...your birth certificate with you at all times?

but I would. I have nothing against immigrants, but they should be here legally.

If you got mugged with your birth certificate, it could bankrupt you.

could use my drivers license or state picture card which both require proof of identification before being issued.

...in a one of those documents, you are susceptible to being bankrupted and utterly powerless to do anything about it. I promise you, as someone who worked on extremely hi-tech ID cards, they are all fallible. And worse, the more people believe they "work", the easier it is to fool the system.

Staying completely ahead of counterfieters is a fool's errand. You can't do it (the best are never far behind), and you are most susceptible when you think you have done it.

For those of us born in the USA, it all comes back to your birth certificate. Which does not, and cannot have any infallible piece of biometric identification on it. No 20+ year old technology is still state of the art when it's needed.

Finally, the story cited above is about someone who overstayed a visa. None of the 9/11 perpatrators came in illegally. Some of them were here "illegally" because they overstayed visas (the others were legal). Half of the "illegals" currently in this country crossed the border legally and overstayed. Note that your "proof of identification" simply requires that your entrance to the country has not expired. Oh, big comfort.

Documents won't keep you safe, and requiring documents is likely to make you less so.

... which, if the need is seen as legitimate, but the action taken seen as ultimately insufficient, what do you suppose the response will be?

I dunno, but moving from papers request upon arrest, related or not to the supposed yet to proved infraction, to papers request upon detention, say, while pulled over for speeding, is not a very far leap.

Then again, they could just taze you first, ask later.

Its always good to note that illegal immigration violations are a civil infraction, not a criminal one. Though that could change. I'd say it falls somewhere in between speeding and being OJ Simpson, depending.

are the solutions? We just let everyone in and say the hell with it? No solution seems perfect but doing nothing is even worse.

necessarily addressing me, but ... the first step is definitely not to turn an issue of concern into an overblown crisis.

Its a complex issue demanding more than a few paragraphs, and apparently more brain power than currently available in the entire US government.

turning it into a crisis but do believe the govt has the right to know who is in the country. I still do not believe there is anything wrong with officers asking for identification. I don't think there is an easy answer but I am against using biometrics, fingerprinting or barcoding (lol) of citizens.