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The key to enforcing employer sanctions against hiring illegal immigrants will have to be some form of national standards to reliably identify citizens from noncitizens. That is the same key needed to implement and enforce Bush's proposed guest-worker program. If we can't reliably tell who is legal and who is illegal, then the U.S. immigration laws will remain an unenforceable joke no matter how many Americans think illegal immigration is a serious problem.

We already have such a program, with no legalization of illegal aliens required.

S. 1685, the Basic Pilot Extension Act of 2003, was signed by President Bush on December 3, 2003.
By December of 2004, every business in America will have a nearly sure-fire way to verify if a new employee is an illegal alien or has the right to work in America.
Most importantly, no business in America will have an excuse for hiring illegals.
Right now , the job of trying to figure out if the ID shown by a new employee is a counterfeit or not is just daunting. That is sometimes a legitimate excuse and sometimes a smokescreen for why so many businesses have illegal aliens working for them. But with the new system, businesses merely use existing documents (social security cards and alien identification cards) and existing databases (SSA and BCIS databases) to verify employment eligibility. An employer using the system simply calls an 800 number, provides the name and the Social Security number or the alien ID number, as presented by the new hire, and then he receives either a confirmation indicating that the worker is authorized to work in the US or a tentative non-confirmation if the number and name provided do not match SSA or BCIS data. In the case of a tentative non-confirmation, the new hire has the right to contact SSA or BCIS and try to fix the problem BEFORE the employer may fire the new hire.

Dreier Delivers Floor Statement Regarding Illegal Immigration and the Bonner Plan
"In fact, Mr. Speaker, T.J. Bonner, a 26-year veteran of the Border Patrol, and President of the National Border Patrol Council, estimates that we can eliminate as much as 98 percent of illegal border crossings if we can give employers access to verifiable identity information on prospective employees and if we crack down on employers who hire illegal workers. 98 percent is a remarkable number, and it would allow the Border Patrol to focus on targeting criminal aliens and terrorists.
"Because of this, Mr. Speaker, I introduced H.R. 5111, the Bonner Plan, to improve the security of our Social Security cards and provide a method by which employers could immediately verify the authenticity of that Social Security card. My bill would also increase fines for hiring an illegal worker by 400 percent, and provide for prison sentences of up to 5 years per count.

Drier was a real fluzie on this topic til he found religion thanks to John and Ken's radio show here in Los Angeles.

We already have such a program, with no legalization of illegal aliens required.

While this *sounds* very good, you are aware that this is only a *voluntary* program that employers *may* use.

Most importantly, no business in America will have an excuse for hiring illegals.

As it is, no business in America has an excuse for hiring an illegal, IMO.

Anyway, it's a voluntary program and we still won't have any worksite enforcement, so anyone who wants to hire an illegal still can.