Well to be perfectly fair, plenty of people in Phoenix don’t think DC is part of America.
If TSA agents can confuse New Mexico with Mexico, why can’t they confuse DC with Colombia?
Why do all you propellerheads think everyone knows this stuff? When the regular guys take over, it’ll be different, y’hear? Payback time is coming!
How do these people get out of high school? Wait a sec, you do have to graduate high school to work for the TSA right? right?
When a college campus security guard told me a passport wasn’t a valid form of ID I wasn’t surprised. When a liquor store clerk told me he couldn’t accept an out-of-state driver’s license as valid ID I wasn’t surprised.
This shouldn’t surprise me, but it still does.
As I understand it, each state has its own design of license so I can kinda understand that. But I guess they all share the same sort of security features so it shouldn’t be too tricky to figure out. In any case, this is why a universal design is a good idea.
As for passports though, my guess is the security guard had never left his home town, let alone seen such a crazy document before.
Quit it with the strange new ideas.
I think it WOULD be helpful to place signs on the “inbound” exits of the Capital Beltway, “Now Leaving America as you know it. . . .”
Probably not. My ex never did and he’s worked in security most of his life.
When I first moved to WA I found one bar that didn’t like foreign passports as ID (and foreign driving licences were totally unacceptable according to the WA liquor board). Had to go check with the manager.
Had similar issues in CA with WA driving licence.
I had a lady at a gas station in Vermont ID me for buying rolling papers. First she said that my NYS ID “felt too thin” and then asked me to lower my sunglasses to see if my eyes were blood-shot. She eventually sold me my Bambus, but not until after she told me that it’s her job to not sell minors drug paraphernalia (I’m 40).
If I worked for the TSA, I’m pretty sure that I’d go out of my way to distrust anyone associated with DC, knowing what they are capable of and all…
If they gave DC statehood we wouldn’t have this issue…
A self-serving bureaucracy like the TSA NEEDS complete morons for it’s low-level jobs - If they were competent and informed, there wouldn’t be a need for so many highly-paid, benefits-slurping managers and “problem-solvers”.
On the other hand, I remember being in DC with a bunch of internationals, and the doorman breaking out this enormous book of valid passport designs.
Trouble is, I’ve never really learned what America is.
Maybe a road-trip to find it would help…
And we just keep giving them money and power. Who are the idiots?
Not TSA- specific, really. Years ago I had a train ticket clerk refuse a valid passport as ID. “This is issued by the Federal Government of the United States and is recognized by nearly 200 countries around the world, and you’re telling me it’s not good enough for New Jersey Transit?” He wouldn’t hear of it.
There’s not much that can be done against willful ignorance.
The law specifically says that DC, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands are counted as states for purposes of citizenship and “state-issued ID”. A friend of mine is from the USVI and she keeps getting asked for her immigration papers. What I always wonder is why American Samoa is excluded from that.
