names,” said Michael O’Rourke, chief executive of Advanced Operational Concepts, a global security consulting firm. “This has a more stringent requirement to prove you are who you say you are.”
But not all states were on board with the approach at first. Many state governments pushed back, citing increased costs, privacy concerns and the burden that the IDs would place on certain groups, such as the unhoused, to provide the extra documentation necessary to get the identification. The initial deadline of May 2008 was pushed back as the federal government negotiated with the states.
By 2020 most states, including California, had started rolling out Real IDs. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the deadline was delayed once again. In late 2022, the Department of Homeland Security said state motor vehicle departments needed more time to deal with the backlog of applications and set the final deadline for May 2025.
Despite years of messaging, some citizens have resisted applying for the new IDs, wary of handing over that much data to the government.
“When a government implements any kind of policy from the top down, which is the federal level, and it’s not explained from the bottom up, then there is a lot of distrust,” said Faith Bradley, a teaching assistant professor of information systems at George Washington University.
Bradley, who wrote her doctoral dissertation on the Real ID Act, suspects that many Americans will opt to travel with their passport or other forms of acceptable identification rather than obtain a Real ID.
Transportation Security Administration officials said last month that 81% of travelers at TSA checkpoints presented acceptable identification, including a state-issued Real ID.
In late April — just weeks away from the deadline — a report from CBS News revealed that more than half of the states in the country were less than 70% compliant in issuing the IDs. At that time, California had reached nearly 55% compliance, according to the outlet.
For weeks, DMV offices across the country have been packed with people rushing to get a Real ID before the deadline.
“It’s not going to go smoothly,” Bradley said of the rollout, adding that there inevitably will be something about the process that officials overlooked.
Although some travelers have raised concerns about delays, TSA officials say they don’t expect any extended wait times, particularly for those who have their Real ID, passport or another acceptable form of identification.
“Passengers who present a state-issued identification that is not REAL ID compliant at TSA checkpoints and who do not have another acceptable alternative form of ID will be notified of their non-compliance, may be directed to a separate area and may receive additional screening,” a TSA spokesperson said Tuesday in a statement to The Times.
It is not clear when the government will start turning away travelers without a Real ID on commercial flights.
Times staff writer Karen Garcia contributed to this report
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