Everything that goes around, comes around. Seems like years that I have been writing and reading about the obvious need for a National ID card system for US residents and those here legally.
The literature is full of good reasons for doing what most countries in the world now require: absolute proof of citizenship.
What is so hard about that? You live here legally, you pay taxes, you have a driver's license and you are already identified in so many ways that the credit card companies could probably plot your travels better than you could remember them. Boy, losing those ID items in your wallet is like losing your identity.
So why am I belaboring the obvious?
Because it suggests an obvious solution to what we are now seeing played out on the national stage, with the US Justice Department's ill-advised law suit against Arizona's new immigration law.
What to do? Well anytime there is an arrest or a stop of any resident by law enforcement personnel, we simply have to PROVE we are citizens.
That's everyone—from the archetypical Grandma Moses to a teeny-bopper.
"Just let me see your National ID card, Ma'am/Sir".
No hassle, no nonsense.
ID only comes into operation in the Arizona law when a person is stopped who has done something wrong. Are we against law enforcement? How does that get to be racial profiling?
No card! Then we citizens might be asked to go to the station house and you could be arraigned for non-compliance, unless you can call home and have someone bring the card from off your bureau where you forgot it earlier.
How about that for simple? No racism—no discrimination,—no racial profiling! All legal and tidy.
So it is well for all citizens to understand that this racism charge against Arizona's SB 1070 is but one of the red herring debate points from the Treason Lobby crowd. It's nothing more than a sophisticated variant of the racism!—xenophobe!—nativist! smears brought by Southern Poverty Law Center types against anyone who wants to have an adult discussion of real immigration reform. It just helps these Hispanic advocacy folks like LULAC and La Raza and their financiers from the business world to maintain the present de facto open border condition.
Of course, our elected elites don't want to solve the immigration problem—because they are being paid by big businesses to keep the cheap labor immigrations doors was wide open as possible.
So don't expect a National ID card solution anytime soon—or the swift end to the Arizona case.
Meanwhile of course, other states apart from Arizona will continue to be attacked, overrun and terrorized by illegal alien inflows. Presumably the Obama Administration's intent is that they may, as the result of this US Justice lawsuit, delay passing Arizona-modeled legislation to protect their citizens as the Feds are now failing to do.
Every thinking, voting citizen understands that this absurdly dangerous situation is so ridiculously easy to fix—and yet is so stupidly, arrogantly, and probably illegally being ignored by our Federal government.
Arizona is a crossroads in American politics. For years, the Federal government has allowed open borders, so that the immigration problem has evolved into a monster.
As a Democrat, I am dismayed at Obama's attitude toward Arizona, and toward immigration generally. Remember Calvin Coolidge got elected President for his actions during the Boston Police Strike of 1919, which thrust him into the national spotlight. What does the future hold for Jan Brewer?
Many citizens will crumple under the propaganda emanating from the White House and others. Apparently some simply haven't read the law, which conforms to the Federal law—despite the US Justice Department's specious argument in its recently filed suit using "preemption" (e.g. Federal law always trumps state laws) after years of Federal failure to enforce its own laws.
But this Arizona issue is going to be a huge win or loss for the two sides. If the Feds win, forget the Bill of Rights—which were enacted to protect the states from unwarranted Federal domination.
A recent cartoon hit the nail on the head. (Historically, when America's cartoonists "get it", most Americans "get it"). It shows people being asked for IDs—and the final panel says: "Halt, what's the password?" VOTE DEMOCRAT."
Sadly, as a Democrat, I must admit that seems to be the overwhelming position of my party.
We need to cap this monster spill of people into the USA. What's gone around for 45 years without proper attention has at last come around. National ID's are certainly a vital part of the fix. E-verify is another.
With these two main tenets enacted and enforced, these massive legal and illegal numbers can begin to be regulated and reduced.
Hooray for Arizona's new law!
Donald A. Collins [email him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.
