And the illegal problem may not have loomed large in your little section of America, but down here it is huge. You might be willing to allow Americans to be raped, robbed, and murdered just so long as you aren’t inconvenienced, but the rest of us can’t afford such an indulgence.
I’m near Chicago where the presence of the ilk of MS-13 is no joke (your plain vanilla Mexican illegales go virtually unnoticed here because they stand out so little), but nobody ever wanted Americans to carry passports.
“People (adults, mostly, because children aren’t generally required to carry ID) who can’t produce identification of some sort in this country aren’t going to have an easy time of it if they do something to attract the professional attention of law enforcement, anyway.”
I’ve always thought it was illegal to be in public without ID as an adult.
I’ve never in my life been without it even when i’ve gone to the beach since i was 8, the last 65 years, and had a bank account and Social Security card and number.