Residents of five states may be barred from boarding a commercial flight using a driver’s license beginning in 2018 because of their states’ refusal to comply with national proof-of-identity requirements.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed Wednesday that it rejected requests from Oklahoma, Kentucky, Maine, Pennsylvania and South Carolina for an extension to comply with the federal Real ID Act. The law, passed in 2005 in response to the 9/11 attacks, imposes tougher requirements for proof of legal U.S. residency in order for state driver’s licenses to be valid for federal purposes.
Three other states— Minnesota, Missouri and Washington — were previously notified that they are not in compliance with federal law.
Twenty-three other states and the District of Columbia are in compliance, while others are under review or have been granted limited extensions, DHS reported on its website .
The 9/11 hijackers obtained valid identification cards from various states, according to the FBI, and a commission that reported on the attacks recommended the federal government develop standards for issuing identification cards as a way to help prevent terrorism and fraud.
“Starting Jan. 30, 2017, federal agencies and nuclear power plants may not accept for official purposes driver’s licenses and state IDs from a noncompliant state/territory without an extension,” DHS spokesman Aaron Rodriguez said in a statement.
Beginning in January 2018, driver’s licenses from noncompliant states will not be accepted to board a commercial aircraft within the U.S., Rodriguez said.
Among the requirements that some states have failed to meet are documentation such as Social Security numbers, retaining copies or digital images of applications and source documents, and including approved security markings on driver’s licenses.
Opposition in many states, including Oklahoma, stems from a concern the federal government is overstepping its authority and gathering too much data from its citizens.
“They’re really pressing this because it will morph into a national ID, which none of us really want,” said Rep. Lewis Moore, a Republican from Arcadia who has opposed the state’s compliance with Real ID. “That’s why the majority of the states have been fighting back and resisting. We feel like we’re getting strong-armed.”
States have been granted multiple extensions since the law went into effect a decade ago.
Jim Harper, a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based CATO Institute, a libertarian leaning think-tank, said he doesn’t believe the federal government ultimately will follow through on its threat to prevent Americans from non-compliant state from boarding commercial flights.
“I think states should stay the course,” said Harper, who voiced concern about the amount of information that will be stored in the motor vehicle database, including digital copies of people’s birth certificates, social security cards and driving records. “If you compare the national security benefit to the identity fraud risk, Real ID is a loser.”
But when vendors are unable to make deliveries at military installations or citizens find out they are unable to board an airline because of a states’ refusal to comply with the law, people are going to be angry, said Sen. David Holt, an Oklahoma City Republican who worked on a compromise bill last year that passed the Senate but got held up in the House.
“The reality of these inconveniences may cause that murmur to become a roar,” Holt said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Funny how it is no trouble to not show proof if ID to vote for the very ones who now claim you can’t fly because you didn’t have sufficient proof of ID to get the proof of ID to vote. . .
If you travel to the interior, such as Guadalajara and Mexico City, you need a passport. Not so in Baja California
and Sonora.
Lets see, if you are a US citizen you need a passport to go out of the country to Mexico, and to come back in. But if you are Mexican, you can come into the US without any documentation, get an ITIN to be able to work and pay taxes (not a green card), your kids get an education (Supreme Court says so), you get free medical care, and many local voting registrars will give them a voter card. Isn’t America great? I’m not saying there aren’t good Mexican people, but we have laws and the laws are being ignored, especially by “sanctuary” cities. Its time America wakes up and puts a stop to this and many other BS policies. And, throw the bums out of Congress and put term limits into place.
I don’t think that you need a passport to get into Mexico. I’ve never been stopped by anyone while entering Mexico. You better have one, or something equivalent, if you want to get back into this country. They won’t stop anyone from coming in because they want your money. If you can’t get past the border coming back, I guess you’ll just have to hire a coyote.
DS you are right on. The proper ID for voting would make it hard to rig the vote. I do not see the reason for a national ID and frankly do not trust them to not be able to track the ID card. This government really wants a dictatorship so bad it is really a problem.
No ID to vote no problem, but you can’t fly without one, or buy booze or cigarettes or drive a car. Makes perfect sense to who?
Makes sense to politicians (especially Democrats) who regularly implement (through “busing in” for example) fraudulent voting as another in their array of getting and keeping power. Of course they don’t want voter ID cards … that’s all most Democratic politicians seem to care about – getting votes, buying your vote with programs to help a minority class …
I thought they could not ask for ID, as some people can not afford it,
Then if they need ID to fly, then they need ID to vote, I thing every voter should have a finger print on the ballot, this way they can scan all the votes and see who can and can not vote, then they should have the state police knocking on there door.
Al for president!
3 MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS LIVING IN CALIFORNIA WERE GIVEN DRIVERS LICENSE
BY GOV. BROWN..(DEMOCRAT).THATS NOW ALL THEY NEED YO VOTE IN NOV.!!!! NON CITIZENS BREAKING OUR IMMIGRATION LAW..BUT NOW ABLE TO VOTE…3 MILLION ILLEGAL VOTES COMING. CAN TOP REPUBLICAN OFFICIALS ARE MR. TRUMP DO SOMETHING “FAST” TO STOP THIS TRAVESTY FROM HAPPENING????????
no ID, no fly = no ID, no drive = no ID, no drink = no ID, no smoke = no ID, no fish = no ID, no hunt = next year Mr. gun toter no ID, no buy bullets = no ID, vote as often as you want!!! maybe we should dump all ID`s and do as we please. Down with the dumacrats VOTE FOR TRUMP!!! “several times”