I’m sorry…what?
Drive to Canada. Stow away on the Vancouver-Manila flight, then on the Manila-Guam flight. Evade customs.
How much easier could it get?
Even easier; Climb up into the wheel well, which is a fully ventilated spot in which to fly.
There’s an international border there to cross first. With no passport, you might have difficulty driving across. You probably can find a way to walk across. (Yes I know the post wasn’t entirely serious.) I mean, I’ve had a passport my whole life, so I’d definitely recommend getting one in the meantime, anyway, as I like having the freedom and option of skedaddling if I need to, as long as the borders are open.
Americans still don’t need a passport to cross into Canada, though even as far back as the 1990s I was hassled for doing so. If you don’t have one, though, you might need a birth certificate, in which case I recommend strolling across nonchalantly in a seasonally appropriate moose costume.
More seriously, some research into how the Guamanian bureacracy is structured and some emails to adjacent officials would probably be more practical.
We needed our passports in the late 80s through Detroit/London from what I remember. Also in the mid-2000s on the way to Vancouver. Some states have an enhanced ID that allows border crossings. Otherwise you need a passport, passport card, or perhaps birth certificate (with DL). As far as I know.
ETA: looks like there is also something called a NEXUS card, but DL alone won’t do it.
Technically, there 's a difference between what you need to cross into Canada and what you need to return to the US.* Canada may let a US citizen in with a birth certificate and ID - but to return to the US you need a passport, passport card, enhanced license or one of a few other specified documents since 2009 or so. Birth certificate and ID are no longer enough - I’m sure eventually you’ll get in, if you’re a US citizen but it won’t be as easy as showing your ID and a birth certificate.
* I have never needed to show my passport when I’m on a cruise and disembark in a port ( Caribbean, Canada, Bermuda or Mexico) Not even on cruises that require a passport to return to the US. ( and therefore to board)
You might try contacting constituent services in Rep. Moylan’s office.
That is more or less exactly what the Canadian border guards told me in 1995 when I landed at the airport, which was the last time I tried to cross that border without a passport.
I spent my childhood in San Diego, where the practical border-crossing requirements in Tijuana were nothing going into Mexico, and verbal affirmation of citizenship going back to the US; I also went back and forth over the Canadian border with a parent who, technically, was an illegal alien in the US, so I had a much more cavalier attitude to border crossing than was really warranted.
My point is that I am not one of those thinking that an ID card somehow represents the Biblical number of the beast.
It’s not so much the concept of a national ID I have a problem with, it’s what this current US government intends to do with such a thing.
I second this, plus phoning the relevant office in Guam.
I object to a federal ID card. Being Jewish, this has nothing to with prophecies in the New Testament. The whole “Papers please?” thing really did not work out well for Jews Roma, LGBTQ+ people and a lot of others under the Nazis. It also did not work out well for most people in the Soviet Union. My fears are based on things that actually happened.
The whole question about a US national ID lies in the notion that why would you issue a Universal ID if not meant to be something that must be presented on the spot, on demand. Which is not something intrinsic to a Universal ID, but rather something a whole lot of people strongly suspect the authorities WOULD do with it.
On top of that is their usual efficiency in fixing/correcting/updating things. Myself been waiting 5 months for my Global Entry to be renewed and if it doesn’t get at least conditional approval by next month it’s back to not even having PreCheck until they get around to it (since if you have GE, PreCheck is bundled in).
Many other countries have national ID without descending into authoritarianism. I could expand on how I think that compares to events in the US absent national ID, but this being FQ I will refrain.
Almost on topic, I’ll further note that the US effectively sleepwalked (sleptwalked?) into de facto requiring national ID probably decades ago. And the absence of a true national ID (one that everyone gets and can count on having for when ID is demanded) does far more harm than actually having a national ID. cf the OP.
If you think “show me your papers” is bad, just consider how much worse “show me your papers” can be when you don’t actually have papers.
Went with Plan B-Calling the Guam Office of Vital Statistics directly. Called from 8 am to 12 noon Monday Guam Time, which is when they are supposedly available, constantly…and nobody picked up the phone. I couldn’t even leave a message because it just rang and rang and rang until, finally an automated message came up saying that nobody seems to be available to answer the call. I guess that is one way to say that nobody ever leaves a complaint, I guess.
Certified letter? And/or move on to your representative.
Alread sent a certified letter and the proper fees back in April. I’ll try calling again tomorrow after 8 am Guam Time, and then move on to my Representative.
I’m sorry. How maddening.