It seems that the illegal immigration issue will never be solved without some sort of national I.D. card. I know the thoughts of Big Brother come to mind when we consider national I.D. cards. But we are between a rock and a hard place. If we don't have national I.D. cards, anyone can migrate illegally and corporations can use them for cheap labor with the excuse that they have no way of knowing who is a citizen. Counterfeit I.D.s will always be a problem, but wouldn't be as big of a problem if we took the threat more seriously and used the best technology.

So what are the options here? What are the pros and cons of each?

i can imagine being employed without my passport i've 'forgotten' to bring but nevertheless not without submitting my id-code. it is so essential that i and some others i know decided to memorize it years ago...

I already have one.

Well, it's actually a CA drivers license. But it has my photo, my signature, a magstripe with my data on the back of it, and a hologram making it hard to forge.

If the Feds would release a NATIONAL DRIVERS LICENSE STANDARD (they've been talking about it for years), all the states would have to make the same thing.

I know what you're thinking - - there will still be state employees making forgeries for $$$, like they did in Virginia.

Well, corruption starts at the very top of government.

Clean that out; the rest will be easy.