The real story of REAL-ID is that more people than ever are flying in the US without REAL-ID, with ID the TSA considers “unacceptable”, or with no ID at all.

In a show of massive passive resistance to baseless threats by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to prevent people without REAL-ID from traveling by air, more than 200,000 flyers without REAL-ID passed through TSA checkpoints and boarded scheduled airline flights in the US last Friday, setting a new record for people flying with no ID or with ID the TSA deems “unacceptable” because it isn’t considered compliant with the REAL-ID Act of 2005.

Despite twenty years of false claims that airline passengers without REAL-ID would be  turned away at TSA checkpoints after the REAL-ID deadline, we’ve been unable to confirm any report of a traveler blocked by the TSA for lack of REAL-ID in the three weeks since the TSA claimed that it would start enforcing the REAL-ID Act at airports.

The continued flow of millions of air travelers without REAL-ID through TSA checkpoints since the TSA’s self-imposed enforcement deadline confirms what we’ve said all along: no law requires airline passengers on domestic flights in the US to have or show any ID, and the REAL-ID Act hasn’t changed that. You can still fly without ID, and you shouldn’t be worried that you won’t be able to fly without REAL-ID.

The TSA says that since the REAL-ID enforcement deadline on May 7, 2025, 93% of travelers arriving at TSA checkpoints have shown REAL-IDs. That leaves 7% who have not. Last Friday, the busiest air travel day of the Memorial Day weekend at the start of the summer vacation season, the TSA screened more than three million air travelers. That means more than 200,000 flyers passed through TSA checkpoints without REAL-ID on Friday.

Despite the record number of travelers passing through TSA checkpoints over the holiday weekend, there were few if any delays, and none attributable to REAL-ID noncompliance. Travelers without REAL-ID reported little or no additional questioning, search, or delay.

So far as we can tell, none of the TSA’s procedures for travelers without ID or with “unacceptable” ID, including calls to the TSA’s ID Verification Call Center or demands for travelers to fill out and sign the illegal TSA Form 415 (“Certification of Identity”), have been applied to  those with “noncompliant” driver’s licenses or state IDs.

The bottom line, at least for now, is that TSA hasn’t tried to enforce a nonexistent requirement for ID to fly. We’re pleased that so many travelers have seen through the TSA’s lies and ignored its false threats.

These threats continue, and many people continue to struggle to obtain the compliant ID they’ve been told they will “need” to fly or for other purposes. See for example, this poignant story of the travails  of elders in Alaska who need to fly to get to medical care. Women who’ve changed their name through marriage or divorce, and trans or non-binary people who’ve changed the gender marker on some or all of their documents, are also among those having particular trouble assembling the documentation needed for REAL-ID. Congress still needs to repeal the REAL-ID Act. That’s most likely if the public continues to resist or simply to ignore both the REAL-ID Act and the TSA’s empty threats.

We’ll continue to monitor the situation. We welcome your firsthand reports. Have you flown since May 7th without REAL-ID, or with no ID? How did it go?