If you are out of status or undocumented, you can not.
The REAL ID Act went into effect on May 7th, 2023 and it states that federal agencies may not accept state-issued driver’s licenses or identification cards unless they are REAL ID compliant or are issued by a state that the DHS has determined to be in full compliance. The states of Washington, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, and Vermont are already issuing enhanced driver’s licenses that are DHS-compliant.
A REAL ID has a star in the upper right-hand corner of the card and it requires proof of U.S. citizenship or lawful immigration status to obtain. Immigrants that are eligible to obtain a REAL ID are lawful permanent residents, lawful temporary residents, conditional residents, asylees, refugees or asylum applicants, TPS applicants or holders, deferred action status holders, adjustment of status applicants, and nonimmigrants.
A traveler that does not present a REAL ID or DHS-compliant identification or driver’s license will not be able to board domestic flights. Alternative forms of identification are:
- U.S. passport
- U.S. passport card
- DHS trusted traveler cards (Global Entry, NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST)
- U.S. Department of Defense ID, including IDs issued to dependents
- Permanent resident card
- Border crossing card
- State-issued Enhanced Driver’s License
- An acceptable photo ID issued by a federally recognized Tribal Nation/Indian Tribe
- HSPD-12 PIV card
- Foreign government-issued passport
- Canadian provincial driver’s license or Indian and Northern Affairs Canada card
- Transportation worker identification credential
- USCIS Employment Authorization Card (I-766)
- U.S. Merchant Mariner Credential
- Veteran Health Identification Card (VHIC)
What this means is that people that are out of status or are undocumented and have state-issued IDs that are not DHS-compliant will no longer be able to fly on domestic flights. The National Immigration Law Center, an advocacy group that focuses on low-income immigrants, advises that people that can not present the required identification refrain from domestic travel at this time even though DHS claims that it will not make any assumption about the immigration status of any traveler that presents non-compliant state-issued ID.