If the answer to the immigration debate is to make employers responsible for enforcing immigration laws by steering them to the E-Verify system managed by the Department of Homeland Security in partnership with the Social Security Administration I have to believe the same system can work for public service providers as well.
Media pundits point to the high cost of services rendered to illegal aliens on a daily basis. California is supposedly drowning in red ink from the excessive cost of services for illegal aliens. In our state, there is the suggestion that public services are being overwhelmed by illegal aliens. Yet none of the public service entities are allowed to ask about the immigration status of the recipients; and in many cases, they are specifically prohibited from asking.
In Arizona, the state tried to address the failure of the Federal Government to secure the border and stem the flow of illegal aliens and illegal drugs into our country by giving the police the directive to check violators’ eligibility to be in the country. Under my plan, all they have to do is link to the E-Verify system like any business owner would to determine the status of the individual. But unlike the business owner, the police are in a position to investigate further and facilitate the deportation of those folks determined to be in the US illegally. E-Verify is a system that is already in place and would not require a significant addition to the bureaucracy.
If we instruct our Department of Motor Vehicles to link to E-Verify before issuing a Driver’s License (to every applicant to avoid profiling) like business owners could be required to do, we could identify those folks who are legally eligible to be in the country regardless of their ethnicity.
We issue provisional driver licenses to drivers under 21 years of age. We should issue licenses different from the standard one for all aliens. Authorities should be aware when a driver license is presented as identification that the person presenting it is either of legal age to buy tobacco or liquor or that they are citizens of the United States or not.
On a state by state basis, the function of the department of motor vehicles can standardize for that state the process they choose to use with the idea that all the formats be linkable to the E-Verify system. It wouldn’t be a national ID card, but it would be a way to check the national data base.
If we are stopped by police or apply for services we are already asked to provide our driver’s license as identification. If a person is stopped by police or applies for services without that ID, they can offer an alternative explanation that should be verifiable. Either way, the public service agency has a method of determining eligibility. Failing to provide proper ID or acceptable alternative, follow-up action can be pursued.
At the same time, before we enroll children in schools or render medical services at public health providers we link to E-Verify to determine eligibility of the individuals to be in the country legally. The decision to render services or not then can be made with that in mind. If an agency decides to continue offering the service to those individuals, they can at least track them.
If E-Verify is the standard for determining private sector employment eligibility, it can serve in the same capacity for public service agencies.
Certainly there is a cost of implementing the E-Verify system for this application, but if it is a cost small businesses must bear, it cannot be an unreasonable cost to public agencies if the security of our country is at stake.
No Loss for Words 
Illegal Guns across the Border
by Steve DanaI watched the press conference yesterday where Presidents Obama and Calderone from Mexico talked about the substance of talks between our two countries.
They were proud of the fact that they had worked out some compromise that would allow Mexican truck drivers to cross the border with their cargo and deliver it to locations in the States. Currently, Mexican truckers are not allowed to deliver their cargo, they drop their loads at the border and American truck drivers pick them up and proceed to their destination.
I’m not sure how American truck drivers will feel about the loss of work, but the Teamsters must be okay with it since Obama is their guy and he wouldn’t sell their jobs down the river, would he?
Another issue talked about during the press conference was the issue of American guns illegally crossing the border into Mexico. I think it was a Mexican reporter that asked about what our country was planning to do to prevent those guns from entering Mexico since the drug cartels use the guns to fight the government.
I find it ironic that the Mexicans blame Americans for their problems since it is the insatiable appetite for drugs of Americans that drives the drug trade in their country. And now they blame us for not protecting their country from the lawless cartels by not preventing guns from entering Mexico.
How could we possibly argue with that logic?
So, our neighbors to the south are complaining about non-existent border security because it is harming Mexico? Wouldn’t that be even more ironic if the impetus for border security came from what is escaping from our country rather than from what is illegally coming in?
Everyone recognizes the fact that securing the border will be difficult, but now that the Mexicans are on board maybe we can get on with it.
Posted in Foreign Affairs, Political commentary | Leave a Comment »