This week Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was questioned about why American citizens in Minnesota were being asked to provide proof of citizenship. Was the Department of Homeland Security recommending that they carry such identification?
She sidestepped the question, but NBC wanted to know when, if ever, Americans do have to show they are citizens.
We sat down with Ahilan Arulanantham, professor and co-director of UCLA School of Law’s Center for Immigration Law and Policy, to find out.
Legally, the only time U.S. citizens must show proof of citizenship is when they are entering the country or when they are applying for certain jobs for which it is a requirement, he said.
If a law enforcement officer approaches someone on the street and has no reason to believe that person has committed a crime, he or she has no obligation to show any identification, he said.
In the United States, most individuals do not have to carry identification, Arulanantham said. One exception, of course, is when you are driving, and then you need your driver’s license. Another applies to some undocumented immigrants whom the Trump administration has required to register with the government.
‘A strange moment’
But it is also true that immigration officers are entitled to detain someone briefly to determine whether they are in the United States lawfully, he said. The immigration officers are supposed to have a reasonable suspicion that the person is in the country in violation of immigration laws.
“But the Supreme Court, unfortunately, has allowed the government since the summertime to stop people based on essentially racial profiling,” he said.
In September, the Supreme Court ruled, in response to an emergency request from the Trump administration, that immigration officers could resume roving patrols targeting people of Latino origin, a decision criticized by civil liberties advocates. At the same time, court precedents restricting racial profiling remain on the books, which Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted in her dissenting opinion.
“And so we’re living in this strange moment where there seems to be a gap between what the legal rules are and what’s actually sort of operational on the ground,” Arulanantham said. “And in that world, obviously, if you’re somebody who could be profiled in that way, if you’re carrying proof of your citizenship, that could be helpful to you in preventing you from being illegally arrested.”
Some practical advice
If you are arrested, do not sign any documents even if you’re being coerced, he said. If you’re a citizen, and believe your detention is not lawful, do not resist orders, he said. As soon as you can, call a relative who can produce a document or call a lawyer.
“You want to scream and shout or physically resist,” he said. “You should not do that. Those can be crimes.”
In the United States, there is no national registry of all U.S. citizens, he said. The closest is the Social Security system created in 1935, and there were privacy concerns from the beginning.
“That’s not an accident,” he said. “That’s a product of the fact that it’s historically meant not to be a show-me-your-papers country.”
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