I’d show my Real ID drivers license.
I love the sigh heaved by the officer as he heads toward the driver’s side of the car at the beginning of the stop, realizing the massive load of bullshit he’s going to be faced with.
“You are breaking the treaty!” 
Do you have reasonable suspicion that I am not, officer?
Me too. Doesn’t prove citizenship but does prove lawful presence.
I could give my SSN which I’m sure they can look up.
I’ve got one of those too and have had for a decade-plus.
I hadn’t really considered that it proves lawful presence. Perhaps it did at the time it was issued. Does it still a year or 3 later? Said another way, are only citizens and permanent residents able to get one?
From DHS itself with emphasis added.
Visit your state’s driver’s licensing agency website to find out exactly what documentation is required to obtain a REAL ID. At a minimum, you must provide documentation showing: 1) Full Legal Name; 2) Date of Birth; 3) Social Security Number; 4) Two Proofs of Address of Principal Residence; and 5) Lawful Status.
States may impose additional requirements, so check with your state’s driver’s licensing agency website, before visiting them in person, for additional guidance and assistance.
Yes.
Q: How does REAL ID implementation impact states that provide driver’s licenses and IDs to certain non-citizens/undocumented immigrants?
REAL ID allows compliant states to issue driver’s licenses and identification cards where the identity of the applicant cannot be assured or for whom lawful presence is not determined. In fact, some states currently issue noncompliant cards to undocumented individuals. Noncompliant cards must clearly state on their face (and in the machine readable zone) that they are not acceptable for REAL ID purposes and must use a unique design or color to differentiate them from compliant cards. DHS cautions against assuming that possession of a noncompliant card indicates the holder is an undocumented individual, given that individuals may obtain noncompliant cards for many reasons unrelated to lawful presence. Possession of a noncompliant card does not indicate that the holder is an undocumented individual, given that individuals may obtain noncompliant cards for many reasons unrelated to lawful presence.
So if you are in a state that offers licenses to non-citizens and non-permanent residents, you can still get a state-issued ID that is not REAL ID compliant. But not a REAL ID.
Neither @Saint_Cad’s nor @Atamasama’s cites answer my question. They both talk near that question in different ways but do not answer it.
I don’t know all the ins and outs of lawful permanent and temporary immigration. ISTM there are immigration statuses which are documented, lawful, and temporary.
@Saint_Cad 's cite suggests that one could get a Real ID while in one of those temporary status(es). But what happens when that temporary status expires but your Real ID has not? Assuming I understand correctly the Real ID only proves you had lawful status on the day it was issued. For a citizen (born or naturalized) that’s good enough since citizenship can’t be revoked.
What about everybody else, both permanent non-citizen residents and temporary non-citizen residents? Those folks have lawful status, at least right now. But later; who knows?
@Atasama’s cite is talking about people who can’t, or won’t, provide proof of identity or proof of lawful status. It’s clear they can’t get a Real ID, but per the law can be issued an “unreal ID” to coin a term.
I’m interested in the excluded middle.
The first can, the second can’t. My cite answered your question. Those people who have no proof of citizenship or permanent residency can’t get a REAL ID. That proof is a requirement. A permanent non-citizen resident with proof can get a REAL ID.
Thank you.
Mine as well. Lawful residence is not temporary.
Well, it can be. Someone can be in the U.S. on an H1B or student visa (for instance). Completely lawful residency but also quite temporary.
Also, asylum seekers can be here for years, while waiting for a hearing on the legitimacy of their claim.
Looking all over the DHS website and it seems that they are not “residents”, they are “visitors”. so I still stand by my cite implying lawful residence is permanent.
It a reason to have a valid US passport.
It’s really getting to be a “papers, please” sort of society, isn’t it?
Not that I think you meant it that way, but it does bring to mind how its apparently always been that sort of society if you don’t pass for historically current values for “white” in American society. Which of course, has altered over time.
I see that from a comparative place of safety, as I recall literally decades of driving north from home in Las Cruces NM to parts north several times a year, passing through the most cursory visual check at an inspection station on I-25 and waved through.
Something I’m sure was NOT easy if you didn’t visually comply with expectations.
You speak a valuable truth.
But even for the privileged classes it’s becoming that sort of society. A leveling of the playing field, as it were. Well, if it’s going to be like that for anyone it should be the same for everyone.
Do we have to repost the video of why you never talk to cops?
Even better than my previous response.
“I invoke my 5th Amendment right not to answer. Am I free to go?”
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Humph, I’m a workingclass/poor person. I don’t/can’t travel anywhere I would need a passport. Well, maybe Canada, but seriously, I really can’t afford or have the ability freedom to do that now. I will not go through the hassle, and expense of a passport. If they want I can show them my shiny new Medicare card. Other wise. They can go F themselves.
I grew up 10 miles from the Canadian border so I used to travel there fairly often. Back in those days, though, US citizens didn’t need a passport to cross that border, or vice versa for the Canadians. Didn’t have to drive, could just walk across through a border point. Just another example of how we’re all required to carry more ID than in the past.
Another example is SS#'s. I didn’t get one until I got my first paying job in my late teens because you didn’t have to until that point. Now they’re issued at birth and your parents can’t claim you as a dependent on taxes unless you have one they can list.
It’s a slow creep, but it’s there.
Maybe. As a practical matter police don’t do that. Or at least not very much, and they’re probably exceeding their authority if ever they do.
My hypothetical example was simply meant to highlight the oddity between
- SovCit claims to be e.g. Moorish and has (BS) papers to ‘prove’ it.
- Ordinary citizen claims to be an ordinary citizen and has [crickets].
I do have a US passport. What I don’t have routinely is a passport on my person. TIL that my Real ID drivers license serves as a de facto proof of citizenship or at least lawful permanent US residency.