The new tough on illegals/tough on the employers of illegals laws which, by removing the jobs magnet created by the employers of illegals, caused a mass self exodus of illegals from Arizona and Oklahoma aren't good enough for you. Universal MANDATORY e-verification of the legal status on an employee is the key. Then if an employer is caught hiring illegals, they're just caught, and subject to massive penalties. Proof of legal status is required to receive any social services. All this has relatively little cost to American taxpayers. The border needs to be secured to stop drug smugglers, gang bangers, criminal illegals, terrorists, etc that won't be affected by tough on employers of illegals laws.

None of that will matter if we can't invent a stellar, more foolproof system of identification. Otherwise, it's setting millions of businesses up for spectacular failure, and won't really acheive anything at all.

Oddly, the people most keen for the "tough on employers" system tend to ALSO be the ones most violently opposed to any sort of RFID or government tracking.

Cognitive dissonance, anyone?

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This is what happens when we have panderers instead of leaders...

The pilot e-verification is the best program that we have right now. Don't you think that your statement that it's 'setting millions of businesses up for spectacular failure' is a spectacular exaggeration? They keep improving the system every day and any discrepancies concerning legal citizens need to be found and corrected, anyway. These discrepancies might as well be found now as later. Also all the discrepancies found and corrected for legal citizens are a one time thing. After all the discrepancies for legal citizens are all corrected, voila, no more discrepancies to deal with.

It might be an exaggeration, but I think I am right to be skeptical about how this is going to end up working. It feels very much like passing the buck onto the business owners for the burden of proof.

I do hope you're right, and that my concerns aren't warranted.

Down here near the border where I am, I can see just how overwhelmed the Border Patrol is, and how their pleas fall on deaf ears in Washington. To expect the business owners to be the backstop is rather too little too late: they've already gotten millions in free services even before they look for jobs. Most of the "day labor" stuff isn't going to be catchable, anyway, as there aren't any records to even review.

I just think that this is something the government needs to do, not passing the burden on to business owners. We here in AZ feel pretty abandoned by DC anyway.

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This is what happens when we have panderers instead of leaders...

All the business owner has to do is e-verify. It takes very little time to do. If the business owner wants to risk hiring an illegal that doesn't pass e-verify, sobeit. Since the illegal Mexican invasion is caused by the unscrupulous employers of illegals in the first place, by their hiring of the illegals, which creates the jobs magnet, I don't have much sympathy for them. They need to buckle down and stop hiring illegals.

I agree that the employer part is a big part of the problem. But I don't agree that ALL of the responsibility should lie with the business.

Also, it just creates the possibility of having a horde of unemployed aliens here, which doesn't really solve the issue...might even make it worse.

So, if the idea is to reduce the amount of people sponging off social programs and taking up resources, then JUST the e-verify isn't going to cut it. A lot of aliens aren't here to work.

I think nothing is going to take the place of actually getting serious about the border.

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This is what happens when we have panderers instead of leaders...

Since you're in Az you have the new tough on the employers of illegals law that caused a mass self deportation of illegals from your state. Proof of citizenship is required to receive social services in your state. Just how is an unemployed illegal going to live in your state? What is getting serious about the border going to do about unemployed illegals in your state?