No, we don't. Nice try, though.
If an employer checks someones SS number and it is already being used by Mary in Utah, then it can't belong to Joe in CA.
There is no employer direct access to the SSN system. Everything has to be done by snail mail, with government paper pushers doing the checking. You think that happens overnight? The lag time can be months.
Also, there is the additional problem of illegals obtaining the SSN's of legal residents or citizens who are not working. Because the cards are nothing more than pieces of paper, they are easily forged. And illegal immigrant Manual Labor becomes retired construction worker John Olszewski. The current SSN system is neither efficient nor effective enough to solve the problem of employers hiring illegals.
We already have laws on the books dealing with illegal aliens - unfortunately the government would rather impose its will upon you, I, and other law-abiding citizens, rather than harshly deal with the criminals and those who hire them.
The laws "currently on the books" require that anyone being deported be given certain legal protections, including a hearing. Do you have any clue how long it would take, under current law, to process 15 million illegals for deportation? And exactly how "harshly" are you going to deal with those "criminals"? Incarcerate them for long period of time? That ain't cheap. Deport them? That takes forever under the current law you claim needs only to be enforced.
But please answer this question for me, because I honestly don't understand your side of the argument. The laws "currently on the books" require everyone to give proof of citizenship or legal status at time of hiring. That requirement applies both to citizens and immigrants, both legal and illegal. That means that right now, you have to prove who you are and provide your SSN when hired. Isn't that the "show me your papers" requirement you already fear?
The only difference is that we want to ensure that the papers you are showing to verify your legal status are genuine, and not forgeries. How can any rational person not object to having to show an I.D. and SSN, but fight tooth and nail against updating those documents to make forgery more difficult? Damn, make your SSN card or other I.D. that you already are required to show an electronic swipe card. It instantly will run through computers, and the employer gets an answer back in 5 minutes as to whether or not you are illegal. That'd solve a huge number of problems. Not all, but the majority. How can any rational person interested in controlling illegal immigration oppose that? The means to check ILLEGAL ALIENS when they hire on is already at hand. We don't need a bunch of new laws and regulations gumming up the freedoms of US citizens.
No, it isn't, and I'm saying that as an employment lawyer who deals with this issue all the time. Other laws need to be changed if you really want to make it possible to enforce the immigration laws properly. The SSN verification process is decades out of date, and the documents are too easily forged. You need an integrated electronic database, and new SSN or other I.D. cards that employ modern technology.
As part of my official duties during my time in the AF I visited a few countries that were on the other side of the Iron Curtain - Although we were given carefully "guided" tours, we still saw people who were afraid of a government who could stop them at any time and demand their papers. .....af_vet_rr
Just as the Eastern Europeans were afraid of Soviet tanks easily entering their city centers through wide boulevards.
See Post 83.
The idea of having wide open boulevards in modern cities was not originated for the purpose of having beautiful avenues in Paris or Berlin. That idea originated so that Government troops would have open fields of fire to control the citizenry with grapeshot and volleys when they got too uppity.
Just about anything in modern society, from your digital camera to the computer you are now typing on, can be abused by a totalitarian state.
That, however, does not mean that the U.S. should still be living in a country without an Interstate Highway system or without computers and with illegal aliens flooding the country just out of fear of how modern ideas and technolgy have been abused by totalitarian states.
Putting that aside, you just hit upon one of the biggest problems with a national ID - we got a Congress and a President telling us that we need what will become a national ID, meanwhile they don't care about securing the border, or they do a half-assed job, and not only that, but they are basically granting amnesty to people who flout the border.
As for politicians, we must remember that they are all politicions first and patriots (and sometimes traitors) second.
A politician would rather have his Mexican-American voters angry at an ID Card as to why illegal Cousin Pedro can no longer get a job than have him be angry at Congressman Blowhard.