For fellow Americans living in cities where ICE is active, many people, especially those of Hispanic descent, are already carrying around passports on their persons at all times because they’re rightfully afraid of being forcibly disappeared or deported to some random South American country.
A passport card can be obtained for $30 from the Department of State. It is considered exactly equivalent to a passport within the US, but it’s the size of a credit card. It is a valid travel document for land and sea travel within North America and the Caribbean. It also counts as a Real ID. The card is good for ten years.
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/need-passport/card.html
Do not do this if you are transgender or have an X gender marker. They will cancel your passport and tell you to apply for a new one with your sex assigned at birth.
A REAL ID is also valid proof of citizenship. ICE clearly does not care.
REAL IDs are not proof of citizenship. They’re proof that you had legal status at the time of their issue.
You’re incorrect on that https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2026/01/05/real-id-travel-immigration-status/88032182007/
All this tells you is that ICE indeed does not care.
Alternate title:
Give the government $30 to stop violating your civil liberties
Lol, my mom had to pay like somewhere between ¥10,000 to ¥30,000 (Reminbi) in “fines” just so the PRC governenment even legally recognize my existence, because one child policy violation.
Give the government $30 to maybe stop violating your civil liberties
It won’t stop them. Immigration and customs already had a large amount of unchecked power prior to this administration, but under this administration there isn’t anything they care about. They’ve been murdering people in cold blood across multiple blue states for a while now.
Besides that, if people start panicking and trying this then the necessary venues that people have to go to for their first passport(you have to show up in person for your first passport) could become ICE targets or places they stalk. It’s not exactly uncommon knowledge that conservatives tend to not bother getting passports either.
I regret cheaping out and not getting one when I got my passport given that I’m ineligible for a passport now
Also per your last paragraph, trans people are unlikely to actually have it go through even if we misgender ourselves.
What a time to be alive.
Do not do this if you are transgender or have an X gender marker. They will cancel your passport and tell you to apply for a new one with your sex assigned at birth.
Uh . . . how? I’m a trans man, but my passport says male. I changed it years ago. I have an active passport. Is there anything in this process that would get me flagged as a trans person?
They have a database of trans people. If you were ever issued a passport with an F gender marker, they would know you changed it.
If you try to renew, you’ll get the passport back with two holes punched in it with a letter telling you to apply again with an F gender marker.
Edit: Some transgender people have been issued the passport anyway with the gender they were assigned at birth. This causes problems because your appearance would not match the gender stated on the passport and thus would subject you to additional scrutiny at checkpoints. That’s not even mentioning the countries where being transgender is just illegal, although I don’t imagine you have many plans to visit those places.
Fuckin’ gross.
So for every person who submits for a renewal or new passport, they are crosschecking records to try to catch “the trannies”.
Yeah, this is unfortunately why, immediately after the election, there was a surge of posts on Lemmy and elsewhere telling transgender people to rush a passport application or renewal while Biden was still in office. Basically within weeks of Trump assuming power, dealing with the federal government has been Hell on earth for transgender people.
You’re trolling right? No one should need to unlawfully identify themselves at the bequest of nazis.
What should be is not the same as what is.
What IS is that they don’t care about little pieces of paper in your wallet.
I got checked by ICE in Portland and they let me go when I gave them my passport card. Of course, it really does depend on whether you got an agent with an IQ of 90 or an IQ of 70. But it doesn’t hurt to have one.
Don’t comply
This is a difficult thing to respond to. I (Asian, US citizen) have actually been stopped by ICE because I live in Portland, Oregon. I gave them my passport card and they said, “okay, you can go”. I then cussed them out, saying “You blind motherfuckers, you aren’t even good at being racist; do I look Mexican to you?”
They told me to fuck off. And I did, after giving them the middle finger and calling them “fucking Blackshirts”. But this interaction accomplished what I wanted it to: it (1) caused aggravation, (2) shows them that they aren’t welcome and (3) that their presence is not appreciated. In hindsight, I should have stayed and argued to waste their time.
If I had just refused to do anything the whole time, the most likely outcome was that I would have been taken to the ICE facility in downtown Portland and accosted for a few hours, accomplishing nothing.
“You blind motherfuckers, you aren’t even good at being racist; do I look Mexican to you?”
Right… because it was only a problem because you’re Asian… the stop would have been fine if you were actually Mexican… gee thanks.
You must understand, that the goal of saying that was to cause aggravation. Had I been Mexican I would have chosen a different insult.
Should is a funny word
Still seems like a hassle to have to pull that out. They should design something that’s more outwardly noticeable like a piece of clothing or maybe just a simple armband they can wear over their clothes that signifies they’re jewis-I mean legal or whatever.
Apple has been trying to get states/governments to let them add their ID to Apple Wallet for years now. Only a handful of states have complied. I’m not sure if you can add a passport.
The most common misconception is that a cop will take your phone and have access to all your personal information plus they’re in your phone. That’s not how it’s intended to work (but absolutely can regardless of whether your state supports digital ID). The intended use is much like paying for goods, they hold up a reader, you open Wallet and select your ID, tap your phone to their reader, and they can see all the relevant information. And it’s encrypted and all that.
Of course, I’m talking about cops following procedure, not thugs working directly for Trump.
I would advise never using your phone. That just cant end well.
Your phone should never be involved in your interactions with cops. In fact you should literally shut it down to get it in its totally unencrypted state
I agree. I just mean, in theory, that’s the way it’s supposed to work.
If I had state ID on my phone and a cop asked for it with the reader, sure, I’ll do it. He wants the phone, I’m squeezing the side button five times to lock it so Face ID is disabled. That also prevents data access via the USB port until it’s unlocked. And oops, I forgot the passcode. Can’t prove I know it, I just use Face ID.
Ur better off just shutting it down. As long as it is still is AFU (after first unlock) theres all kinds of fuckery they can work with. It has to be ahard shutdown or reset
Or maybe a tattoo on their forehead!
Or just a stamp saying ‘this person is unwanted but haven’t found a reason to get rid of them yet’ so you can show to the next ice ‘agent’ you’ve already been harassed earlier.
ICE is not harassing my area, or even my state that I know of, so there’s a possibility I turn out to be a coward but no.
I’m not required to show documentation even to the actual cops in my state (just to identify myself, which i can do verbally), ICE has no legal power over me and I’m not going to pretend they do. If they shoot me, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it’s not the worst cause to die for.
(I’m also white, just for context)
Would be a useful tip in a world where ICE follows the law.
Just FYI - outside of the US bubble - an identity card is standard in most countries.
The most common identity document in the US is the state identification card (“State ID”), which also doubles as a driving license for those licensed to drive. Pretty much everyone has a State ID. While a State ID card is valid proof of identity, it isn’t proof of citizenship because the Department of Motor Vehicles will issue one to anyone, even those without legal immigration status. They did not previously ask about immigration status when you are applying for one (that changed fairly recently to comply with the “Real ID” standards for the newest generation of cards), and old cards are typically good for 10 years.
The passport card is uncommon because the State ID is sufficient for most purposes, didn’t (used to) require burdensome proof of citizenship to apply for, and could be easily obtained from any DMV office. And if you have a car, which is most Americans, you need a driving license which is a State ID anyway.
Well I didn’t know about that before, so thank you for the information :)
Your system sounds a bit complex when compared to the German one. For comparison here in Germany we basically have 3 important documents:
- The ID card that you get as a citizen. You can use it inside the country for basically all govermental buisness or to travel freely in the EU/Schengen area.
- The more powerful (and expensive) passport that you usually only needed when travelling abroad
- Drivers license - that you can also get when you’re not a citizen
So if you’re an immigrant/not a citizen you basically can’t have an ID card or passport and get a temporary residence card instead.
Your system does sound more straightforward.
Unfortunately various groups have historically opposed changes to make it simplier in the us ( some for dumb reasons some for valid reasons).
The main issue is almost all our documents are effectively voluntary…
Birth certificate is the one you’re most likely to have, managed by the state (people who don’t give birth in hospitals sometimes skip this, which makes everything harder in life)
The parents should also file for a federal social security card using the birth certificate, but again some people skip this and it makes their kids lives hard.
Most people who can drive will get a state issued drivers license at 16, the most recent standard has a label to identify if you are a citizen or not (proven by showing your birth certificate or social security card when getting the id)
All male citizens are required to register with the government at 18 for the draft, but I don’t recall getting any id from it - but mentioning it as the only time I think citizens are required to do something for the feds because they are citizens, the other mandatory federal item is paying taxes, but residents also pay taxes.
If you want to vote you register with the city / county, prove citizenship to them, and get issued a voter id, and about half the country doesn’t do this.
I don’t know the exact percent, but most Americans don’t have a passport. Traveling between States is cheaper than internationally, and within a half day or day long flight you can reach whatever vacation activity you’d want.
There are a bunch of less common id cards granted by state governments, such as weapon carry ids, hunting permits, a dedicated state id card, etc. But these aren’t standardized and not every state accepts other state ids fully (in particular the weapon permits are often not accepted). And a common issue comes up when voting laws require id because the politicians often will choose ids that their voters already have and hope enough opposition doesn’t get that form by the election to make the election easier (North Carolina Republican party lost a lawsuit recently because there were emails where they specifically asked which ids their voters were more likely to have then tried to make only those the accepted ids).
In practice the federal government uses the social security number as a federal id, but it’s a terrible bad idea that has caused many issues and we passed a law requiring government agencies stop doing it
I wish it was simplier, but most people don’t care and any discussion of changing it has people panic that their id won’t be valid for an upgrade, fearing they would have to spend a frustrating amount of time and money finding or replacing their original birth certificate in order to get a federal id or deal with a slow process (I’ve known people who had to wait in line multiple work days to get state ids issued, although that was rare, I only stood in line 2 hours).
Probably more information than you wanted, but it’s complex and I just kept going lol
Yeah you know the system’s fucked when even a German is calling it complicated.
It’s easy to explain when I phrase it like this:
- The passport card has the same function as the German national ID card, proving both nationality and identity. It can be used for land travel within North America just like how as a German you can drive to the Netherlands or Poland with only your national ID card and no passport.
- Driving licenses in the US also function as identity documents, but not proof of nationality. It is possible to obtain a non-driving license version that serves only as identification if you don’t drive.
- The passport book is the same across both countries. It is used for travelling abroad and it proves both nationality and identity.
Edit: In America, all three documents are technically optional. While you could choose to never apply for a State ID or passport book/card, or never renew your documents when they expire, and it wouldn’t technically be illegal, you would find it difficult to go through your daily life because you wouldn’t be able to do anything like get a job, open a bank account, buy train/plane tickets, get insurance, or register/drive a car without some form of ID.
If you have to prove you hand rights then no one has rights.
It is a valid travel document for land and sea travel within North America and the Caribbean.
The way you’ve phrased it sounds quite dystopian.
Why? That’s like saying an EU national ID card is a valid travel document within the Schengen area.
Having a need for a “valid travel document” to cover for your perceived ethnicity stinks of “papers, please” and I am alarmed that you cannot see that connection.
Uh, do you know what a “travel document” is? They’ve been required for international travel since the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. The “travel document” part of it has nothing to do with ethnicity.
You’re confusing two statements:
- A passport card is a travel document. Nothing wrong with this.
- A passport card can help you get out of situations with ICE if you appear Hispanic. This one is the one which is fucked up.
YSK if ICE thinks you’re too brown, they’ll just say yours is fake and deport you anyway. It’s already happened to US citizens.
Deadset. Which moron actually thinks mexican-looking peoples with actual passports are being approached on the streets and let go??
Source on this please!
Jesus
