Today, nearly 20 years after Congress passed legislation to bring a national plan called “Real ID”, is the deadline for travelers to showcase new domestic flight identity. However, nothing happened. Although about 20% of the traveling public remain non-compliant, because people don’t get the required documents (usually a revised form of driver’s license issued by states and regions), the Department of Homeland Security has only published one flyer that people really, in fact, should have the right ID next time.

The Trump administration may try to praise it with a smooth rollout - smooth, because it's not a rollout at all. Today’s deadline is largely artificial: Homeland security must be fully staged by the end of 2027, according to fine printing of regulations governing implementation of Real ID. So the government assured Americans by today’s deadline that they can still fly, and it focused on another priority: immigration enforcement, not safety regulations.

According to recommendations from the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 and the 9/11 Committee, the Actual ID requires the authorities to add passport-style features such as facial recognition technology and anti-explosion markings to add such facial recognition technology and anti-combination markings to state-issued driver's licenses to significantly enhance passenger screening for US flights. The plan was originally scheduled to take effect in 2008, but stated that it would either oppose it or not comply with the plan, and that time would continue. With today's deadline approaching, the Department of Homeland Security has pushed for compliance and warned of the additional burden of delays and airport security, but the government has provided little specific information about what happened - only to whether Elon Musk's efficiency brigade will add any adverse effects to any actual ID execution in the Transport Security Administration cuts.

Now some of the mystery is solved. After a harsh but vague admonition, the TSA is simply advising travelers who need a true ID driver’s license or another form of accepted identity, such as a passport, “for your next flight, or you may expect a delay.” So the delay may be tomorrow, but there are no delays today.

The rest of the secret is that the lack of law enforcement tells us what the government’s real interest is. The sinister voices during this deadline are a threat to those who may not have actual IDs due to their immigration status. (In about half of the states, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for a driver's license.) In fact, the government is trying to use the panic about real ID cards to match the president's $1,000 carrots for undocumented immigrants. It can be heard by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, not to bring people into a real ID card, but by saying: “Unless self-destruction, illegal foreigners should not be allowed to fly in the United States.”

Focusing on “illegal foreigners” and immigration enforcement rather than national security and counter-terrorism seems like a very unhelpful way to make Americans comply with their real ID cards. The design of the real ID merger license has attracted opposition from civil liberals on the left and right, including some conservatives who are worried about the big brother's state power. This concern about privacy and federal invasion has led many states to drag the pace of issuing actual IDs and planned documents.

Now, as the Trump administration shifts the focus of real IDs from counter-terrorism to immigration control, many Americans may at best be confused about whether they need a reinforced permit. In the worst case, they may feel that fear of federal overreach and police state measures are well guaranteed.

It is nearly impossible for the Trump administration to enforce the new requirements today: Don't worryHomeland Security seems to be saying, Americans passed. In this case, why should American citizens take any future deadlines seriously?

The problem is that if no rules are executed correctly, there are no rules. A serious effort to implement a real ID card will lead to a generational plan to make public travel in the United States safer from foreign enemies. The “Show Us Your Paper” Immigration Eagle in the Government just wasted this opportunity.