Originally Posted by
essxjay
By commerical air, ID is now (or will finally be) mandatory for travel even to US protectorates. Another proposal is to deny exit to those with outstanding child support payments. Several recent threads detail the hows and whys of this proposal. Not a de facto prison, but where do the stipulations stop?
To suggest that one is free to leave at anytime is just not the case.
Actually, I disagree. Please name a time of day/week/year that a United States citizen who is not currently incarcerated is not free to leave.
Now, if that citizen lives in Salina, Kansas they may have a few logistical obstacles, yes. But they are, strictly speaking, perfectly free to walk/hitchhike/bike to the border and leave, and no ID is required.
I will grant you that people living in Alaska or Hawaii will encounter additional obstacles. But since flying domestically without ID is still possible, as outlined elsewhere on FT, it is techinically possible for them as well.