As a new legal resident here in the US/Virginia, I am trying to comprehend the massive problem with people that are trying to find a new and better future for themselves and their families here in the States.
The number of illegal immigrants in the United States has grown to as many as 12 millions, and they now account for about one in every 20 workers (US Census Bureau). That is more than the total population of Sweden. The Pew Hispanic Center said Mexicans make up 56 percent of illegal immigrants. An additional 22 percent come from other Latin American countries. About 13 percent are from Asia, and Europe and Canada combine for 6 percent.
The people that enters in to the States illegally are usually hard working and decent folks, prepared to do their best, given any opportunity. But, there are also criminals and terrorists following the same tracks. These are opportunistic and totally oblivious of human lives and any laws, rules and regulations.
So, what can be done with this problem? The first key factor is actually to clearly identify every individual living in the States. Many European countries has a personal identification given at birth and archived when the citizen has passed away. Scandinavians has a long history of recording its population, in a structured way since the early 1500's. Without this identification, people will have a hard time surviving and living within the country. The unique and personal ID is required to get a job, to go to school, to get a car, sign up for a phone, have medical treatment and being part of the social security network.
We tend to trust a document instead of focusing on the information it carries. It's very easy for illegal aliens to obtain drivers licenses. These licenses become "breeder documents" which allow the recipient to obtain additional documents, based upon the false premise that he is a U.S. citizen. For example, all of the 9/11 hijackers had driver's licenses or state-issued non-driver's identification cards, which they then could use when opening bank accounts, renting housing, and boarding planes.
The number of illegal immigrants in the United States has grown to as many as 12 millions, and they now account for about one in every 20 workers (US Census Bureau). That is more than the total population of Sweden. The Pew Hispanic Center said Mexicans make up 56 percent of illegal immigrants. An additional 22 percent come from other Latin American countries. About 13 percent are from Asia, and Europe and Canada combine for 6 percent.
The people that enters in to the States illegally are usually hard working and decent folks, prepared to do their best, given any opportunity. But, there are also criminals and terrorists following the same tracks. These are opportunistic and totally oblivious of human lives and any laws, rules and regulations.
So, what can be done with this problem? The first key factor is actually to clearly identify every individual living in the States. Many European countries has a personal identification given at birth and archived when the citizen has passed away. Scandinavians has a long history of recording its population, in a structured way since the early 1500's. Without this identification, people will have a hard time surviving and living within the country. The unique and personal ID is required to get a job, to go to school, to get a car, sign up for a phone, have medical treatment and being part of the social security network.
We tend to trust a document instead of focusing on the information it carries. It's very easy for illegal aliens to obtain drivers licenses. These licenses become "breeder documents" which allow the recipient to obtain additional documents, based upon the false premise that he is a U.S. citizen. For example, all of the 9/11 hijackers had driver's licenses or state-issued non-driver's identification cards, which they then could use when opening bank accounts, renting housing, and boarding planes.
The SSN is not adequate. A personal ID number must be unique and tied to one person for the duration of his/hers life. ID numbers and associated information should be managed in a central register, accessible to verify a persons identity. Individuals could use a number of gadgets to identify themselves, a smart identity card, encrypted with PIN-code, fingerprint, retina, facial image, a voice signature and more, and at any time be validated by the central ID-database. What I am describing is in fact a few components in a national Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), reference to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_key_infrastructure.With direct and easy access to a Citizen Identification Database (CID), then there is no excuse to check if a person is illegal or not. The second key factor should be enforcement. Employers that put illegal aliens on their payroll should be fined $100,000 or more. Also, severe fines should be imposed on important commercial and government service providers that allow aliens to be their customers. It's not a question of discrimination and oppression, in fact it's an issue of a non-bias, equal for all control function.
How can we then avoid people to use the CID, to find information about people that can be used for criminal activities (address information can be used for buglers)? The third key success factor is that the individual holds the key to his/hers information. It's the individuals own choice and best interest to identify himself in a secure manner. Just emagine how easy it will be identifying ourself with a secure card, instead of filling in all those forms. When the individual leaves the employer or the service provider, they will not have any means to access the information.
With these three factors fully implemented, we will have a fairly good understanding on who is or isn't an illegal alien. Then comes the tricky question on what to do next? What about all the babies (US citizens) born in the US of parents that are illegal aliens? These are difficult human and political issues, that will influence US Politics on economics, social sciences, security and much more for a long time. Regardless of point-of-views in future discussions - everybody needs to have trusted, accessable and quality assured information.
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