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.

  • mech@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    183
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    18 hours ago

    YSK a card in your wallet won’t help you much when an ICE agent points a gun at your head and tells you your passport looks fake, without even looking at it.

    • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      43
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      17 hours ago

      If this form factor for ID isn’t well known enough for them to know about it, I doubt they received training on its existence.

      Which means having this card will make them assume it’s fake by default. “That’s not what a US passport looks like!” Thereby increasing their deluded suspicions, rather than reducing them.

      • Hawke@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        5 hours ago

        The problem is not lack of training. This isn’t a “whoopsie-poopsie”. They’re doing it on purpose and if someone looks brown enough they get kidnapped. With luck they get released later.

      • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        5 hours ago

        They already did this to people with Real ID drivers licenses, which have the same requirements to acquire as a passport.

    • dhork@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      16 hours ago

      The main advantage is that it’s a redundant form of citizenship ID. ICE can always say it is fake and confiscate it, but then you have your passport book waiting at home for your lawyer to take to the detention center to get you out (once they find out where they took you).

        • dhork@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          12 hours ago

          Anyone who fails the “Peter Griffin in a Fez” test needs to get one. And double up on the card and book.

          Because it doesn’t matter where you were born, or what the facts are. ICE is targeting people who they believe don’t belong here, based on how they look and sound. Having the card on your person is no guarantee, but maybe it will work if they are in a good mood.

          It’s sad that this is what it has come to in America, of all places, but here we are.

        • HappyFrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          15
          ·
          17 hours ago

          Are you actively encouraging people to not seek protections against a fascist regime just because it wouldn’t be 100% effective?

          • bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            9 hours ago

            How in the world did you draw that conclusion? I’m merely pointing out that they’re discriminating on skin color alone, but that wasn’t an advocacy against a passport card.

              • ProletariatRevolution@piefed.social
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                18
                arrow-down
                3
                ·
                16 hours ago

                Yes, because we all know citizens don’t get shot in the face while driving and just existing. Identification would really help. We’re way past the compliance stage.

                • HappyFrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  arrow-down
                  13
                  ·
                  16 hours ago

                  Still doing the or nothing argument. ICE has actively deported us citizens. These people might have had a better chance of arguing at the moment if they’d had this identification. Are you also arguing against vaccines because they don’t make you bulletproof?

                  • ProletariatRevolution@piefed.social
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    13
                    ·
                    16 hours ago

                    Bigger argument is not having due process. Even if you have identification, they can still throw you in jail or deport you. Only thing that might help is having a close community and being armed.