I'm totally opposed to a federal ID system of any kind. I'm 100% for working as hard as we can to reverse the wrongs that have already been done, ie, abolish the income tax, social security, medicare, and 100's of other unconstitutional socialist government programs that have been forced on us over the last 100 years or so by an out of control constantly expanding federal government.
I'm going to ramble on a bit and haven't really thought this through, so bear with me:
My short term goal is to keep the liberals (Marxists) out of power at least long enough to get rid of most of the liberal activist judges. This would give us a leg up in our longer term goals of returning our Republic to the constitutionally limited form of representative government as intended and established by the Founding Fathers.
I believe in self-government. Self-government means we practice self-constraint and self-reliance. In other words, we do not depend on government to feed, house, clothe, secure our retirements, insure our good health, or pat our fannies, etc, etc, etc.
It also means we enjoy our God-given freedom with a minimum amount of government intrusion. It means we are responsible law abiding citizens. We don't rob, steal, cheat, murder or otherwise cause harm or damage to our fellow citizens, and we don't do this due to government or restrictive law, we do it because of our own deeply held religious beliefs, or sense of responsibilty, ethics, civility, duty or honor, etc. No one forces us to do the right thing.
Now understanding that self-government only works for a moral people (and none of us are perfectly moral or without sin), we have consented to a minimal amount of representative government and empowered it with a very limited amount of power to make and enforce the constitutionally proper laws necessary to maintain order and keep the peace. But that does not excuse us from our moral and civic responsibilities.
I personally feel it is an insult and a violation of my constitutional right to privacy and individual security to have to show my papers or have my fingerprints or retinal scans stored in some government database. Same thing if I'm a responsible law-abiding employer. I do not want to be forced to enforce such unconstitutional intrusions against my employees.
Self-government and free-markets work hand in hand. And whether we're dealing in trade or labor, I feel self-government and free-markets work best. Our constitution empowers the Congress to regulate immigration and charges the federal government with the duty to control our borders.
Historically, great efforts have been made to control both the quantity and quality of immigrants. I see nothing wrong with continuing that tradition. There is always a demand for seasonal or unskilled entry level labor or even in some cases highly specialized or even professional skills that opens plenty of opportunity to foreign workers.
Again, this is an area that our congress must regulate and control and I can see how that would be best managed with input and cooperation from both labor organizations and private business sectors. Programs and quotas should be set and implemented on a seasonal and regional basis to recruit and import qualified and suitable temporary foreign workers or in some cases permanent immigrants where necessary.
And as the labor markets and demands decrease as seasons end and or as other free-market factors fluctuate, then the temporary workers must go home.
I'd say as long as there is a demand for labor that cannot be filled locally then we should be flexible enough to recruit from Mexico or wherever we can. I can see an orderly, ie, regulated, but market flexible temporary worker program being developed that would be simple enough, fair enough, attractive enough, and much safer to the foreign workers than risking desert crossings, etc, that it would automatically cut back on illegal immigration.
The demand for labor is here. The supply is obviously there. We just need an orderly system developed to match supply and demand and control it. Make order out of the currently chaotic labor markets and that would solve much of our illegal immigrant problem. And would free the border security forces to defend our borders against smugglers, criminals, terrorists and other more dangerous national security risks.
And, it would not require the rest of us to enter into some Orwellian federal identification system. The necessity of a voluntary ID system would be borne by the immigrant coming through the system. And I do believe most of the employers would appreciate and take advantage of such a system. The immoral or unethical employer might try to recruit illegal labor, but I think eventually their competitors and or others would notice and pressure would be brought to bear. That's part of the self-government factor.
I know. I know. Naive and Pollyannish. LOL
The key to the solution, IMNHO, is to make it easier for all concerned to be legal instead of illegal.
We had a guest worker program until 1965. We didn't have a significant illegal alien problem until 1965. I submit the two are connected.
The point is how do we stop people coming illegally? Just because we issue say 5 million temp worker permits a year doesn't mean the other 6 million people who want in are going to say, "oh well US is full up maybe next year". No, they are going to come across the border on their own. Which puts us right back where we are now.