America's Talking - Noem Grants Slight Reprieve for Real ID Compliance

Episode Date: May 11, 2025

(The Center Square) – Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday that travelers without Real ID-compliant cards will still be able to board flights – for now – even when the law takes effect on Wednesday. "What will happen tomorrow is folks will come through the line, and [they] will issue their ID and show it," Noem told lawmakers on Tuesday. "If it's not compliant, they may be diverted to a different line, have an extra step, but people will be allowed to fly." The requirement for REAL IDs comes from legislation passed by Congress in 2005 after the 9/11 attacks, and was intended to make IDs more difficult to fake. The REAL ID Act established minimum security standards for driver’s licenses and other forms of state-issued identification.Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxxFull story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_0e789f3f-1e67-414a-95cd-9dbe6d69a240.html Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome back to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I am your guest host, Therese Boudreau. And joining me today is Brett Rowland, an investigative reporter from the Center Square. Brett, how are you today? I'm good, Terrez. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, of course. Today we'll be talking about the new real ID law implementation. It's been in the works for a while.

And what Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Christy Noam, has said about that and the changes it will bring. So, Brett, you've been covering this story. Could you talk about that a bit more? Yeah, so this has been a pretty eventful week for Real ID. For years and years, the government has been trying to implement this law, but there's always been some reason to hold back. So it first passed in 2005, it was directly in response to the 9-11 terrorist attacks in 2001. one. And the goal was to make IDs safer and more secure. So there was a, but there's been a lot of problems as they've tried to implement this. So at first, a lot of states, they had to agree on what the process was going to look like, what the IDs were going to look like, and how they were going to make sure that they got the security information that they needed from each person who asked for a real ID.

Some states have done really well on this. Some states haven't done as well on this. So there's a real variety out there. And it's coming to a head this week because starting yesterday, we're recording this on Thursday, May 8th. Starting on Wednesday, Homeland Security started to enforce this for the first time. Now, Christy Noem did give an out to people who don't have the real ID, which is usually a star in the upper corner of your ID. And then, but so even those people who don't have that will be able to get on planes for now at the airport. we haven't heard of major backups, but those that don't have a real ID could be essentially held out for more additional screening.

So they'll be able to get on their flights. There may be some paperwork. There may be some hassles, but for right now, they're going to still be able to get on their flights. Even this time when they went to implement, there were states, including Maine and some others that said, hey, we're not ready. I think there were several. Some states, you know, they have about 30% of their residents have real ID compliant identification cards.

Some states it's 80. Nationally, Christy Noem said it was 81%. So hopefully not many people will see a difference. But this is one of those times where government really is affecting people's lives. Getting out an airport is already a hassle, as I'm sure you know. But there are a couple alternatives for folks that don't have a real ID yet. So there are, you can use a passport if you have one. I know not everybody has one, but you can get on with a passport.

And then there's also, I think you can bring a social security card, a U.S. a birth certificate, and some other documents that may help speed along the process. but this has been a long time in coming. It's not going to be perfect. It's been delayed so many times. COVID was another big delay for the implementation. So we're finally past that. Christine Nome has made it clear that she wants this to go into effect.

She's giving a slight reprieve to those who aren't quite ready, but she hasn't specifically said yet how long that's going to last. So that's one thing that will be watching and reporting on as we go forward. Dres, do you have your real ID yet? I do actually. So it's interesting. You were mentioning some of the states having trouble implementing this or having a great percentage of people who don't have it. I'm based in Michigan.

And so I don't even remember having to do anything special. I mean, maybe it's different for some people. But when I went to the DMV to renew my license when I was 21, I just automatically got a real ID with the gold star, a real ID. I had to show the normal birth certificate, social security, stuff like that. So for me, it was pretty easy. But I mean, do you, I know there are some people to where it's actually, it has directly affected them or members of their family.

Do you know of anybody who that's happened to where they're still struggling with that? We've heard some stories internally from colleagues at the Center Square. had one of our colleagues, his daughters at university in Florida, and she's driving back to her home state to get a real ID before she can fly back and forth to college. So it's definitely creating hassles for some. I don't have a real ID yet. I've been meaning to get one. I do have a passport that's up to date. So I think I'm covered. I also don't have any international travel plans. But my understanding is that you also need a real ID to board a domestic flight. flight. So there's certainly this is going on at airports. TSA is working to make sure that it goes

as smoothly as possible, but I still think that we'll see challenges for at least some people as this moves forward and as enforcement becomes more stringent. Well, thank you so much, Brett, for joining us and for giving us insight on this story. Listeners can keep up with these stories and more at thecentersquare.com.