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.”

  • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    15·
    8 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.