It gets to the point of unreasonable search, to which all of us would be subjected.
They have no right to demand your papers.
If they are busted and found to be hear illegally fine, deport them but demanding citizenship status, over an elelctric bill is over the top.
Good idea though.
Still, if he wanted to impress me, he would Demand Barry’s proof of citizenship status and define what that proof would be.
This is not a search at all, and even if it was, it is not at all unreasonable. The customer is choosing to apply for service (and credit) from the utility. The utility has every right to ask him to prove his right to be in the country.
Asking for somone to prove their right to be here (especially on a one time basis, as oppposed to stopping them on the street) is not at all intrusive.
We already require employers to verify that new employees are legally eligible to work in the US. How is this different?
Someone who is selling you a service can request any information they want as a condition of the sale. If the electric company chooses to ONLY sell electricity to citizens or legal aliens (for whatever reason) then the customer has to prove they are a citizen or legal alien OR find another source of electricity