Over dinner, Audrey and I were discussing illegal immigration. She was concerned about why nobody is focusing on the obvious first step of getting rid of the US's "anchor baby" policy. I pretty much mentioned that with our current leadership and the mindset of Americans, nobody except legal workers is particularly concerned about the illegal problem.
I bottom lined it frankly by saying... what do you care? How does it affect you?
Her answer was simple... increased health care costs, increased auto insurance costs and decreased public safety.
Over the course of the dinner, I figured out how to nearly completely eliminate illegal drivers and "free" healthcare for illegals.
A) Mandate that in order to buy gas you need to show and swipe a valid drivers license.
B) In order to get health care you need to show and swipe a valid identification card.
In "A"... you do the following. You make it impossible for someone with a suspended license, no license or a warrant for arrest to buy fuel. Additionally, if they swipe it, you just gave the authorities an absolute location for them. Anyone with an APB would be unable to buy gas. Warrant for arrest... come and get them, here they are. You sure as hell wouldn't be able to buy gas if you didn't have an ID.
In "B" I figure it is like this... if you go eat dinner and inform the waitress that you have no means of paying, but you were hungry... they call the cops. Same thing should happen to anyone getting health care without a means of paying for it. If you don't have ID, don't have a job or aren't legal... the cops get called if you get health care. This allows us to provide basic emergency care with a clear conscience, but also allows us to prosecute anyone who gets it without being able to show intent to pay for it. Most importantly, if you are illegal... you just got caught. We patch them up and deport them. Period. After they get arrested for doing the medical equivalent of a "dine and dash".
If we remove the anchor baby program and set up these two things it would remove two of the biggest impact items that illegal immigrants have on us.
All gas stations have the ability to swipe a credit card these days. Veri-Sign terminals can absolutely read an ID, so just add that step to buying gas. Swipe your card, enter your Zip code, swipe your ID, pump your gas...
Oh, you are paying cash? When you hand the clerk your cash to start a pump you need to hand over your drivers license as well. They swipe it, call it good.
What if your card goes bad? Easy day... same as a credit card, you call it in.
Whaddya think?