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Keller Endorses National ID

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An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), officer prepares an undocumented immigrant for a deportation flight on December 8, 2010 in Mesa, Arizona. (John Moore / Getty Images)

Bill Keller in the New York Times endorses immigration enforcement at the workplace, buttressed by a national ID card:

The reason Arizona and other states have deputized police as amateur immigration agents — and contemplated making enforcers out of school principals, emergency-room nurses and other civil servants — is that we have failed so utterly to fortify the most obvious line of defense. No, not the Mexican border. Employers. Jobs are, after all, the main magnet for illegal immigration. If we had a reliable way for employers to check the legal status of prospective workers, and held them strictly accountable for doing so, we would not feel the need for all these secondary checkpoints.

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About the Author

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David Frum

David Frum is a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast and a CNN contributor. He is the author of eight books, including most recently the e-book WHY ROMNEY LOST and his first novel Patriots, published in April 2012.

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