1w ago

DHS says REAL ID, which DHS certifies, is too unreliable to confirm U.S. citizenship

reason.com DHS says REAL ID, which DHS certifies, is too unreliable to confirm U.S. citizenship

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."

Not The Onion @lemmy.world

DHS Says DHS-Certified Real IDs Too Unreliable to Confirm U.S. Citizenship

reason.com /2025/12/31/dhs-says-real-id-which-dhs-certifies-is-too-unreliable-to-confirm-u-s-citizenship/

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Hacker News @lemmy.bestiver.se

DHS Says DHS-Certified Real IDs Too Unreliable to Confirm U.S. Citizenship

reason.com /2025/12/31/dhs-says-real-id-which-dhs-certifies-is-too-unreliable-to-confirm-u-s-citizenship/

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68 comments

"just one more flaming hoop, we promise!"
- At least as long as there’s flaming hoops, they’re still expecting people to be able to jump.
  
  It doesn't work like that.
  We're not supposed to be able to jump through the flaming hoops.
  They're too far apart, too narrow, they keep moving, and we're forced to wear a blindfold.
  We're supposed to get burnt.
  Meanwhile, “the right kind of people” don't have to jump through the hoops, and laugh while watching us burn, without realising that the definition of “right kind of people” keeps getting more and more narrow, and that soon it might be them getting broiled on the hoops.

Still don't have my REAL ID, I have my passport. Zero reason to get one until I'm forced to in 2028 when I renew.
Personally at this point I think passports should be free for every US Citizen to get, or at least the card one.
- Yeah pretty sure the real point they're saying this now is so that ICE can black bag people with a real ID not carrying their passport. Only a matter of time until that can't be verified too.
  
  Oh for sure, no doubt about that. Just like the post office date marking on mail being changed. It's all bullshit the Trump administration is trying to get away with.
  
  Verified in the ditch across the road.
- I didn't think anyone is forced to get real id. Are they? I though it was always optional.
  
  There was a pretty active intimidation campaign in NY for a few years. No RealID? You can't travel, can't cross the border (Canada) can't fly etc etc.
  
  At least in Massachusetts, they've been pushing back making it mandatory since it rolled out. Every time it gets close to the deadline for when it's supposed to go into effect, they push it back another couple of years.

Fascists will always contrive some arbitrary rationalization to do whatever the fuck they want to do with you. They have no allegiance to truth, logic or consistency.

So, what can be used to confirm citizenship, DHS?
inb4 "nothing"
- Melanin levels mostly
- I think this is the only one the likes of Stephen Miller want to accept.
  Doesn't matter if your family has been here for generations...
- Skin color. Sexual orientation. Gender. Mental health. Loyalty to an orange pedophile. Those are the only real way to know your citizenship status.
  
  Let's not forget political affiliation for tie breakers!
- A proven record of donations to Trump.

So is a passport.
Birth certificate? Straight to jail

Why did I go through this bullshit? Enough will never be enough in the bipartisan police state.
- You went through the bullshit to give the federal government a photograph for their facial recognition database associated with high quality identifying information.
  
  A national ID card for surveillance purposes was ALWAYS the objective.

To be fair, REAL ID was never meant to give citizenship. Its purpose is identity and lawful presence. I have friends here on visas. They're obviously not citizens, but also they're here legally and have REAL IDs.
For this same reason, people trying to say proof of citizenship to vote is no big deal because everyone has a REAL ID is full of shit in multiple ways.
- proof of citizenship or lawful presence. Which is supposed to be indicated on the card. Which is supposed to be validated by DHS.
  One of the ways REAL ID doesn't matter for voting is that putting a ballot in a box is only the very first step in counting a vote, and there are multiple checks whether it's valid and from person that is allowed to vote afterwards. After several centuries of practice paper voting is pretty thoroughly stress tested. Even if most people have no idea how.
  
  Where does it show citizenship? I think the part you quoted may mean "proof of citizenship or [other means of] lawful presence"

Then why did I just spend $85 to get this ID just to get on a fucking plane?
- Because not having an ID is a crime. Having the ID just isn't proof you didn't commit a crime.
  It's a Heads-I-Win, Tails-You-Lose situation

This admin just lives to make asses of themselves trying to have everything both ways.
- The rules and laws never mattered. You just can't ignore it any longer.

I'm sure none of these assholes had to stand in line at the DMV with a stack of papers to get their REAL ID. Eat a bag of dicks. And of course this is coming from Alabama, can we just get rid of the fucking south already? I'm so done, they can have their BIble land or whatever, just leave the rest of us in peace.

There have already been cases where ICE has disregarded Passports. They really don't care what if you're a citizen, so they don't really care if you have proof of citizenship.
- They don't give a shit if you have proper ID or not, they JUST wanna punish brown people for not being white.

Anything to hurt immigrants under trump.

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."
That's not how the government sold Real ID to us when they created it. The whole point of Real ID was to provide an alternate way to confirm your citizenship and/or identity without requiring you to carrying your passport on you all the time.

"This brown person has REAL ID, it must not work"

Are we sure Philip Lavoie is a citizen? Sounds French, let's deport him to El Salvador.

I have been unable to get a real id because when I was 8 my parents changed my name. Then when I lived in Maryland there refused to issue an ID using my now legal name. When I moved back to my home state of New Mexico my id used my birth name as it was on my Maryland id. Now I have half my stuff using my birth name, half using my legal name, cannot get a real id.
This year I plan to change my legal name back to my birth name... or maybe something totally different.

That comment section went off the fucking rails.

These people are a joke.
- Gotta be something worse to call them; jokes are usually funny. These people ain't funny. Like clowns. 🤡

Sphincter print ID'S coming in 2026

Eat a bag of ducks and run the ID. Yes its not tied to citizenship. But legal status.

... That reminds me I should probably get my car tabs renewed

So ridiculous since that was the whole fucking point.

Why am I not surprised that the government is inept.
- Does it really count as ineptitude when they're doing it on purpose?
  
  It is completely possible to be evil and inept at the same exact time.

WTF?!?! The Real ID and US Passports do not mean shit in the USA. Fakes! Every single one of them

Edit: sorry got Real ID mixed up with ID.me
This is bullshit, and clearly they don't care if you have documentation or not, they jsut want to harass brown people.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/reason/
https://www.allsides.com/news-source/reason-media-bias
- Tl;dr: slight right bias, but generally factual reporting.
  
  Except that mediabiasfactcheck is wont to be bullshit, underestimating right-leaning and using bullshit reasons to downgrade reliability of many sources to equivocate about the unreliability of conservative propaganda sources.
  It's possible that this is a fair assessment, but I certainly wouldn't take MBFC's word for it.

68 comments