Are Passport Cards the Beginning of a National ID?

U.S. Department of State ^ | 15 May 2010 | Self

[CodeToad]

The US State Department now issues a Passport Card as well as the Passport Book, which every one is familiar.

Here are some interesting comments about it from the U.S. Department of State web site:

"We began production of the U.S. Passport Card on July 14, 2008. As of March 2010, more than 2,700,000 Passport Cards have been issued to U.S. citizens."

"The passport card is the wallet-size travel document that can only be used to re-enter the United States at land border-crossings and sea ports-of-entry from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. The card provides a less expensive, smaller, and convenient alternative to the passport book for those who travel frequently to these destinations by land or by sea. "

"Yes, the passport card has a vicinity-read radio frequency identification (RFID) chip."

"There is no personal information written on the electronic chip itself. The chip contains a unique number which identifies a stored record within secure government databases. "

U.S. Department of State: Passport Card web page.

Passport Card:

Passport Book:

Seems the Passport Card is used for land travel only, not air travel, and only for primarily Canada and Mexico. For air travel the usual Passport Book is required.

[oneolcop]

You can do that and maybe should, but that won't really do anything. The ports of entry have the capability to check by the bar code, magnetic strip, name, DOB, etc. When I go through the border from Canada, they take my passport and swipe it through a reader. It picks up the required info from the bar code and/or RFID chip. Doesn't matter which. They then use that information to begin the "examination" that tells the CBP officer whether you need further examination. Secondary, baggage declaration, trunk inspection, full nine yards. The RFID is only one of the ways they have to find out who you are.

BTW, you do not have the protection of the 4th Amendment at a US port of Entry. They can search without warrant and hold you for as long as it takes to find out who you are and what you might have in your possession, including, under certain circumstances, a full body search.

[discostu]

“Clearly” is a matter of perspective. I could make an ID that says it came from the federal government, but was just a hunk of paper I made up and laminated. 2 years isn’t a long time, especially for an ID that only a small percentage of people have. Hundreds of people might fly Jet Blue daily, but probably most of them present driver’s licenses as their ID, and anybody using passports would probably use full passports since the passcard is specifically no good for going through airport customs. Under 3 million passcards that have been issued, it’s not a common ID, Americans historically aren’t into passports, back before we needed them to come back from Mexico only about 10% of Americans had them.

[kabumpo]

An airlines should be up todate about this, they’re not a jitney service. THe person I was traveling with is a peformer who has been all over the U.S using this — only Jet Blue has given him a problem.

[discostu]

Every random employee of a 3.2 billion dollar company is not going to be up to date. Just not gonna happen. We don’t know how long the guy had been doing their job, if they’d had a complete set of training. People are still people, they make mistakes, the operate with incomplete sets of information, they forget things. That’s life.

[kabumpo]

Never happened at any other airlines, only Jet Blue, who were horrible to him and we almost missed the plane.
Are you an employee of JB? It’sbeginning to sound that way.

[discostu]

I’m just a realist, I understand that people are imperfect. Jet Blue is a discount airline, just like any other discounter those low prices come with a non-dollar price.

[kabumpo]

Not an excuse for not being up to date with Federal law re homeland security and processing passengers.

[discostu]

If you want to deal only with the brightest and the best you’ve got to pay for it. Your friend used an ID that’s owned by less than 1% of the populace that’s only been in existence for 2 years, and the guy at the discount airline had never seen it before. It’s really not that complicated. If you want the shlub getting paid half what the guy across the hall to know everything his better paid counterpart knows you’re barking up the wrong fiscal system, out here in capitalism if he was that good he’d BE the better paid counterpart.

[kabumpo]

There’s no discount on national/homeland security.

[discostu]

There is at Jet Blue. Cheap fair come with a price.

[kabumpo]

Just last night Jet Blue isued a boarding pass for a person whose last name is Paris to a person BORN in Paris — both passengers were assigned the same seat —

they can’t be allowed to function this way, and i don’t want to hear anymore apologies/excuses from you. Homeland security is not negotiable.

[discostu]

I’m not making apologies or excuses, I’m pointing out basic reality. You get discount service at a discount place, if you don’t like it don’t patronize it. Capitalism lets you vote with your dollars. I’ve never flown Jet Blue and I never will, I don’t like idea of my life being dependent on discount employees.