Wrong! My wife is visiting her sister in Russia. Because my wife is a Russian National, she must carry her "Internal Passport" wherever she goes and produce it on demand by any official without any cause. She was astounded and amused when she first came to the U.S. many years ago that we could travel between states without having to "prove" our identity at any time for no reason without a gubmint issued passport.
My mother didn’t join the Nazi party during the war. She tells of how she avoided the SS because she didn’t have ‘papers’. Once she was caught and sent to a work farm where she and another girl escaped by crawling through the open fields.
Right now, she’s having flashbacks. The Third Reich (National Socialist Workers Party) didn’t start out rounding up opponents but they eventually had to or else lose power.
This is why we MUST end our silly white-guilt-induced abhorrence of anything discriminatory (by national origin or religion) or (so called) "profiling."
Everyone wants and needs safety from terrorism and crime--and security institutions will provide it, sooner or later, on demand. It will either inconvenience a few (like people with Middle-Eastern names...) or all of us will lose our freedom with mandatory ID's, searches, etc. ISLAMO-FASCIST TERRORISM MUST BE CRUSHED!
Yes it's possible terrorists could have a little old lady named Bernstein as an agent--but so far, in all the terrorist attacks I've heard about, they've only had young men with names like Mohammed.