Real ID, the Travel Joke that Now Spans a Generation, Is Delayed Yet Again

After the security disasters of September 11, 2001, the deadline for Americans to use Real I.D. has been pushed back yet again.

The deadline for Americans to use safer identification at airports and federal buildings has been pushed back by the Department of Homeland Security.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that progress over the past two years has been significantly hindered by state driver's licensing agencies having to work through the back ups created by the swine flu.

The Real ID deadline is one of the most reliable jokes in travel. December 31, 2009; May 11, 2011; January 15, 2013; October 1, 2021; and September 30, 2021.

Babies who were born before Real I.D. will be able to travel with their own babies by the time it's implemented. In the time it has taken, we will have gotten a new Star Wars trilogy, two new Avatar movies, and two new Indiana Jones movies.

Real ID was created to standardize the types of proof needed to get a state-issued identification card. The original goal was to make sure that everyone boarding commercial airlines carried a piece of identification that verified their citizenship status and two forms of proof of address, so that the federal airport security system could have access to those data points.

It would be difficult to make it happen. A failure to make compliance free or affordable to the poor added to the classism of the situation.

Many of the states that dragged their feet at fulfilling the tighter identification requirements are the same ones that have agitated for new voting If you want to know that the United States has become a place where scandal-intoxicated lawmakers say one thing but do the opposite, then you need to read the preceding paragraph.

The last time you renewed your ID, the new documentation may have been a part of the process.

If your driver license or state identification card has a gold star on it, you can use Real ID to verify it.

We can't pretend it won't matter if it doesn't have a star. Two years from now, we'll see you back here.