Illegal immigration is one of the thorniest issues in America. Even the term “illegal alien” is fraught with negative connotations that lead many supporters of immigrants’ rights to use the term “undocumented” instead. But this is a euphemism; persons without proper documentation are illegal and should be identified as such (just ask the Guatemalans whether Mexican authorizes use such niceties as “undocumented” when they are caught trespassing in Mexico).
Because the U.S. Constitution deems anyone born in the U.S. a citizen, many illegal aliens have children who are citizens, while their parents remain in the shadows. Since many U.S. businesses and individual households thrive on cheap immigrant labor, and low wages by U.S. standards are relatively high by Mexican and other Latin American standards, the flow of illegal immigrants has continued by the hundreds of thousands every year.
Supporters of immigrants’ rights point out that the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants are law-abiding citizens who pay taxes and contribute to the American economy, and deserve a path towards citizenship. Opponents counter that illegal immigrants are breaking the law, that a country has a right to control its borders, and that there are millions of people all over the world, even in Mexico and Latin America, awaiting lawful entry to the U.S.
Putting aside the relative merits of the arguments, there are almost 12 million illegal immigrants in the country and there is no feasible way to deport them even if we wanted to. The only real choices are allowing them to continue in the netherworld of illegality, or granting them some form of pathway to citizenship.
There is a reasonable fear, however, that a citizenship path will only create another incentive for millions more to cross the border illegally—figuring that as long as they can remain hidden, they will eventually be granted some form of amnesty.
Only if we address the root cause of the problem can we break the cycle; we must devise a way to ensure that only legal residents can work in the U.S.
Enter the debate over a National ID Card.
While no doubt many employers hire illegal immigrants because they can pay them lower wages and lower benefits, even the most unscrupulous employers require basic forms of identification such as driver’s licenses or Social Security cards. But these are easily faked, and employers have scant incentive to set up verification processes; they’re costly to begin with, and employers can always tell the authorities they didn’t know the IDs were a sham. Only a counterfeit-proof biometric National ID card has the potential for a virtual error-free method of verifying an individual’s status.
The problem, from the viewpoint of some libertarians, is that any such document infringes on the right to privacy; it would contain information allowing the government to track individual people. Ironically, those most suspicious of a National ID Card overlap greatly with the “law and order” crowd that’s demanding an end to illegal immigration before any negotiations regarding amnesty for the 12 million already here.
But they can’t have it both ways; something has to give.
If they want serious border enforcement and a system ensuring that only American citizens and legal residents can work in the U.S., they’ll have to support a National ID Card; the forces of supply and demand will overwhelm any border fence, and any number of border police.
It will be fascinating to see whether a compromise can be struck this year, coupling strict biometric employment verification with an orderly system for the legalization of the 12 million immigrants currently in the shadows. Given the options, it’s a compromise that’s both reasonable and fair.
Jason Scorse