Is the US border police correct when he says photo ID is no good?
score:20
If you ask on Law or Travel, you'll learn that US citizens cannot be denied entry into the US. As long as you can prove you're a US citizen, they have to let you in. This right is not explicit in the constitution, but courts have recognized it on several occasions as being inherent in the nature of citizenship.
The problem with a birth certificate is that it isn't foolproof evidence of US citizenship. For example, if you renounce your US citizenship, it doesn't invalidate your birth certificate. Indeed, the child of a foreign diplomat can have a US birth certificate without ever having been a US citizen. So yes, they may look you up in the databases as part of this process.
More to the point, there is the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which specifies certain documents required by US citizens to enter the country. This requirement is of course in conflict with the right of entry, and the way that conflict plays out is that the CBP inspector has to let you in with a lecture about getting a WHTI-compliant document in the future.
Upvote:-4
I am not sure if should dignify this rant with an answer, but I will.
The standard identification for crossing any international border is a passport issued by a recognized sovereign power. Your Mickey Mouse Club membership card does not fall into that category, therefore, the border guy has to do more work to verify that you are an American.
Technically you do not need any identification whatsoever. You can drive across the border buck naked on a big wheel and they have to let you in. The only problem is that they might have delay you to do the work necessary to verify that you are a citizen in that instance.
Upvote:7
Well, a US citizen cannot be refused entry to the US, but by law, you are supposed to have either a passport, passport card, enhanced licence or Trusted Traveller card (some other docs are valid too, but these are the ones I can say off the top of my head).
In essence, since WHTI was introduced, you're supposed to have a compliant document to cross the border (including those I mentioned above), but since again, you cannot be refused entry to the US, you were merely delayed and the officer told you to get a compliant document for the future.
So: BS? No!
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