REAL ID Finally Arrives: Two Decades After 9/11, Tighter ID Rules Set to Hit Travelers

The clock is finally ticking down for REAL ID, that much-delayed federal security upgrade for driver’s licenses, nearly twenty years after President George W. Bush signed it into law. Starting next month, Americans will need a REAL ID-compliant form of identification to breeze through airport security, bringing to life a post-9/11 vision of tighter travel rules designed to keep out both terrorists and, as recent memos stress, people without legal status.

REAL ID means a federally compliant driver's license or ID card with enhanced security features, available only to U.S. citizens or legal residents. If you don’t have one, you can still use a valid passport for domestic flights, but forget about using those old-school state IDs for airport travel after the new law kicks in.

The push for REAL ID started right after 9/11, when lawmakers learned that the hijackers used a wild collection of fake and fraudulent driver’s licenses to enroll in flight schools and board planes. The 9/11 Commission’s report was blunt, stating that “fraud in identification documents is no longer just a problem of theft,” but a real national security threat. They wanted the federal government to set strict standards for ID, and Congress responded in 2005.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin introduced the bill, and it zipped through Congress with overwhelming support—368-58 in the House, unanimous in the Senate—before Bush signed it into law. The Bush administration argued it would help keep terrorists from "hiding in plain sight," and the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations were cited throughout the debate.

Yet it’s taken nearly two decades to actually enforce the law, with delays caused by state pushback and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. Some states, especially those eager to grant driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, resisted implementing the stricter federal rules, sparking a tug-of-war over states’ rights and security that still simmers in some corners.

Now, the Department of Homeland Security is making good on those old promises. A recent DHS memo makes it clear: REAL ID is meant to keep illegal immigrants from boarding domestic flights—unless, as the memo dryly notes, they’re "self-deporting" on an outbound international flight. The new policy is pitched as a fix for loopholes that allowed non-compliant IDs from sanctuary cities to get people past TSA.

But not everyone is cheering. Republican critics say the law hands too much power to "Big Brother" and stokes fears of government overreach, while some Democrats warn that millions of Americans still haven’t gotten their REAL IDs and could be stranded at the airport. Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin insists that 81% of air travelers already have qualifying IDs and that the government will keep working with states and airports to get the rest of us on board—without the nightmare lines, they promise.

With May 7 looming, the message is clear: get your REAL ID, or be prepared to flash your passport for a quick trip to Cleveland. After twenty years, it turns out that the wheels of security turn slowly, but they do eventually turn—paperwork, politics, pandemic and all.