Editorial: America's Bad IDea
What you might not realize about Real ID
As of today, May 7, you need a passport to travel by air within the United States. That’s right. You can no longer board a domestic flight in the US by showing your driver’s license, which is no longer good enough. You are required to provide a legal proof of citizenship to go from Santa Rosa to San Diego, just like when you travel from one country to another. This is because the deadline for enforcing Real ID at airports is today, and if you didn’t get a Real ID, you must show a passport, if you have one.
To get Real ID, you have to fill out an application form online. But that’s only the beginning, and we’ll talk about the byzantine process later. It also requires going in person to the DMV and then paying $35 to get a new driver’s license. The Real ID is a driver’s license that has a star in the upper right-hand corner. (Yes, a star!) In California, that star is emblazoned on the haunches of a grizzly bear and over the head of a miner panning for gold.
I’m rather surprised by the lack of pushback for Real ID. Media outlets are writing about Real ID as a public service announcement — like they have a duty to convince the public to get a vaccine or wear a mask or get a Real ID.
NPR - 20 years later, the Real ID deadline is here. Here's why it took so long
NBC - What you need to know about the REAL ID requirements for air travel
The Hill - 5 things to know about the Real ID deadline
How Real ID came to be
Real ID was an overreaction to 9/11. The 9/11 Commission recommended a federal ID, and legislation for Real ID was signed into law by George Bush in 2005. It was intended to take effect in 2008, but its implementation was delayed for one reason or another, most recently because of COVID in 2020. Because of the many delays, the ACLU wrote in 2011 about “the slow, quiet death of Real ID,” saying that “the law would facilitate tracking of data on individuals and bring government into the very center of every citizen’s life.” By 2011, 25 states had rejected Real ID. The ACLU cheered that the law might fade away:
All of this is great news for privacy. There will be no national database of drivers’ identification and no need to show a Real ID in order to get on a plane.
But somehow Real ID made a comeback, driven by the Department of Homeland Security, and politicians acquiesced. If the target following 9/11 was foreign terrorists, today a crackdown on illegal immigrants is causing Homeland Security to start enforcing this law.
No need to worry about privacy concerns and government surveillance, says the media. The Hill article, cited above, claims:
The federal government is not forming any national database based on this information, as states, territories and districts still issue their own licenses, maintain their own records and determine who has access to those records. But the Real ID requirements make the public’s identification documents more consistent nationwide and secure, according to the DHS.
I don’t believe the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and neither did the ACLU back in 2011. It is a key part of the expansion of the authority of DHS. While cuts are proposed for nearly every US agency in the Trump budget, DHS is receiving a whopping budget increase of 65%.
Getting a Real ID
One of the onerous things about applying for Real ID is providing documents that prove you are both a citizen and a legal resident of the United States. The question I kept asking myself throughout the application process is, “Why am I providing information that the government already has?”
A passport is an acceptable ID that you can use to get a Real ID. Only 48% of U S citizens have a passport, as of 2024, although more passports were issued last year than in any year previous. In 1990, only 5% had passports.
If you don’t have a passport, you’ll need a valid birth certificate, one that matches your legal name. Women whose married name doesn’t match the name on their birth certificate are having issues. On NextDoor, a young women said that her mother changed her daughter’s last name when she was three-years-old to match the last name of the husband she married; the mother never did anything to make the daughter’s name change legal. Now, the daughter is wondering how to convince the government that she is the same person as the one named on her birth certificate.
In addition, you have to provide two sources of documentation that you live at your address such as a utility bill and a phone bill. You have to scan or take a photo of these documents — something that’s also not particularly easy. A link is sent via text message to your phone, and you have to log in and verify your identity (two-factor) with the system, take the photo, and then go back to webpage you were using for the application and login again and verify yourself. Do that for each photo, and your patience runs out.
When you are done filling out the application, you aren’t done. It has to be reviewed and approved, which takes several days. I got an email saying one of the documents I submitted wasn’t acceptable. I also got an email saying that because I would turn 70 this month, I needed to take an online written test to renew my driver’s license, which doesn’t expire until next year.
Even if I were to get approved, I’d have to go in person to the DMV, everyone’s favorite place, to get in line for several hours to get the Real ID in person.
Up in the Air
I am on a trip to the east coast during this transition. I left before Real ID was required, and I am scheduled to return on May 10, after Real ID has gone into effect. But I don’t have a Real ID. I also forgot to bring a passport. I may receive “additional screening,” trying to get back home.
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. This includes TSA PreCheck passengers.
It’s hard to tell if non-compliance brings a slap on the hand or whether they will block a person from boarding a flight. I asked my wife to send my passport to a hotel by the end of the week to avoid my “non-compliance.”
On this trip, not having a Real ID was only one of my problems.
On Sunday, I went to the Miami airport at 8 am for a flight to Newark that would connect me to another flight to Louisville. When I got to the gate, I learned that my 10:15 am flight was delayed until noon, and I got the following text from United Airlines:
Flight UA2107 from Miami to New York/Newark is delayed due to FAA staffing shortages at air traffic control, which temporarily limits the number of flights to safely manage the airspace around the airport.
A gate agent told me I should avoid Newark. The airport there was messed up, he said — air traffic controllers were out on a strike and two runways were closed. I decided to cancel that United flight and book a flight that would avoid Newark. I didn’t know the whole story behind all the cancellations on Sunday at Newark Airport until later or I would have been even more worried about the safety of airplanes flying there:
My new flight was scheduled to leave at 2:45 pm, but it didn’t leave the gate until after 5 pm because of thunderstorms. I had to fly to Baltimore via Islip Airport on Long Island, something that was not clear to me when I bought the ticket. I ended up in Baltimore after 11 pm and stayed overnight in a hotel near the airport.
In the morning, I got to the BWI airport to continue my journey. I was sitting at the gate, waiting to board. Across from me sat a black woman dressed in colorful, flowing robes. I looked up to see what I thought was a police officer approach her and ask for her passport. She reached into a bag and calmly handed it to him.
He gave it a quick look and said: “You’ll have to go with this man.” He pointed to where suddenly four other officers appeared. ICE agents. He handed the passport to one of them and they led her away. To where? I don’t know.
I was a guilty bystander and felt ashamed that I couldn’t do anything about what just happened.
Does Real ID make the US feel safer? Personally, I’d rather see the FAA hire more air traffic controllers and fix their outdated technology instead of DHS collecting data on its citizens and having more teams of ICE agents roaming airports.
Maybe Americans don’t care that a valued privilege was revoked or that everyone is being asked to establish proof of citizenship. They should realize that Real ID is a really bad IDea and ask why we need it.
Do you have a Real ID? Do you plan to get one? Please respond in the comments.
Thank you, Dale, for another informative article. Your first person story really brings home the impact of the RealID for travel.
I’m flying today - 7 May - and have not planned for extra time at the TSA pre-check, but have three forms of identification beyond my drivers license that qualify as RealIDs. Of course the real story here is how, surely, sooner rather than later state election officials are going to start requiring RealIDs to vote, etc. Ultimately, beyond the privacy issue the ACLU rightly brings up, this is another way for the GOP to keep “those other people” (read eligible voters they don’t want voting) from the rightfully exercising their right to vote.
Safe travels home and please keep sharing these stories with us! 🙏
Dale, I appreciate this personal account as you navigated between an emerging police state in DHS and ICE, and a disintegrating infrastructure in the FAA. Not to mention extreme weather events.
I was particularly struck by that last incident when a fellow passenger was ushered off to who knows where. I don’t want to be caught flat footed someday if I am that bystander or perhaps that passenger. Can you write something about what our options are in those moments? I want to be prepared, as I bet many of us do.