Apr 30 2025

Oklahoma resolution would reaffirm right to opt out of REAL-ID

SR 18, introduced yesterday in the Oklahoma Legislature by state Sen. Kendal Sacchieri (R-Blanchard) would re-affirm the right of Oklahoma residents to choose to have driver’s licenses and state IDs that don’t comply with the Federal REAL-ID Act — and not to have data about those noncompliant licenses shared with Federal agencies without a warrant.

“Sixty percent of Oklahomans have declined to participate in the federal REAL ID system,”  Sen. Sacchieri noted in introducing SR 18. “Senate Resolution 18 is about protecting Oklahomans’ privacy and preserving their freedom to choose. We affirm our citizens’ right to opt out of the federal REAL ID system, and we must also ensure their personal information remains secure. This resolution calls for a real, uncoerced choice — without unnecessary exposure of private data.”

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Apr 22 2025

REAL-ID FAQ: What will happen at US airports on May 7, 2025?

[Summary of TSA procedures for airline passengers with no ID or unacceptable ID, from DHS Office of Inspector General report OIG-2024-65, September 2024]

The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has announced that it will begin “implementation of its REAL ID enforcement measures at TSA checkpoints nationwide” on May 7, 2025.

What does this mean if you want to fly but don’t have any of the types of ID that the TSA deems compliant with the REAL-ID Act (including a US or foreign passport, a US passport card, a Canadian provincial driver’s license, or a US driver’s license or state ID with a REAL-ID gold star in the upper right corner or that is marked as an “Enhanced Drivers License”)?

The key thing to know is that — unless the TSA makes undisclosed changes to its procedures — air travelers with “noncompliant” ID on or after May 7, 2025, should be treated, and should be allowed to fly, the same way people with no ID fly today.

We can’t predict with certainty what the TSA will do on May 7th, because:

  1. The TSA has been violating the law for years with its ID procedures at airports, including through illegal demands for ID, illegal demands for information, and illegal use of an unapproved ID verification form.
  2. No laws or regulations prescribe the TSA’s checkpoint procedures, including ID checks. The law says only that airline passengers must “submit” to “screening”, without defining either of those terms. Courts have defined “screening” as “search”, with not indication that this includes questioning about, or evidence of, identity.
  3. The TSA has claimed that its internal “Standard Operating Procedures” (SOPs) for ID checks, before or after May 7, 2025, aren’t binding on the TSA, create no legal rights for airline passengers, and can be secretly changed at any time.
  4. The SOPs purport to grant discretion to TSA staff at each airport to decide who to allow, and who not to allow, to exercise their right to airline travel by common carrier, for any or no reason, regardless of what if any ID travelers show.
  5. The TSA has purported to grant itself the authority to change even its published “rules” at any time, without notice, merely by posting new non-rules on its website. It hasn’t done so yet, nor has it published any of the other notices in the Federal Register that would be required by the Privacy Act and the Paperwork Reduction Act to establish a “graduated enforcement” scheme. The New York Times reported on April 9th that “a T.S.A. spokesperson said on Friday that the agency had decided that the phased approach was not necessary and that full enforcement would begin on May 7”, but that decision could be reversed at any time, before or after May 7th.
  6. The Trump 2.0 Administration in general and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in particular have been changing and sometimes reversing their directives in many other areas, without warning and with little or no basis in law or overall policy, and could do the same with directives to the TSA.

With these uncertainties in mind, what can we say about what will be required and will happen at airports on May 7th?

Does the law require you to have ID to fly?

No.

The TSA itself has stated repeatedly in court, under oath, in litigation in which The Identity Project and individuals we support have been involved, that no Federal law or regulation requires airline passengers to have, carry, or show any ID.

See e.g. State of New Mexico v. Phillip Mocek, in which a TSA witness testified that, “It [flying without ID] happens all the time. We have a procedure for that”, and Gilmore v. Gonzales, in which the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found, based on the TSA’s own submissions to the court, that, “Gilmore had a meaningful choice. He could have presented identification, submitted to a search, or left the airport. That he chose the latter does not detract from the fact that he could have boarded the airplane had he chosen one of the other two options.”

People fly without ID every day, openly and legally.

Years-delayed responses by the TSA  to our Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests show that, as of 2016, almost 2,000 people a day were allowed through TSA checkpoints at airports nationwide with no ID or with ID that was deemed “unacceptable”. TSA incident logs released in response to our FOIA requests show that 98% of travelers who showed up at airports with no ID or with “unacceptable” ID were allowed to fly after undergoing additional questioning and/or more intrusive searches and groping (“screening”).

Will the REAL-ID Act require you to have ID to fly on or after May 7, 2025?

No.

The REAL-ID Act governs which IDs can be accepted by Federal agencies such as the TSA in circumstances where ID is required. It doesn’t create any new requirements to have, carry, or show any ID in circumstances — such as airline travel — where ID is not required by some other law.

According to the latest TSA statement on April 11, 2025:

Passengers who present a state-issued identification that is not REAL ID compliant and who do not have another acceptable alternative (e.g., passport) can expect to face delays, additional screening and the possibility of not being permitted into the security checkpoint…. TSA … will continue with additional screening measures for those without a REAL ID until it is no longer considered a security vulnerability.

This doesn’t say that individuals without REAL-ID, or without any ID, will be prevented from flying. All it says is that these individuals will be subjected to “additional screening” (which of course may occasion delay) and the “possibility” of not being permitted into the checkpoint (i.e. if they don’t agree to submit to additional searches).

What will happen if you show up at the airport on or after May 7, 2025, with “noncompliant” state-issued ID?

So far as we can tell, airline passengers who show up at TSA checkpoints on or after May 7, 2025,  with noncompliant ID or no ID will be treated the same way  travelers with “unacceptable” ID (expired IDs, student IDs, IDs issued by private employers, etc.) or no ID at all (lost or stolen or forgotten or just don’t have ID) are treated now.

What is the TSA’s standard procedure for people with no ID or “unacceptable” ID?

We don’t have up-to-date, unredacted versions of the TSA’s instructions to checkpoint staff at airports. But based on previously-released versions of the TSA’s Standard Operating Procedures(SOPs)  for Travel Document and ID Checks and for the TSA’s ID Verification Call Center (IVCC), TSA testimony and pleading in court cases, TSA ID verification logs and incident reports released in response to our FOIA requests, reports we’ve received from travelers without ID, the most recent 2024 report from the DHS Office of Inspector General on procedures for airline passengers without ID or with unacceptable ID, TSA testimony to Congress in 2024, and our own experiences, here’s what happens when a ticketed airline passenger shows up at a TSA checkpoint with no ID or “unacceptable” ID:

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Apr 18 2025

No, the REAL-ID Act won’t stop “illegal aliens” from flying

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have planted a story with Fox News falsely claiming that enforcement of the REAL-ID Act of 2005 at airports will prevent “illegal aliens” from boarding domestic airline flights within the US:

In a memo exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital, the [DHS] said part of the reason REAL ID will be enforced is to prevent those in the country illegally from flying – unless they are looking to self-deport on an international flight.

“Under Biden, illegal aliens used non-compliant IDs from sanctuary cities to board flights, but REAL ID’s higher security standards make it nearly impossible to forge legitimate documents, ensuring only verified travelers can fly,” the memo states….

“DHS and TSA are clear… illegal aliens will be barred from domestic flights, with one exception: illegal aliens self-deporting on international flights will be allowed to board without a REAL ID, encouraging their exit from the U.S.,” it states.

These DHS and TSA claims amplified by Fox News are false, in at least four respects:

First, as we reminded Maine state legislators at a hearing in Augusta earlier this week, the REAL-ID Act does not impose an ID requirement for air travel or authorize the TSA to prevent anyone from flying or traveling by any other common carrier on the basis of whether they have ID or “compliant” ID — regardless of their citizenship or immigration status. The TSA has said only that as of May 7th, 2025, as has been the case for years, airline passengers with no ID or ID the TSA deems “unacceptable” will be subject to delay for “additional screening” (more intrusive searches). If the TSA were to start refusing passage to airline ticket holders without ID, it would be acting illegally.

Second, city-issued IDs such as those discussed in the DHS memo are treated by the TSA as “unacceptable” ID. You can fly with a city ID, just like you can fly with no ID, after going through additional screening. Nothing in the REAL-ID Act will change that.

Third, the non-US citizens delayed and subjected to more intrusive searches because they don’t have ID documents compliant with the REAL-ID Act will consist disproportionately of asylum seekers lawfully entitled to remain in the US, not “illegal aliens”.  Any passport issued by any foreign government is considered compliant with the REAL-ID Act. Most foreigners in the US, regardless of their immigration status, have foreign passports. The exceptions are stateless people, people who have been denied passports by their countries of citizenship (strong evidence in support of an asylum claim), and people whose passports have been stolen or confiscated in the course of travel to the US. All of these foreigners without foreign passports are more likely to be (lawful) asylum seekers than are other categories of non-US citizens present in the US with foreign passports.

Fourth, because foreigners in the US are far more likely to have passports than are US citizens, most of the  burden of delay, extra searches of luggage, and extra groping of airline passengers without REAL-ID compliant documents will fall on US citizens without passports (which are not required for US citizens, especially within the US) or other documents the TSA deems “compliant” — not on any class of “aliens”.

The REAL-ID Act has nothing to do with aliens, legal or illegal. It’s primarily a measure to track and control US citizens traveling and going about our lives in our own country.

The TSA has tried to opt itself out of notice requirements for its ID rules. But we’re continuing to watch for clues to the TSA’s plan, if it has one. We’ll post an updated FAQ closer to the TSA’s current self-imposed deadline on what to expect at airports on May 7th.

Apr 15 2025

Withdrawal from REAL-ID gets a hearing in Maine

A bipartisan proposal to withdraw the state of Maine from compliance with the Federal REAL-ID Act of 2005 had its first hearing today (archived video) before the Joint Standing Committee on Transportation of the Maine State Legislature.

The REAL-ID withdrawal bill, LD 160, was presented to the Transportation Committee by state Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) and state Sen. Nicole Grohowski (D-Ellsworth), two of the six co-sponsors.

Public testimony in support of LD 160 was given by:

There was no public testimony against LD 160. The only opposition to the bill was voiced by Maine’s Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows.

Secretary of State Bellows struggled to explain her current support for REAL-ID compliance, in light of her history of opposition to the REAL-ID Act and Maine state compliance in her former positions as Executive Director of the ACLU of Maine and Maine State Senator.

Today, Secretary of State Bellows claimed, falsely — even after Mr. Kebede of the ACLU quoted the provisions of the REAL-ID Act requiring sharing with all other states of the contents of the state’s driver’s license database — that all of this information remains in the state of Maine. Secretary of State Bellows also claimed, also falsely, that the Federal government could not access the national REAL-ID database, SPEXS.

In fact, the SPEXS database is held by AAMVA, not by any Federal or state government agency. The Federal government could obtain access to SPEXS with a search warrant, subpoena, or national security letter directed to AAMVA, the same way it could obtain similar records from any private custodian. That order to AAMVA could include a “gag order” prohibiting AAMVA from disclosing the existence of the order or the release of SPEXS records to Maine, other states, or affected individuals. For all we, Secretary of State Bellows, or anyone in Maine knows, this may already have happened.

Members of the Transportation Committee seemed surprised — understandably — to learn from our testimony and that of other sponsors and supporters of LD 160 that the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles already uploaded personally identifying information extracted from all Maine driver’s license records to the SPEXS national ID database in December 2024.

Later in the same hearing, the Transportation Committee heard testimony from some of the same witnesses with respect to LD 1360, a well-meaning but inevitably flawed alternate legislative proposal to require the BMV to maintain the option of a “noncompliant” driver’s license or state ID. The  problem with this is that those who get a noncompliant license or ID will think they have opted out of the national ID system, but their information will end up in the same SPEXS national ID database.

Secretary of State Bellows first tried to say that there was no such database, then that it only contained information concerning REAL-ID compliant licenses and IDs, but finally conceded that Maine actually has only one driver’s license and ID database that includes both compliant and noncompliant credentials. Pointers extracted from all records in this state database, including both compliant and noncompliant licenses and IDs, have been and are continuing to be uploaded to SPEXS. And those pointer records, as we pointed out, contain sensitive personal information vulnerable to abuse.

Here’s our 3-minute statement in support of LD 160 (full written submission):

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Apr 11 2025

DOGE, DHS, and data matching

“Data matching” may seem abstract, but its consequences can be life-changing: visa revocation, deportation, sudden cessation of Social Security payments, all without warning or opportunity to present argument or evidence to a human fact-finder.

One of the hallmarks of the new U.S. Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is large-scale algorithmic analysis and comparison of existing databases of personally-identified information. In many cases, algorithms, AI, and data matching are being substituted for human judgement as the basis for decisions about individuals. Similar projects are being carried out by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

These activities appear likely to violate the Privacy Act (including its rarely-enforced criminal provisions) and/or the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act.

DOGE’s programmers are working to aggregate and correlate databases that have been compiled by different agencies or commercial third parties such as social media platforms, identified in different ways, and ingested in different formats.

Data matching  is central to the methods of DOGE and the Trump 2.0 Administration. One of  President Trump’s Executive Orders to heads of all Federal agencies directs that:

Agency Heads shall take all necessary steps, to the maximum extent consistent with law, to ensure Federal officials designated by the President… have full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, data, software systems, and information technology systems… This includes authorizing and facilitating both the intra- and inter-agency sharing and consolidation of unclassified agency records.

How is this working out, and what does this say about ID-linked records?

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