The US-Mexico border is in complete disarray - but RFK Jr's 'solution' is full of holes

A recent report by the American First Policy Institute (AFPI) makes for sober reading. According to the authors of the report, since January of 2021, when Joe Biden became the 46th president of the United States, the policies of his administration “have unleashed a historic security, humanitarian, and fentanyl crisis along our southern border.”

Because of the current administration’s failure to take appropriate action, the country, warn the authors, continues "to see record numbers of illegal aliens released into American communities, tragic deaths from illicit fentanyl poisoning, an explosion of human trafficking cases, and other untold consequences to American communities."

What, if anything, can be done to end the madness?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a solution. Recently, the presidential hopeful called on Biden to close the border and immediately fund the provision of ID passports for all American citizens. RFK Jr. claims to have a number of "innovative common sense solutions” to a whole host of “apparently intractable problems which keep political parties at each other's throats."

He describes “a win-win-win policy which can solve two of the principal issues keeping the political parties apart.” They are illegal immigration and the integrity of the United States’ electoral process.

Addressing both issues, he suggests, is rather simple: just make passport cards free. An estimated 3 million Americans lack any form of legal ID. They don’t have a driver’s license, nor do they own a passport. Passport cards, notes Kennedy, are issued “by every one of 33,000 federal post offices in our country,” and most Americans have “a post office within easy driving or walking distance of their home.”

But for many Americans, particularly those living paycheck to paycheck, the passports, which cost 65 dollars, are just too pricey. Kennedy believes passport cards free for all American citizens - i.e., people who are legally entitled to live in the country - would help put an end to the border crisis and help ease concerns surrounding voting fraud. If every American has a passport card, they should produce it prior to casting their vote. No passport card, no vote. 

During a recent interview with Theo Von, Kennedy added that any employer who hires a person without a passport card (should passport cards be made free to all American citizens) should face prison time. Too many people, he argued, use fake Social Security numbers to secure employment in America. Passport cards would put an end to this.

To many readers, this probably sounds like a great idea. However, to Alan Hyde, a distinguished professor at Rutgers Law School, it certainly doesn't. In truth, it just sounds foolish.  “In 1986, when sanctions were first placed on employers who hired the unauthorized,” notes Hyde, "Latino political organizations feared that employers would avoid hiring even documented Latinos."

Back then, he says, "national identification cards were proposed but were strongly opposed by Republicans, for whom any kind of national ID was unacceptable."

"As it turned out," he adds. "The employer sanctions are so meaningless and rarely imposed that the feared discrimination never materialized either."

He adds: "I am not sure what problem this proposal is supposed to solve. Employers are already required to check whether new hires are authorized to work (citizens, green card holders, refugees with work permission etc.) and put this information on an I-9 form."

Hyde points out the fact that "most noncitizens working without legal authorization do so with full knowledge of their employers, who carry them on payrolls under fake names, deducting taxes and Social Security taxes that the noncitizen will never see." A different ID, therefore, wouldn’t change anything.

Rob Law, a former senior official at Dept. of Homeland Security, agrees with Hyde. "One of the primary drivers of illegal immigration is the ability to get an American job. The current paper-based employment verification is easy to exploit by illegal aliens and/or unscrupulous employers,” says Law, currently the Director of AFPI’s Center for Homeland Security and Immigration.

"If illegal aliens can obtain fake driver’s licenses and Social Security cards, they would just as likely be able to get fraudulent passport cards,” he adds. “Instead of proposing something that sounds like a national ID, there is already a proven solution to keep illegal aliens out of the workforce: E-Verify, which is fast, free, and accurate."

According to Law, “the unprecedented record levels of illegal immigration are the direct result of the Biden Administration refusing to secure the border and operating a nationwide catch and release scheme that allows illegal aliens into American communities.” The problem cannot be solved with passport cards.

Law urges the next president “to immediately resume the successful Remain in Mexico policy, vigorously enforce immigration law, and deport those who shouldn’t be here. When real consequences attach to illegal immigration, future waves are discouraged from paying the cartels to smuggle them to the border.”

Will Robert F. Kennedy Jr. become the next president of the United States? His chances are slim. But if he does succeed Biden, the jacked sexagenarian will have to come up with a better solution than free passport cards to end the madness at the border.

Stay up to date with all the big headlines, pictures, analysis, opinion and video on the stories that matter to you.

Follow our social media accounts here on Express US and @ExpressUSNews