Driver’s licenses issued in Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico and Washington will no longer be accepted at U.S. military bases as proof of identity because those states have failed to implement security measures mandated by a federal law enacted more than a decade ago, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
The Department of Defense announced this week that IDs authorized by those states, as well as American Samoa, remain non-compliant with the REAL ID Act of 2005, which ushered in new post-9/11 standards for issuing licenses to make it more difficult for terrorists to obtain identification cards with counterfeit records.
“All federal agencies including DoD must comply with the law regarding the use of REAL IDs for official purposes,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “For most DoD installations, an identification card or an installation pass is required to facilitate access. Hence, where an ID or an installation pass is used for physical access, DoD installations are prohibited from accepting driver’s licenses or state identification cards from states deemed non-REAL ID compliant.”
In order for a state to be considered REAL ID Act compliant, driver’s licenses issued within its borders must include specific security features designed to prevent tampering, counterfeiting or duplication, and also must present personalized data in a uniform, machine-readable format.
Neither Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, Washington nor American Samoa have put those measures in place, however, and IDs issued in those locations are no longer considered valid at military installations where government-issued identification is required.
Barring special circumstances and emergencies, individuals who want to access a Defense Department base but have a driver’s license from a non-compliant state now must show an alternate form of identification, such as a passport, the Pentagon said.
U.S. airports are expected to eventually require passengers to provide identification that is REAL ID Act-compliant as well, but the Department of Homeland Security said earlier this month that those rules won’t be enforced until 2018 at the earliest.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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