TSA set to enforce controversial Real ID program next May with two-year transition period

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are set to begin enforcing their controversial Real ID program next year, albeit with a two-year transition period.

Unveiled only on September 12, the proposed rule would require all U.S. residents to obtain a Real ID card by May 2025 or risk being denied entry to domestic flights and some federal facilities. Multiple organizations are speaking out about TSA’s rush to implement the program, which they claim is a severe breach of states’ rights, individual liberty, and privacy.

The Real ID program dates back to Congress passing the Real ID Act in 2005. The law and subsequent regulations have aimed to create a centralized ID to replace traditional state-issued forms of ID, such as a driver’s license, purportedly to increase national security. Opportunities for public comment on the enforcement of Real ID ended on Tuesday, October 15.

A TSA spokesperson told LifeSiteNews that it “fully intends to begin REAL ID enforcement on May 7, 2025.”

“The proposed rule maintains the May 7, 2025, deadline while providing necessary flexibility for agencies to begin enforcement in a way that takes into account security, operational risk, and public impact,” the spokesperson wrote. “Consistent with the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, TSA would consider using a phased approach that would progressively enforce the provisions of the REAL ID Act and regulation.”

While the new regulation does indicate that there will be a two-year transition period, during which the Real ID law will not be strictly enforced, it also states that the May deadline to obtain a Real ID will not be extended and will go into effect.

“TSA and DHS plan to make citizens suffer until they submit. REAL ID is more than just a government ID; it’s an unconstitutional usurpation of individual and states’ rights that gives the Secretary of Homeland Security unilateral authority to decide what it must be used for, far beyond access to commercial airlines,” Twila Brase, co-founder and president of Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF), said in a press release...

In an email to LifeSiteNews, Dr. Jane Orient, a spokeswoman for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), questioned why Real IDs are necessary and what is behind the TSA’s rush to force citizens to acquire them, pondering whether this is a guise to track U.S. citizens.

“Why do we not have the freedom to travel that we used to take for granted? Why does the government need to track us in our everyday lives? If people don’t need a regular ID to vote, why do I need a special one to get on an airplane?” Orient wrote.

The spokeswoman also questioned why the government seems to be more concerned with citizen IDs than it is with illegal immigrants’ IDs.

“It is especially concerning when unvetted migrants need no ID to be sent on airplanes all over the country, even when we know there are convicted criminals and likely terrorists among them. Shouldn’t all entrants be ID’d and tracked? Why should ordinary citizens be treated as a greater threat?” she wrote.

Orient added that anything done under significant time pressure should concern people.

Even the radically liberal American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) opposes implementing the Real ID Act, citing concerns about citizen privacy.

“While [the Real ID Act] is ostensibly aimed at improving driver’s license security, its actual effect is to turn those same licenses into national ID cards by stipulating that state driver’s licenses and state ID cards will not be accepted for ‘federal purposes,’” a statement on the ACLU’s site says.

“If fully implemented, the law would facilitate the tracking of data on individuals and bring government into the very center of every citizen’s life. By definitively turning driver’s licenses into a form of national identity documents, Real ID would have a tremendously destructive impact on privacy,” the statement added.