Imagine trying to navigate life in the United States without having some kind of identification. Without an ID, it’s near impossible to obtain lawful employment, register your children for school, and apply for housing, health care, or other forms of government assistance. It may seem hard to believe that people who are born in this country wouldn’t have access to a driver’s license or some other state-issued identification to establish their identity. But for many people who are homeless or low-income, it is an unfortunate reality.
As of 2006, according to New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, up to 11 percent of U.S. adults had no government-provided photo ID. Since then, federal requirements for IDs have grown tougher, contributing to a loop that can help keep people trapped in poverty. For poor Americans, IDs are a lifeline — a key to unlocking services and opportunities, from housing to jobs to education. And in states with strict voter ID laws, the lack of an ID can hinder voting. “This is a huge issue for people who are homeless and poor in general,” says Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. “Without an ID, basically you don’t exist.”
There are a number of reasons why some folks don’t have photo identification. It can be time-intensive and costly to fight with government agencies to locate copies of birth certificates, social security cards, and duplicate IDs. People may not have access to reliable transportation which would get them to these sites in the first place. Once they get there, they often don’t have the necessary documentation to prove they are who they say.
The Vital Records Department in Washington, DC, for instance, will issue you a birth certificate without proper photo ID if you have a voter registration, employee ID, or census records. But how many of us, even with proper ID, have census records on hand? How many of us don’t have an actual physical voter registration card immediately accessible? What’s more, challenges related to poverty and homelessness make an already difficult task seemingly impossible.
The poor and marginalized can easily disappear, and they often do. Phones get disconnected; people move unexpectedly, leaving no forwarding address, or they become homeless altogether; often, they’re swallowed up by the criminal justice system. [The Rev. Ben Roberts, director of a social justice ministry called Foundry which helps people obtain identification] recently received a returned Foundry check with a letter from the daughter of an elderly client who died before he could recover his identification.
Republicans maintain that even though accessing identification has become more difficult for a number of Americans, there is no challenge posed to poor people. This just shows how out of touch they are. They continue to develop legislation that disproportionately impacts people for being poor and then feign shock when advocates assert that these laws don’t work for the most marginalized (mainly the elderly, people of color, youth and the poor). Then again, they don’t care about the most vulnerable and give no thought to them whatsoever (unless it’s to come up with laws that stigmatize and shame) so their lack of awareness isn’t a surprise. In fact, its a strategy that serves them well. If people don’t have IDs, most of the time, they can’t access certain services as well as their right to vote. And that serves the Republicans perfectly well.
As an example of how they’ve made it harder to access identification, the REAL ID Act was passed in 2005 as a response to 9/11. Since the hijackers were able to obtain IDs to rent cars, lease apartments, and open bank accounts in the U.S., the law was established to standardize requirements for obtaining a state ID. One must now show proof of their birth date, social security number, and documentation of residency.
For his part, [Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) who authored the REAL ID Act] argues that there is no undue burden on the poor for ID access. A statement from his office said, “With many states and jurisdictions offering identification cards free of charge, the small number of citizens facing challenges securing these items can be assisted on the local level efficiently and at little or no cost.”
This uninformed and unrealistic perspective doesn’t address the other factors that pose barriers—like actual transportation to get an ID, or ability to obtain a birth certificate and other documents. Besides, if you are homeless, how exactly are you supposed to show proof of residency? If you are trying to get a job, but don’t have any of these things, how do you expect the company to pay you? Or hire you? Employers are also required to get proof of identity before hiring anyone. So, essentially by making forms of identification this difficult to obtain, the law is relegating the poor and homeless to staying that way.
But this won’t stop Republicans from blaming them for not pulling themselves up by the bootstraps. And it most certainly won’t stop them from disenfranchising potential voters. In fact, they rely on keeping people marginalized and in the shadows so that they can stay in charge.