So far, I have not seen any demonstrated connection to identifying “immigrants” and stopping “potential terrorists”. As a purely-pragmatic security issue, I’d rather focus on knowing who EVERYONE is on U.S. soil, their true name and origin…and worry less about how they got here in the first place. No more false ID’s, fake SS#’s and phony “papers”. We’re about 10-million-and-counting too-late worrying about “border security”. And we should be encouraging US citizenship for all here, and get rid of the various visa-programs and such that prevent Canadians, Mexicans and others here for years and even decades from becoming “productive” tax-paying citizens.
Hell, I’d even go for saying to the “criminal classes” that if you pay every-penny according to the tax-laws, we’ll not prosecute you for tax-evasion; though we will for the illegal activity that generated the money in the first place, and expend “priviledge” to tax-preparers so long as the tax were paid. Since tax-evasion the favorite way to bust-’em, tax compliance would sky-rocket.This done, we can then effectively deny the borders to the smugglers and narco-businesses that are doing far more damage to the U.S. than the “threat” of International Terrorism. Stream-line the legal border-crossings and Customs-stations at our airports and seaports to the regulated entry of all, and close the borders to irregular trade in both drugs, material and potential WMDs in trucks, planes and containerships.
Bright light scares off the cockroaches. Get the “people” out of the shade at the border, then you can concentrate on the real national interests of “controlling a frontier”. What we are doing now on “immigration” is about as effective and cost-efficient as the TSA operations at the airports….meaningless, inconvenient, expensive, and ultimately useless.
