No, no one has said we’re gonna move to the “Papers! Give me YOUR PAPERS!” type of society but….how can it not be so?

I spend time and enjoy working from concepts to the “implementation” of things. Usually it’s something to do with electronics or computers, but once in a while, other topic areas pop up.

So, we are entangled in a great debate on what to do with some (estimated) 12M illegal immigrants in the Nation. “Something” is most definitely an answer just about everyone would give. The “something” is of concern to me. Right now, the tide seems to be in favor of being compassionate towards those who have come here and the solution is to (use what you want, but I choose) find a fast track to citizenship. While that gets under my skin, I think the preliminary “solutions” will have unintended consequences for “the rest of us.”

Follow me here: Solution: Give out “visiting workers visas” that make sure we know who is here, in a legalized status. Those “wrok passes” have already been discussed as containing specific, personally identifying data, so the person checking this person out knows it’s not a card passed onto someone else. Included, so far, I have heard that fingerprints and retinal scan data will be digitally embedded in the cards. Good. One card for a single person, with a very difficult to alter set of data. Coupled with this, as clearly stated by the President in the State of the Union speech a few days ago, would be the tools to allow employers to know if the person they were about to hire is legally able to become an employee.

Still good. Add the next layer of defense: BIG fines for employers who hire illegals. Ok…Looks like the bases are covered!

Not so fast. Think for a minute that not all illegals in the country are of one nationality or cultural/racial type. They come from all around the world, in larger, or smaller proportions, and yes, some look very much like those in the majority of the population in the US….On top of that, there are legal citizens, born and naturalized, that “look that way” and may be confused with those who are not here with permission.

So, you’re an employer. You run on tight margins, or you’re a large corporation, and you have shareholders who would frown on you breaking the law, maybe not so much for who you hired, but for risking their investments with you and your staff causes a huge fine from the Feds….

When anyone walks in to apply for a position, what will you do? Guess what? Only the formerly illegals trying become legal, available workers will have “The Card” (you know, the “don’t leave home without it” one) that can, thanks to the magic of technology that will result in swipe scanners being sold by the gross box loads, and (get ready for this one) a master, centralized database, to include fingerprint data and retinal scans (who knows, maybe they’ll toss DNA in, just in case a crime is committed, and “they” want to know who did it) of all the people with work visas……This means you can protect yourself from running afoul of the Federal laws easily.

But what if the person standing in front of you claims they are just an average, hard working American, born on the 4th of July in Baltimore Harbor, state of Maryland, not a few miles from Ft. McHenry. Uh, oh….if this person is lying, you could find yourself wrecking the “bottom line.” You ask for proof, proof that says for sure you are you, not some crumpled small sheet of paper with a footprint of a just born infant and no picture.

Ah, ha! You say. Now you get it. The only practical way in which an employer, with their neck (or collective necks) under a Sword of Damocles, being the Federal laws, ordinances and regulations governing the manner in which we ensure, for the safety of “our people” that no illegal is given a job, we now have to herd “the rest of us” down to the Federal office building, equipped with supporting documentation of several types, to be fingerprinted and photographed and retinal scanned, and who knows, maybe have our cheeks swabbed, so we may obtain a document that will allow us to be employed.

So, for one thing, it will not be stated in any version of the law that this is required for US citizens. What it will cause it will be the natural reaction or any “organism” (in this case, businesses) to protect themselves from extinction (in this case by the Federal penalties/sanctions/fines). What will be the “explanation?” “I’d really like to hire you, but, you know, we can’t afford to find out later you are illegally in the country. Sorry and good luck on your job search.”

Funny thing, this might result in companies having to get labor “resources” from another country, comprised of those who can qualify, for they will be leery of hiring “Undocumented Americans.”

Am I wrong to see this as a very likely outcome? At the least, us all having to get national IDs. At the worst, Americans actually losing out in the job market competition to imported workers. Forget about moving jobs offshore and being upset…consider when the stories come about Americans being denied jobs on the grounds of a company not wanting the risk their fortune.

Next, consider the implication of the specific identifying data of every working age American being held in a National level database. It gripes me to see the wild outrage against Wal-Mart using radio frequency Identification (RFID) tags in their products for inventory and logistics control, when the issue discussed above is far more intrusive and will have the worst possible effect on the Right to Privacy.

While the liberals/Democrats seem proud of how they are the champions of free speech and personal privacy, they are also the ones pushing the “guest worker” programs and rapid granting of citizenship rights to the illegals presently here, yet that will lead to the construction and maintaining of a database of every citizen. Not a peep from the privacy advocates so far as I can tell. I wonder if they are asleep at the wheel on this issue.

The problem of indentifying those here legally and those here illegally depends on a central bank of information that quickly answers the question. Pragmatically, it will require everyone to be documented. It’s the only practical method to implement the proposed, and seems the most likely to occur legislation.

My suggestion for a solution? You will have to seriously rethink the liability for a company who is found to have hired illegals. That one change, to not hold them responsible, is about the only way out of the maze we find ourselves in from my perspective. Lots of anti-free enterprise people will think this is going easy on business, and thre will be some businesses who still scheme and hire “them,” but if you put the hammer on business, it will protect itself, just as any of us would, when faced with the ending of our lives, for it is analogous in this case. Anyone else have any ideas? We sure need something and we need it before any legislation that dooms us to all being entered in the big database in the sky (and I have other significant concerns with that entire idea, too…but another post).

So, get you “PAPERS! YOUR PAPERS, PLEASE!” ready for inspection, so you may be able to prove yourself as legally in this country and get the job that Americans still will want to do after the ink is dry and the Democrats have big grins on their faces. Funny, it will be the Democrats, in their effort to gather more voters to their camp by “sudden association” may be responsible for the single largest loss of personal privacy for the citizens of the country they claim to love. So much for the Constitutional guarantees.

Fairness Doctrine “Equal Opportunity” to share you views graciously provided in the comments section below.