Effective today, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) requires passports for all air travel between the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Today the New York Times reports on the problems the new rule has caused for would-be last-minute travellers from the U.S., especially business travellers, who find out they need to travel […]
British opposition leaders are demanding a recall of all RFID-enabled UK passports after the supposedly ultra-secure passports were cloned as part of an investigation by Guardian star reporter Steve Boggan.
The governments of both Canada and the US are threatening or testing measures to further close off the Canadian border as the escape route of last resort for those fleeing the US. Representatives of a coalition of more than 300 refugee rights, civil liberties, gender justice, and migrant advocacy groups came to Parliament Hill in […]
Late yesterday President Trump proclaimed a new ban on entry to the US or issuance of new US visas to citizens of twelve countries, and ordered drastic restrictions on entry or issuance of visas to citizens of seven others. The US has long sought to globalize its surveillance and control of travelers. In the past, […]
The real story of REAL-ID is that more people than ever are flying in the US without REAL-ID, with ID the TSA considers “unacceptable”, or with no ID at all. In a show of massive passive resistance to baseless threats by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to prevent people without REAL-ID from traveling by air, […]
What is the REAL-ID Act? The REAL-ID Act of 2005 is a Federal law that was hastily enacted by Congress, with almost no debate, during the period of panic after 9/11. States almost immediately realized that it would be expensive to implement and would violate individual rights. But Congress has been unwilling to admit its […]
The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has announced that it will begin “implementation of its REAL ID enforcement measures at TSA checkpoints nationwide” on May 7, 2025. What does this mean if you want to fly but don’t have any of the types of ID that the TSA deems compliant with the REAL-ID Act (including […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have planted a story with Fox News falsely claiming that enforcement of the REAL-ID Act of 2005 at airports will prevent “illegal aliens” from boarding domestic airline flights within the US: In a memo exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital, the [DHS] said part […]
A bipartisan proposal to withdraw the state of Maine from compliance with the Federal REAL-ID Act of 2005 had its first hearing today (archived video) before the Joint Standing Committee on Transportation of the Maine State Legislature. The REAL-ID withdrawal bill, LD 160, was presented to the Transportation Committee by state Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) […]
Effective January 8, 2025, the United Kingdom began requiring citizens of the USA and most other countries who previously could enter the UK without visas for short visits for tourism and some other purposes to obtain a so-called Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) as a new precondition for admission to the UK for those purposes. The […]