During a Monday press conference for the White House's coronavirus task force, President Donald Trump announced that the Oct. 1 Real ID deadline has been pushed back indefinitely.
"At a time when we're asking Americans to maintain social distancing, we do not want to require people to go to their local DMV," the president said.
Originally, all Americans wanting to fly in the United States or to enter federal buildings would have been required to have a Real ID-compliant form of identification after Oct. 1, 2020.
Now, the president says that deadline has been pushed back due to the country's response to the coronavirus pandemic, but did not say when a new deadline would be set.
Illinois DMV's had operated with extended hours to help deal with the influx of people looking for the Real ID-compliant identification. Under the governor's recent "stay-at-home" order, Secretary of State facilities have been temporarily closed.
The Real ID Act is not a new law, having been passed by Congress in 2005, but after years of court battles and extensions, the Oct. 1 deadline had been set for all Americans wanting to travel or enter federal property to have the new identification, which is more secure and harder to counterfeit.
