I understand many of the objections to an ID scheme. It'll be used for other purposes (that we won't like). It'll have false positives, causing legit people problems. There will be ways to defeat the system (many of them simply low-tech - cash). It'll be expensive to the nation as well as expensive to small businesses. I tend to believe all the preceding are true. And all of them matter.
It almost makes more sense to have an ID scheme for aliens. Anyone who gets in trouble with the law, one of the first thing that happens is that the alien database is searched. As aliens, I think there's a reasonable argument that we could include whatever information we wanted into the database. And any alien caught in this country who has never applied for entry has consequently never been entered into the database, they don't get deported, they go to prison.
There's a perfectly reasonable argument that illegal immigration is as rampant as it is because legal immigration is so limited. I like the notion that the quotas for legal immigration need to be raised. Plus, it seems various countries (including the USA, at least at some point in the past) have had "guest worker programs". If there are enough legal guest workers to do jobs Americans won't, it has to reduce illegal entrants. Maybe.
Guest worker programs tend to get pulled in two directions. Rights groups want to raise pay & working conditions & rights of guest workers. To the degree they are successful, some employers comply and simply attempt to pass along the increased costs to consumers. However, other employers continue to seek undocumented cash-only illegals reducing the ability of compliant employers to pass on their increased costs. In other words, it seems that US government policy has to either aim for maximum exploitation of guest workers or else it has to be serious about busting non-compliant employers.
The guest worker notion raises another topic - overstaying visas. I'm given to understand that we don't have the ability to know if "John Doe", who is now applying for a temporary visa or guest worker status, has over-stayed a previous entry. If this is so, that needs fixing. And if it is so and/or is unfixable, what does that say about our ability to create a reliable system to track all eligible workers, natives and aliens?
And I think it's entirely reasonable that aliens - legal & especially not - could be denied most welfare/benefit programs. Perhaps legal aliens might become eligible after some minimum period of time, but illegal aliens, never. That said, I can certainly see allowing emergency medical care. And once you make one exception, we'd have to go through the entire list of benefits and make decisions one by one. So be it.
