Your papers, please
Posted by Joel Friedlander | 5 Comments
Re: Immigration, Off the Books in today’s NYTimes.
No one wants the true answer to the identity problem because it is too repugnant to their sensibilities as Americans; we require the issuance of National Identity Cards. Every citizen would be issued a card certifying their identity to any lawful source in the country. In the absence of this federally issued card no one would be able to work, travel, or live in the United States.
You see, the solution to the problem is that simple. Now if there is a 4% error rate in our records, well that is too bad if you are one of those affected. The problem with correcting the records will be with the government. Unfortunately, a margin of error of 4% is common in almost any enterprise so I wouldn’t expect that it could be corrected.
No, of course it can be corrected. The government can implant identity devices under the skin of every person in the United States and create them so that if they are removed they self destruct. There, that’s very simple, isn’t it?
Of course you’d have to trust the government to allow them to do that. Now the advocates of getting rid of all these illegal aliens all trust the government, don’t they?
Once we have these implants, we can have them give off a little signal so that the government will know where you are at all times, you know, just like the easy pass tracking system that so many people have in their cars. This gets simpler and simpler. You could even put every bit of information about the person on these little chips, you know, just in case they got into an accident and they couldn’t tell you everything about themselves.
Next we would need people to check up on the people that were walking around or working in the United States. This would increase full lawful employment in the United States. Some of the people who are screaming for the blood of the illegal immigrants in the country might want to take these jobs. We could set this up as a secondary police force and put its members at all hubs of transportation to prevent illegal’s from traveling around the country. They could wear a nice snappy looking black uniform to distinguish them from the regular police who usually wear blue.
They could also carry portable scanner devices to check the identities of the people that they stop, and they could learn to say, “Your papers please,” with real conviction.
In the alternative offer citizenship to everyone who wants it, just like we did before the 1920’s. We seem to have survived the massive immigration from 1776 to 1920 without falling apart as a country. We can do it again. The alternative is too horrid to contemplate as I hope I have pointed out effectively.
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April 17th, 2008 @
Joel,
I agree with you. We should reduce the barriers to citizenship in this country. The libertarian in me says we should have little, to any, border controls and allow immigrants into this country to fill the obvious need for their services.
Immigration is one of those issues on which both political sides have it wrong. On the right, there are scare tactics employed about terrorist infultrating our border and the encouragement of more guards and higher walls. These solutions are of course ridiculous and do nothing to actually solve the root cause of the immigration “problem.” On the left, we have protectionism about trade and scare tactics of immigrants taking jobs away from citizens, which is a falsehood.
I propose we provide citizenship for all those that want it. Jim Rogers makes a good point in his book Adventure Capitialist about those people who choose to immigrate to the U.S. They are people who are willing to risk it all for a chance at a better life and future for their family. Why would we want to keep these people out of the U.S?
April 17th, 2008 @
I live and work illegally in a country that issues required National Identity Cards. Quite obviously, the ID card system doesn’t work. I’m living proof.
Also, I find the idea of a federally mandated ID card repugnant.
April 18th, 2008 @
Jason,
We saw your post on American Madness, traced your IP address, and dispatched agents to intercept you.
See you soon!
Paul
April 18th, 2008 @
If only the Spanish authorities actually cared about illegal workers. Wait! If only they cared about white illegal workers. I’m in Spain on a tourist visa (90 days of travel within all the Schengen Agreement countries within a 6 month period). I’ve more or less been in Spain for 16 1/2 months (minus 10 weeks working in England and a few brief trips outside the country). Every time I’ve either left or re-entered Spain the border guards (with some close scrutiny) could have discovered that I’ve overstayed my welcome. Last time I entered Spain (last Sunday returning from Ireland) the passport control was a matter of handing over my passport, the guy didn’t say a word to me, found the next empty space in my passport and gave me a stamp. Now if I looked like I came from west Africa they’d be a little more careful.
April 18th, 2008 @
Jason,
Cierra tu Boca, por favor, si tu te gusta a quedese en Espana.