This story has been updated.

Certain immigrants in Connecticut have been prevented from obtaining a driver’s license that meets federal security standards, known as REAL ID. That could make it more difficult for them to fly domestically once new federal regulations go into place on Wednesday.

According to the state Department of Motor Vehicles, only U.S. citizens and permanent residents can get a REAL ID.

That leaves out a number of immigrants living in Connecticut, including refugees, asylum seekers, people here on humanitarian parole, people applying for refugee or asylum, and recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, immigration lawyers say.

“Connecticut is more stringent than federal laws are currently,” Dana Bucin, an immigration attorney, said at a round table at the Capitol last week. Under federal regulations, she said, these groups are eligible for a REAL ID.

Bucin told the Connecticut Mirror that she and several other immigration attorneys from the state’s chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association have been in conversations with the Department of Motor Vehicles for the last two years to get the state’s policy to reflect federal rules. 

West Haven resident Sonia Castelan said her boyfriend, a DACA recipient, was informed he wasn’t eligible for REAL ID when he visited the DMV last month.

Her boyfriend, who asked not to be identified out of concerns about his employment, said he presented the necessary documents DMV requires as proof of his legal status — all without any luck. “It was really discouraging, because I was at least just expecting some sort of clarification,” he said. 

Castelan added, “The DACA community — they continue to encounter these real world burdens and continue to face discrimination.” She said it’s “kind of like a stab in the back.”

Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Tony Guerrera said in a statement Tuesday that the DMV was working on a way to allow refugees and people who have been granted asylum to obtain a REAL ID.

“We recognize the convenience that a REAL ID offers, and we are working diligently to enhance our systems to accommodate this option for asylees and refugees. The goal is to have this option available in the near future,” the statement read.

Guerrera said people traveling domestically can still be approved to fly using documents other than a REAL ID, including an employment authorization card or a foreign passport from their country of origin.

But Bucin said refugees and asylum seekers without a REAL ID run the risk of difficult or unpleasant encounters in airports.

And some immigrants still have trouble getting regular driver’s licenses in Connecticut, said Jon Bauer, director of the Asylum and Human Rights Clinic at the University of Connecticut School of Law. Bauer said the response at DMV locations has been “inconsistent.”

“To the DMV’s credit, when particular cases are brought to their attention, they have worked to correct them. But I think with clearer guidance and better training,  some of these problems could be avoided in the first place,” he said.

Bauer said there are alternatives to presenting a REAL ID when boarding a plane, but they come with their own challenges. A valid foreign passport is an acceptable form of documentation, he said, but asylum seekers and refugees who had to flee their countries of origin might not have one. 

“Many people who fled from persecution can’t get their passports renewed, or don’t want to deal with the government of a country that persecuted them,” he said. 

A work authorization card issued by the Department of Homeland Security should also be acceptable, he said, but those cards can sometimes take months to arrive. 

Bauer said immigrants with Temporary Protected Status, or people applying for TPS or applying for asylum, are also eligible for a REAL ID under federal law. But those statuses have an expiration date, meaning that the DMV would have to issue licenses that were only valid for a short period. He said this could present “logistical difficulties.” 

Guerrera said in a statement that the agency knew a short-term license could make additional people qualified for a REAL ID. He called it “an important focus area for the agency.”

Attorney Chris Llinas, who is the Department of Motor Vehicles committee chair for CT AILA, told CT Mirror that the DMV implemented some changes early last year. He said the agency agreed to accept an employment authorization document as a primary document for people trying to get a REAL ID. 

Both he and Bauer said the DMV had expressed its intention to make refugees and asylees eligible for a REAL ID, but that, as of now, this has yet to happen.  

“ The progress has sometimes been frustratingly slow, and I’m hopeful that very, very soon they will implement the change to make the full REAL ID licenses available, not just to people with green cards, but also to people with asylum or refugee status,” said Bauer.

Llinas said he didn’t believe that the DMV was purposely trying to keep people from getting REAL IDs — he said the agency was always helpful when he came to them with individual cases. He attributed the delays to the agency’s size and bureaucratic nature and the difficulty of trying to understand immigration law. 

“Immigration law does not lend itself to simplicity,” Llinas said, adding that it could be tough for a DMV clerk to make sense of the regulations. 

The requirement to have a REAL ID for any domestic flight will go into effect May 7.

Castelan’s boyfriend said he had visited the DMV in anticipation of that deadline, since he sometimes has to travel for work. He said he now expects to encounter a more inconvenient, time-consuming process without the REAL ID — one that might involve additional screening at the airport. 

“I am expected to be traveling a little bit more now, and that would really help me, because it’s one less thing I’d have to present to [the] TSA,” he said.  

Correction:

An earlier version of this story misspelled Jon Bauer’s name.