State has until 2018 before Illinoisans would be barred from planes.

Illinois is having trouble complying with a controversial federal law on state identification cards, more than a decade after the law passed.

If the state doesn’t comply or get an extension by 2018, Illinois residents would be unable to board airplanes in the U.S., among other restrictions.

The federal REAL ID Act of 2005 required state governments to adopt certain standards for driver’s licenses and other state-issued identification. Aimed at preventing the use of counterfeit state IDs in terrorist plots, the law requires certain information to be displayed on licenses, proof of identity before a license is issued, proof of citizenship or legal status for immigrants and retention of documents for 10 years and more.

The first phases of the law’s implementation have already taken effect, restricting access to federal facilities and nuclear power plants to only those with a compliant state ID. The final phase is due to take effect in January 2018, preventing anyone without a compliant ID from boarding a commercial airplane for travel within the U.S.

So far, only 23 states have reached full compliance. The federal Department of Homeland Security granted another 23 states an extension until either June or October of 2016 to comply with the law. In December 2015, Illinois was denied a new extension to comply after a previous extension expired. Four other states have also been denied a new extension.

The REAL ID Act was controversial from the start, with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and several other members of Congress opposing the bill – now law – saying it steamrolled states into “rigid and unrealistic mandates.” The law repealed an earlier law which called for negotiated solutions with state input. Durbin and three other senators wrote a public letter in April 2005, shortly before the REAL ID bill passed the Senate, calling for it to be scrapped.

“The REAL ID Act provisions would be so difficult for states to implement, the bill would undermine an initiative that can make the nation safer from terrorism,” the group wrote.

Illinois has implemented about 84 percent of the federal requirements since then, Durbin says, but the remaining requirements would cost the state $57 million over the next four years.

“These significant costs pose a unique challenge as the state works toward implementing the law without the necessary financial resources,” Durbin said, referring to Illinois’ budget crisis.

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White predicted as much in August 2005, when he issued a press release saying the thennew federal law would cause logistical headaches and require funding that Illinois didn’t have.

“This is a costly mandate that the federal government has placed on the states,” White said, calling for federal reimbursement that never came.

White announced last month that the federal government would not prevent Illinois license-holders from boarding planes this year, a possibility that had loomed large after the state’s extension was denied at the end of last year.

Durbin is lobbying the Department of Homeland Security to grant Illinois a new extension.

If several states fail to comply with the law before the final deadline, it’s possible that the Department of Homeland Security could become more flexible on enforcing it. That happened with the federal No Child Left Behind education law, which many states and school districts had trouble implementing. Illinois and many other states received waivers from aspects of NCLB before it was replaced late last year.

Rebecca Shi, executive director of the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition, says Illinois’ law allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses isn’t affected by the compliance issue. Shi says the licenses, known as “temporary visitor driver’s licenses,” are only considered to be permits and can’t be used to board a plane or enter a federal building. The REAL ID Act requires such temporary licenses be a different color than other licenses and to state clearly that the cards are not for official purposes.

Contact Patrick Yeagle at [email protected].