574
ICE tickets Chicago man with legal residency $130 for not having his papers on him: ‘It’s not fair…I’m a resident’
(www.chicagotribune.com)
Papers please lol
this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2025
574 points (98.8% liked)
News
32745 readers
3599 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
So, if you're a legal immigrant and get "randomly" asked for your paperwork, you have to produce it on the spot or face a fine?
What if you're a legal immigrant and just say you were born here? No native born citizen carries around their passport
Or can they also fine native born white Americans for their birth certificate and fine them if they don't have it? But we just don't hear about it because they don't bother "randomly" checking white people?
Since when is failing to carry a passport a civil offense..... What law covers this?
Seems like ICE is starting to make up laws now to justify their BS with more BS
That will be a fun law suit
Now that's since 1939 Gestapo crap if I've ever seen it.
I mean, sad as it is, fines are an improvement over just straight kidnapping people regardless of citizenship.
The bar is in hell.
I mean they kidnapped him too when they stood him up and put him in a car for a drive around the block
this is litterally that one scene from the phineas and ferb movie (the 1st one) where this robot asks for papers or else death
Ahh I see we are officially transitioning into the "papers, please" stage of fascism already. Buckle up folks, the road only gets rougher from here on out. The witch hunts don't stop here.
Papers please American DLC when?
its the family guy parody, where stewie hires a bunch of mexicans, and one of them keep suggesting asking for the papers.
I think the IRL version just dropped
i see you’re not black, a minority, or visibly poor….
i’ve been fighting “papers please” for a while….
it’s definitely much worse now though
I certainly might not be those things, or I might not be American either. Hard to say for sure, it's fun to speculate though isn't it?
well if you think papers please just started, you’re probably white
load more comments
(4 replies)
To be fair I believe it is a legal requirement for non citizens to carry their papers on them. https://international.northeastern.edu/ogs/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/03/DRAFTv5-FAQStatusDocs-3.24.25.pdf
This is not condoning the behavior of any of this b.s. that has been going on. But just trying to share information.
Greencard Perm Resident here who read all their paperwork very carefully thrice so I didn't have to hire a lawyer, can confirm am always supposed to carry it.
No kidding. TIL. That’s still pretty lame though.
load more comments
(1 replies)
And if he had his papers, they would have said they were fake, confiscated them, and hassled him anyway:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/24/us-citizen-detained-ice-real-id
Under federal law, registered foreign nationals must carry proof of registration with them at all times. But prior to a second Trump administration, it was rarely enforced.
Apparently green-card holders have to carry their green cards around all the time. This law was so rarely enforced that I never knew about it despite having been a green-card holder myself.
The thing is, US Citzens don’t have to carry papers with them, so there is no way to enforce it without stomping all over the rights of citizens. We should all be outraged over the expectation of producing papers.
Its true that there's no way to enforce a law like that directly, and I don't think that I agree with the requirement to carry documents at all times, same as you.
There is some use for laws that are not directly enforceable, though, just not in this case. For example, a government may reasonably want to limit citizens' ability to operate a vehicle carrying a hazardous chemical. They may not be able to justly stop him and check for things with no reason, but if that is discovered because he got in a wreck, they can then punish the illegal transport crime.
I know its often repressive or at least unhelpful to make laws that aren't directly enforceable, but there is some room for them. It is important to disallow legal overreach of law enforcement trampling civil liberties trying to enforce those laws like you pointed out, though. That's something that my country (USA) unfortunately has a checkered history with, as have a lot of others.
ETA: To be clear, making it illegal for a person to not physically have something at all times seems patently absurd, regardless of how loosely enforced. All of the reasonable requirements of being a legal resident are met by simply being registered with the government of the country you are visiting.
Right, it should be perfectly fine to answer “Papiere bitte” with “fuck off”. Until they know you’re someone who is required to carry their paperwork, they shouldn’t be able to require it
This is what it’s really all about; everybody has rights, or no one does. There is no in between.
Former green card holder here: I read all the paperwork I got and I always carried my green card on me cos I was aware of the requirement. Am a bit paranoid about paperwork.
My friend got her green card about 20 years ago, and she said they made it very clear she needed to carry it at all times.
Because no one forgets, ever. And even if they don't, what prevents a bad actor from stealing it?
All my youth, it was stressed to always carry my ID and social security card. Them it was "in two separate places," and then, "leave ss card home."
I didn't say anything about the enforcement of the rule or how dumb it was. I was only pointing out that it should not be a surprise to any green card holder that they need to be carrying it.
I guess similar to jaywalking. Very few people ever get fined/charged with it even though it being a crime in most states in the US.
My wife used to be a green card holder it was made clear to her when she got it that she needed to always carry it. Not defending the gestapo's actions, but the dude should not have left the card at home.
I gotta point out that in Canada at least, unless you're driving you don't need to carry any ID. You could be a freshly landed immigrant and you don't really need to carry anything. Unless you're driving, buying alcohol / weed or need to register for something. Its wild to me that "not having your papers" while just going about your day in the world is not resulting in major protests. Just wild.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)
Glory to Arstotzka, I guess.
From the article:
“I feel sad because, even though we were born here, that doesn’t matter any more,” the cousin said. She added: “To have our skin color has, apparently, become a crime. And it has become a crime deserving of this type of treatment – as if we were real criminals.”
😶
Gee, why is no one going to the US?
I hope he gets rich from suing them.
It’s technically illegal to not carry your green card. But it’s also authoritarian as fuck to kidnap somebody because they didn’t have it on them.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I just wish it didn't come from our taxes. Should come from their pay and/or benefits.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
They could have driven him to his house so he could retrieve those papers or have someone bring them out for him. Boom, crisis averted. It's not hard to not be a time-wasting asshole, but they seem to excel at it.
load more comments
(2 replies)
ICE = act on sight
run hide fight
view more: next ›