Rerouted Ambitions: The Repercussions of the Real ID Act

The upcoming enforcement of the Real ID Act will severely limit the transportation, education, and socioeconomic mobility of undocumented college students. I examine how the Real ID Act operates to further exacerbate already existing geographies of deportability and opportunity gaps for those in border towns, with a forced reroute through fixed internal immigration checkpoints. In addition to an incorporation of existing literature, I conduct two in-depth interviews with college students who are impacted by their inability to obtain a Real ID. These interviews illustrate how fixed internal immigration checkpoints create an entrapment of undocumented people that shape their educational opportunities. These findings give insight into how the Real ID Act entrenches undocumented people into an existing cycle of limited mobility, and ultimately restrict their belonging in this country.