Became a US citizen recently. You lose your green card on the day of the ceremony. If you don’t drive you suddenly find yourself with no ID for a few weeks.
> Of course green card holders have a separate id card that they legally must carry with them at all times
It is utterly beyond me to guess how such a system can possibly make any sort of meaningful difference to law enforcement. Or even how it can be enforced in any meaningful way.
It's pretty much not enforced. And a replacement card is $500+ and months of wait, so I don't blame anyone for not carry it.
My friend just carried a copy of the card - not sufficient to meet the requirements of the law, but probably enough to satisfy any initial inquiries until you can get your physical card.
500 dollars? That's highway robbery! Minimum wage is about $8, so some poor guys have to fork out well over a weeks wages for a piece of plastic. U sure it's 500 and not 50?
IMMIGRANT (thinking fast): uhh, er, pure blooded, Sir!
OFFICER: on your way then, young lad! I can't ask for your id because you don't need one. Have a nice day.
Not likely they can catch someone out unless they literally have his picture in hand. In which case, he obviously has bigger problems then not having his id card on him...
About 8 years ago my wife and I were driving to Vegas from Houston. Its basically 2 roads, I-10 from Houston to Phoenix and then some shitty state highway between Phoenix and Vegas.
Along I-10, we were stopped 5 different times at immigration checkpoints and asked a single word question "American?" and sent on our way. Our final stop was on the bypass bridge next to the Hoover Dam, same single word question, except this time, they required our IDs and asked for passports.
My wife and I are US Citizens, and at the time had no passports. Mine had expired around the year 2000, and she had never had one. Trying to explain that to some asshole hassling us felt impossible. After 15 minutes of us pulled to the side, they brought our licenses back to us and sent us on our way.
I wonder how many illegals the first 4 checkpoints managed to nab. I'm not sure how it's possible to manage there things without bothering some innocents.
Of course green card holders have a separate id card that they legally must carry with them at all times, so they don’t need a passport card.