February 15, 2020
“If you are not in with your paperwork by June first, I cannot guarantee,” you will get a REAL ID by the Oct. 1 federally mandated deadline, said Emma Corrie, director of the state's Driver and Vehicle Services division. If Minnesota state legislators were looking for reassurance that the state will be compliant with stricter drivers license requirements in time for an Oct. 1 federal deadline, they didn’t get it.
Instead, a joint House and Senate committee was told Friday there is little chance the state will be able to issue REAL ID licenses and identification cards to all who want them in time for the deadline.
“I don’t want to see the faces of crying children who can’t get on an airplane because mom and dad waited too long to get their REAL ID,” John Harrington, the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, told the Driver and Vehicle Systems Oversight Committee Friday.
The worst-case scenario is that any Minnesotans without REAL ID come October — or without a passport or a REAL ID-compliant Enhanced Drivers License — will be denied permission to board commercial flights in any U.S. airport.