Could we RFID illegal aliens?

It seems to me that we have the technology available to do something like this. If we catch an illegal inside the country, you inject a RFID tag into their abdomen, then deport them. After that, a simple scanner could detect them, either crossing the border or anywhere else they may be. A sweep of an agricultural area could quickly and easily identify the legal workers from the previously caught illegals. Extremely harsh punishments could then be applied to multiple crossers.

We have to do something to control the floods over our borders. It is an invasion, pure and simple. Is there a way to utilize RFID technology without violating so many national and international laws as to make it impossible? The suggestion above obviously violates current US laws. Is there a way to make it practical?

Does this argument justify *‘by any means necessary’ * to alleviate the problem?

Regardless of changes to US and international law, this is morally wrong. No matter how minor the surgery to implant it, if it is against the subject’s will, it is mutilation. I don’t even think rapists and child molesters can be surgically castrated without their consent. And even if we could get past our own moral and legal objections, is this going to play well in the court of world opinion? Seems to me that that it would do far more harm than good.

An invasion? Poland in 1939 was an invasion. And flood control is a water management issue. Illegal immigration, by contrast, is a law enforcement problem.

I am against putting monitoring devices in any person ever, with or without their permission. In my world, such tracking technology would not exist; I think it violates human decency. It puts us down to the level of cows or bald eagles. What would be the problem with taking a picture of the frequent crossers and putting those pictures in a database so guards would know who they were? Besides the fact that “they all look alike” or something like that.

Why not just big tattoos on their forheads?

And there could be bombs in 'em!

That way, when you dump ‘em back over the border, the next time they come sneakin’ across, BOOM!

:rolleyes:

This is one of the more disturbing OP’s I’ve seen around here lately. What makes you think you have the right to cut people open and put things in their bodies? What makes you think they can’t take them out? Would you cut children too? How about babies? Why do mutiple crossers have to be “punished severely?” Are they harming you in some way by picking grapes? Would you illegally cross a border and pick some grapes if it was the only way you could feed your children? Would you be evil if you did? If you had a baby with you would it be ok with you if the authorities cut it open and stuck a computer chip in its belly?

I’m counting the minutes 'til this gets moved or locked.
Anyway… we do it to dogs, we could do it to people.
No guarantees the people wouldn’t choose to have it surgically removed.
Nice thing about dogs… they never inititate elective surgery.
I’ll leave the ethics out of this, as your question, as stated, belongs in GQ, not GD.

Why bother with all this technology? Why not just pug their noses or cut off a pinky or something? Sure, some people will be punished innocently due to prior disfigurements or injuries, but hey, we’ve gotta stop the invasion.

Or hey, since we’re disregarding any semblance of human rights or basic decency, why not just line up all the illegals next to a ditch and shoot them in the back of the head? Then we’re guaranteed to never have to worry about them re-entering. And we’ll make the people considering entering illegally think twice.

We don’t need a technological solution to the problems we are having with our out of control borders. This isn’t a problem because we can’t find the illegals. It’s a problem because right now our leaders lack the political will to even want to find them. Cities like LA have rediculous policies that the police aren’t even allowed to ask if someone is legal or illegally in this country.

Until the government decides it wants to stop illegal immigration, it will continue to exist on the massive scale that it does now.

I have to wonder, though, why the police would need to ask if someone is legally or illegally in the country.

Agreed. And the government, despite what it claims otherwise, is IMO not really interested in stopping illegal immigrants, because they provide a steady source of cheap labor to corporate interests.

For once we are in agreement. The OP poses a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. Even if the RFID’s showed exactly where returning illegals were crossing the border, we lack the agents to pick them all up. After a while, when the most frequent crossers were all tagged, the tracking screen would look like level 99 of Space Invaders.

Source: Amendment 14., Section 1., of the US Constitution

No matter what opinion one may hold regarding illegal aliens, they are afforded the same constitutional protections as US citizens while under the jurisdiction of the Constitution.

I think if we are going to manipulate the legal and economic climate of the entire world it is therefore immoral for us to consider any human being, not a citizen of the United States.

Remember: “No Taxation Without Representation”

I don’t think there is a problem with illegal immigration, they are going where people are willing to hire them. A Mexican has as much right to work as an American. Americans are the beneficiaries of systemic inequalities hands down, and I am tired of this farsical notion that Mexicans are somehow hurting our poor fragile society, when Mexican labor is as much a part of this country as anything else. Mexico has been there for all of American history, and people have been crossing that border the entire time.

And yes our government condones illegal workers in this country, as it should. The thing we should be focusing on is improving Mexico’s economy so that they don’t HAVE to jump the border, and perhaps even improving it so much that Americans will go to Mexico looking for jobs.

This is a country built by immigrants remember?

Chipping people is a waste of resources, something we don’t need to do, something that is unnecessarily expensive. It’s not even desirable, let alone practical. The issue of morality doesn’t need to figure into the equation, but if it did, it’s also immoral, and last but not least, it’s UnAmerican.

Erek

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

-New Colossus by Emma Lazarus

The Constitution prohibits local or state governments from discriminating on the basis of alien status, except when specifically authorized to do so by the federal government. Only the federal government, in pursuit of its foreign policy power, may discriminate on the basis of alien status. The single exception is where discrimination relates to an “incident of citizenship” such as voting or service on a jury.

Just for the record: I am completely in support of legal immigration, and am well aware of the necessity of workers to the American System as it is today. I also think the ultimate solution is to make Mexico rich, so that there are jobs there. But illegal is illegal. Repeat offenders who commit any other crime are punished with increasing severity. Illegal immigrants are just deported again.

The subject came up in class today, so I thought I would throw the idea out there for discussion.

You are wondering why the police would want to know if someone is doing something illegal?

Let me spell it out for you guys: Illegal immigration is, well, illegal. You know, it’s not actually permitted by law. Enforcing these laws is not discrimination. If somebody breaks the law and is in police custody it is absolutely right and proper to determine thier status. If they are illegal, they are a criminal, and they should be deported for this criminal act.

If you want to talk about some kind of guest worker program or other sane solutions to this problem, then I have an open mind. However, the current situation of just ignoring the millions of people breaking the law is totally out of control.

The thing is that I don’t see illegal immigration as being a serious problem for our economy. They’ve been doing it for as long as I’ve been alive, and there are whole economies that subsist on this basis. I think that instead of focusing on how we can punish them for breaking the law, we should focus on changing the law so it’s not so ridiculous. The law should be a balance between the reality of the situation and the ideals of the nation. I don’t think the current immigration laws reflect either.

The reality of the situation is that people are willing to jump a border into a country where they are treated as pack animals with little to no recourse for ills perpetrated against them, and are working for less than we consider to be a standard wage for an American worker. If these conditions are BETTER than what they are leaving in Mexico there are a lot of questions that need to be asked. One question is, “How does the United States contribute to Mexico’s economic situation, how can we better it?”, the next question that needs to be asked is, “If this is the status quo for our entire history, then why is it suddenly a big issue?”

How many American workers do YOU know willing to clean toxic vats for $ 4 an hour? So I fail to see how making their lives WORSE is in any way a solution to this problem. I prefer our government being apathetic to their existence in America, to our government being antagonistic to their existence here.

Is your life really harmed in any way by these workers, or is the only reason you care because you feel laws should be respected?

Erek

Because, quite frankly, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper to just deport them than to keep them in a prison.

Do you have any idea how much strain it puts on social services, health services, education, law enforcement, etc.?