Ubaldo Jimenez Detained in AZ As Illegal

Most of us over the age of 6 know that there's an important difference between choosing to do something and being forced to do something.

I frequently go out without carrying any sort of ID. That shouldn't ever be a crime.

 

Hey, you're the one suggesting that we be required to show it when we make purchases and that if we are caught without it we get "investigated." Cuz God forbid I buy a car without the federal government's approval.

Should you show it when you go to church? That way the government knows you're going to the right one.

 

It's no different than not carrying your license and getting pulled over. You prove you have one, you're free to go.

The problem is people take it to one extreme or the other. How, exactly, would having a government issued national ID lead to the government taking over?

Shit, while you're at it, let's just get rid of tap water. Wouldn't want the government poisoning us, you know?

A national ID would be there to prove you belong in this country. It would be no different than a birth certificate (except, of course, that it would be uniform in all the states and thus people couldn't give you shit for having one from Hawaii) and would make it 1,000 times easier to get rid of illegals than laws like Arizona's would.

But, no, by all means feel free to pretend there's some government conspiracy to take over the world. I'll be over here on the side of logic saving you a seat.

 

Better not give me shit - I'm an Irish R&B singer, dammit!!

 

How does anyone ever go out without some sort of ID on them?

 

If I'm just going to walk down the street to the closest store, I might just bring my keys and some cash instead of grabbing my wallet.

Some groups object to the IDs on principle, some to the photos that are necessary for most of them. You'd also have to figure out how to ID every homeless person, unless you want them all arrested on suspicion of illegal immigration. Hell, I had a friend in college who rode public transportation everywhere and never had a need for a license. She didn't get hers until she was 24 or 25, when she finally needed to learn how to drive.

A driver's license is not mandatory in this country. SS numbers are usually assigned at birth, but I'd imagine there's a pretty significant group out there that never gets those assigned in the first place or who has lost all track of them and may have never had the card to begin with.

I'm a lot more curious, honestly, in how schiezanic'd make sure the schizophrenic who lives under the bridge or the PTSD-sufferer who sleeps on the bench in the park has this national ID on them at all times, or how you convince the Amish to do it. It's a lot more complicated than some people are making it.

 

But how would this work better than having a Social Security number?

 

Nah, we just need to go full Minority Report and install retinal scanners all over the place. Then you wouldn't need to carry ID, since your eyeball would be your identification.

 

I don't think this law is perfect by any stretch, but I also don't think it's as Gestaposeque as some are making it out to be.

Part of the problem with immigration reform is that this is something that impacts 3-5 states much more than the rest of the country, so getting any real immigration reform done in the house becomes unlikely and states that are impacted (California, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico...) have to do what's best for them.

 

Can you please point out how a police officer can determine whether someone should be "reasonably suspected" of being an illegal?

I think you miscomprehend a big part of the objection to the law. It isn't that everyone is afraid that it's going to unleash the Gestapo, although I know some fear that. For me, it's just that it's completely unenforceable grand standing. You keep applauding it, but I haven't heard you yet explain how exactly anybody is supposed to enforce it.

 

Has anyone in Arizona clarified for the police what is "reasonable suspicion" of being an illegal? Picking lettuce in Yuma? Standing out in front of a Home Depot? Busing a table? The first time police pull over someone and ask for "papers," and the person doesn't have them because they happen to be a real-life U.S. citizen, is the day the first civil rights lawsuit regarding that law is filed.