Travelers are no longer required to take off their shoes for security screenings at U.S. airports, ending an additional security measure that the public loved to hate.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Tuesday that the nationwide rule change is effective immediately.
“I think most Americans will be very excited to see that they get to keep their shoes on, and it will be a much more streamlined process going forward,” she told reporters at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The rule change puts an end to a security screening mandate that the Transportation Security Administration put in place almost 20 years ago, in 2006, several years after “shoe bomber” Richard Reid’s failed attempt to take down a flight from Paris to Miami in late 2001.
Noem said the security screening process will remain safe due to new technology and a “layered” approach to security. She said the new policy was drafted as part of President Donald Trump’s request that all agency heads reconsider existing rules.
Still, some travelers may still be asked to remove their shoes if they are flagged for additional security screening, Noem said.
Travelers have been able to skirt the no-shoe rule by participating in the TSA PreCheck program, which costs around $80 for five years. Travelers are also exempted from the rule if they are younger than 12 years old or older than 75.
The policy change was welcomed by some tourists visiting Navy Pier on Tuesday.
Mexico resident Marcela Caceres told the Sun-Times she despises taking off her shoes at U.S. airports. She carries a pair of socks in her bag in order to avoid walking barefoot during the screening and potentially contracting a fungal infection.
“It’s disgusting,” Caceres, 54, said.
She had traveled to Chicago by way of O’Hare to celebrate the birthday of her daughter, Cecilia Jaurec.
“It’s pretty awesome,” Jaurec, 25, said of the rule change.
Airport security in Mexico is a breeze, Juarec said, because travelers are not required to remove their shoes there.
“We are not used to taking off shoes,” she said. “It’s gross.”
The rule change is surprising, given that there is still an ongoing threat of international terrorism, says Joseph Schwieterman, director of DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development.
He said airport security screening technology has improved since the rule was implemented in the years after the Sept.11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Full-body scans and other bomb-detecting measures are an enhancement from the X-ray and metal detector technology of that era, he said.
“Technology has lifted the burden by allowing a frustrating rule to be lifted,” Schwieterman says.
The rule change may lessen the value of the TSA PreCheck program for some travelers. Noem said that people will still want to use TSA PreCheck because travelers don’t need to remove their belts, coats or remove liquids from bags.
The TSA was created in 2001 when President George W. Bush signed legislation two months after 9/11. The agency included federal airport screeners that replaced the private companies airlines had used to handle security.
Contributing: Associated Press