CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS PHOTO BY JADE AUBREY
Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias exits the Home chambers within the Illinois Capitol.
With a deadline approaching for U.S. residents to acquire Actual IDs, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias is urging Illinois residents to “Get Actual.”
Real ID is a federally-standardized identification card that requires stricter proof of id to acquire than the common state driver’s licenses or ID playing cards. All Drivers Companies services in Illinois are issuing Actual IDs, aside from cell items and categorical services.
Final Could, Giannoulias’ workplace launched the “Get Actual Illinois” marketing campaign to boost consciousness in regards to the necessities and deadline of the Actual ID implementation. Throughout a information convention Feb. 18, he continued to induce Illinoisans to acquire the brand new ID quickly, as a federal deadline approaches.
On Could 7, state-issued driver’s licenses will not be accepted as a legitimate type of identification for home flights or at sure federal services similar to navy bases or federal courthouses. Though U.S. residents will want a Actual ID to go to these services, they won’t want a Actual ID to fly domestically if they’ve a legitimate passport.
A Actual ID is signified by a gold star on the higher proper nook of the ID card.
“We all know for certain that as Could 7 approaches, demand for Actual ID drivers’ licenses and state IDs will inevitably improve,” Giannoulias stated. “What we don’t need are loopy, unmanageable strains at our services and main points for people and their households at our airports.”
He stated the information convention aimed to “clear up confusion” over the technicalities of the Actual ID.
“For the reason that new administration has taken over in D.C., we’ve seen an inflow of people who find themselves confused about what actual ID means and suppose they want it as a type of identification,” Giannoulias stated. “And our level that we’re attempting to hammer residence in the present day is that that’s not the case. You do not want a Actual ID to drive a automobile.”
Different qualms in regards to the new identification have arisen, together with points round gender id and the chance of the Could 7 deadline holding agency. Though Giannoulias didn’t instantly handle the primary subject, he stated a number of occasions that Illinoisans ought to use their very own discretion to resolve if the Actual ID is correct for them.
“I don’t need to discourage anybody from getting a Actual ID, however the truth is that not everybody wants a Actual ID on Could 7, and in some circumstances, won’t ever want one,” Giannoulias stated.
Nevertheless, he did handle rising skepticism that the deadline received’t maintain agency.
“I do know lots of you’re asking yourselves, after years of blown deadlines, delays and extensions, why ought to we belief the Division of Homeland Safety,” he stated. “The explanations for the delays have run the gamut, starting from partisan politics to an absence of coordination among the many federal authorities and numerous states.”
In direct response to the terrorist assaults of 9/11, Congress handed the REAL ID Act in 2005, which established “minimal safety requirements for state-issued driver’s licenses and identification playing cards.” The efficient date of the legislation has been prolonged a number of occasions, most lately to 2025 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Now I get requested regularly, is that this actual ID deadline for actual this time,” Giannoulias stated. “The one factor that’s completely different this time round is that TSA only recently revealed a ‘remaining rule,’ rejecting the choice for an additional extension and requiring the regulation to lastly take impact.”.
TSA’s final rule, which they revealed on Jan. 13, 2025, acknowledged the company will start imposing the legislation on Could 7, taking what they name a “phased enforcement strategy” to implement enforcement till Could 2027.
The Secretary of State’s web site has an interactive checklist the place Illinoisans can discover out what paperwork they should acquire a Actual ID. The required paperwork embrace proof of id, proof of full Social Safety quantity, and two paperwork offering proof of present handle.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan information service that distributes state authorities protection to a whole lot of reports retailers statewide. It’s funded primarily by the Illinois Press Basis and the Robert R. McCormick Basis.
