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I do get it, and there's nothing to prevent state and federal laws limiting the circumstances under which proof of citizenship can be required, though I doubt they'd be needed. Most merchants would have no interest in checking customers' citizenship (remember, NO personal identifying information would be in the database) -- it would be time-consuming and annoying to customers, and therefore profit-reducing; they wouldn't do it voluntarily and politicians who tried to make it mandatory would see campaign contributions and votes dry up fast. A few types of businesses, such as bulk ammonium nitrate sellers, aviation schools, airlines etc. could reasonably be compelled to require it, and politicians would encounter little resistance from these businesses or their legitimate customers. It should also be required for welfare recipients and for new employees at the time of hiring; illegal aliens would be the main source of objections to that, and under this system very few of them would be able to sneak through and vote.

As for being required to carry something, with a direct biometric system, you'd be hard-pressed not to, and that's important, because it is absolutely unacceptable to require people to carry some ID card around (it would mysteriously vanish whenever some crooked cop or fed felt like arresting you). I fully recognize that sufficiently reliable technology to implement such a system probably doesn't exist yet. But I expect it will before too long, and than I would advocate a system like this. I do not care to have half the population of Mexico and various other 3rd world countries come here and destroy our economy and political system and drive our taxes through the roof, or to have foreign terrorists roaming around at will, working at jobs they aren't entitled to and spending the proceeds on equipment and specialized training to commit various types of terrorist assaults.

Without a means to efficiently and reliably determine citizenship, we might as well abandon the concept altogether and just treat anyone who is physically here as a citizen. That's exactly what the one-world-government crowd wants, and I'm not with them.

" there's nothing to prevent state and federal laws limiting the circumstances under which proof of citizenship can be required,"

True, but, can you state a single item of government that has ever gotten smaller without having been replaced by something bigger?

”Most merchants would have no interest in checking customers' citizenship “

Biometric analysis has gotten to be a commodity item. It can be installed anywhere, and considering most people are on-line, it could easily be a purchasing requirement. Besides, the IRS would LOVE such a system.

”Without a means to efficiently and reliably determine citizenship, we might as well abandon the concept altogether and just treat anyone who is physically here as a citizen. That's exactly what the one-world-government crowd wants, and I'm not with them. ”

I understand your concerns and share them. We are on the same page as far as knowing a need, but I just think from past experience what a nasty program a national ID would be. We cannot allow our federal government to control identity information as one way or another they will abuse the privilege to our detriment.

It really isn’t all that hard to spot a foreigner. We just don’t do anything about one when they are identified. We also shouldn’t care too much about the few foreigners who assimilate into our society undetected. Those are the very immigrants we want here. They are usually the ones who pull their own weight, understand our culture, and desire greatly to be Americans.

Remember, if we can prevent 95% of illegal immigration with little effort then we have done a great job. We can do that with the laws and techniques in place now, we just need to enforce the laws.

Imagine a merchant like a Burger King being fined $5,000 for each illegal found on the payroll? Imagine a $100,000 tab that was enforced? Imagine the owner and the managers going to jail for one year for each illegal? Imagine paying that fine or losing your business? The illegals would have no place to work. Such laws are on the books already.

Another point. I truly believe that there are border farms that use illegals because making them legal is a pain. I fully support those border farms having day workers who return home every day or after each season. We need to secure the program and ensure compliance.