The Trump Administration Just Quietly Walked Back Its Passport Invalidation Threat
Facing considerable backlash over hints it would attempt to revoke trans people's passports, the Department of State has now updated its website to remove the threat.
Note 11/18: The State Department’s website has once again been updated, this time to read “All passports are valid for travel until they expire, are replaced by the applicant, or are invalidated pursuant to federal regulations.”
Last week, Transitics broke the story that the US Department of State updated its website to hint at revoking the passports of trans Americans. This change came after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Trump’s gender marker policy and quickly drew widespread media attention due to the unprecedented threat it posed not just to the trans community but to all Americans. Simply put, the idea that the legally issued passports, and by extension freedom of travel, of law-abiding citizens can be revoked “under federal policy” is nothing short of chilling and would mark a grave escalation in the Trump administration’s attacks against trans people.
But now, it appears the Department of State has walked this threat back, as just moments ago, their website was updated once again. This time, instead of stating that “a passport is valid for travel until its date of expiration, until you replace it, or until we invalidate it under federal regulations,” it now asserts that “all passports will remain valid for travel until their expiration date, under International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) policy.”
Of course, as I covered last week, any revocations were sure to run into several challenges. First of all, considering the intensive labor that implementing a policy allowing for the mass revocations of trans people’s passports would require, the State Department would heavily burden itself both logistically and financially. And because the passport holder can appeal the revocation and schedule an administrative hearing, needing to hold these individual hearings on a massive scale would no doubt pose a nightmare to the Trump administration.
On top of that, there’s the likelihood of legal action. Under federal law and regulations, legally-issued passports can only be revoked for a few specific reasons. Although the Trump administration could attempt to claim misrepresenting ‘biological sex’ constitutes fraud, that justification would certainly face significant scrutiny due to the fact that they were issued under a binding injunction. And given that some of these invalidations would effectively strand trans Americans who are travelling abroad, the potential harms far outweigh what courts typically find rational.
While the Trump administration is yet to publicly comment on this situation, it certainly seems to have reacted to the backlash. This is with good reason: the mass revocation of a group’s passports has occurred during some of the darkest moments of history, and is typically a hallmark of authoritarian governance. But thankfully, as of today, trans Americans who’ve updated their passports are significantly safer than they were last week. Hopefully things stay this way.
I don't see any downside to making very clear laws about how government websites can be changed, and while we are at it I'd add what government officials can post on social media from their official accounts. There should be serious consequences for the harm caused by the State Department making this quiet change and then editing it out with no explanation. Same thing for the banners on government websites about the shutdowns that blamed trans people and democrats for loss of benefits. Thank you for reporting this so quickly!
Thank you! While I feel I may have dodged a bullet, I also realize I’m still standing smack dab in the center of the fusillade.