It's the punch line to a bad joke that started 20 years ago when Congress passed the REAL ID Act.

Only the government could spend 20 years creating a national ID that no one wanted and that apparently doesn’t even work as a national ID.

But that’s what the federal government has accomplished with the REAL ID, which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) now considers unreliable, even though getting one requires providing proof of citizenship or lawful status in the country.

In a December 11 court filing, Philip Lavoie, the acting assistant special agent in charge of DHS’ Mobile, Alabama, office, stated that, “REAL ID can be unreliable to confirm U.S. citizenship.”

    • AbidanYre@lemmy.worldEnglish
      27·
      8 days ago

      Currently, a valid REAL ID does not reliably prove lawful presence in the US.

      Then it fails at the one thing it was supposed to do.

    • Ech@lemmy.ca
      26·
      8 days ago

      Roughly 17,000 CA CDLs with incorrect expirations were issued

      So “roughly” 0.094% of all cards issued as of spring 2025. That’s barely a rounding error.

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      15·
      7 days ago

      Literally every document can be faked. Passport? Fake. Birth certificate? Fake. The supposed point of REAL ID was to be a reliable document. You can fly with one, but if a Temu Nazi making a “targeted” random stop says it’s a worthless piece of plastic you lose an hour of your life. For living your life in your home country after doing everything the government asked. If the organization who certifies the IDs won’t accept them, why did we go through the effort of making a national ID system that verified lawful status?

      And if this was a case about California ID, maybe their fuck up would be relevant, but this is a filling for a case where a US citizen with an Alabama ID was detained.

    • Vandals_handle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      7 days ago

      The license California offers undocumented drivers is specifically not a Real ID and cannot be used in place of one or to acquire a Real ID. Incorrect expiration dates on these licenses have no effect on the reliability of a Real ID and is a separate issue.