Against ....too many loose ends and more questions than answers.

Background checks - how reliable are they? Even in USA where business and government runs pretty well compared to other countries, background checks are sometimes bad. In other countries where government databases are manipulated based on bribes paid and records are completely rewritten or wiped out, how can background checks work?

Instead of feeling stuck permanently in the U.S. - If people don't want to feel permanently stuck, why don't they just migrate legally?

The reason businesses hire illegals is because they cannot sue for being paid below minimum wages and can be dumped at any time. Businesses which pay the minimum wage pretty much hire legals. These legal temporary guys will get the politically driven minimum wages or whatever, so why would businesses hire them? Besides, businesses have enough ways to check for the legal immigration status of any potential employee anyway. Anyone who has gone through the visa process will have enough documentation to prove the legality of his employment eligibility.

This program is paid for by applicant fees and businesses that want legal workers - I am not sure businesses have a shortage of legal workers. They probably have a shortage of workers who will work at a wage below minimum wage(which is not market determined and is set at an unreasonably high level by politically driven agendas).

In short, it sounds like someone who wants money for a project to make money for himself. The only part I like is the card swiping bit(probably will save some time for anyone to set up an employee in the payroll system). The rest of it sounds like crap

They'll lend their cards to illegal aliens who will then come and go as THEY please/

Unless they have a fingerprint/retina scan along with the swipe and an interconnected database between all checkpoints this is doomed to failure. And that is on both entrance and exit.

What would stop someone from coming in today then sending his card back across the border by mail, having some one carry it, other method, and someone else using it tomorrow?

background checks are sometimes bad

This is a big problem with these sorts of solutions for difficult problems. It's easy to say something like that, but very hard to implement it properly and reliably. False positives on medical tests are similar.

It's what we call in engineering and scientific circles - how do you get from step 2 to 3? "ah, that's where the magic happens."

I suppose, if I lived in the US I'd be generally be in favour. If you can't stop something you may as well control it (which underpins my opinion on drug legalisation too). But be prepared for people being wrongly detained, paperwork stuff-ups stopping people from crossing the border, idiot employees applying rules out of the handbook without exercising common sense.

In other words, the TSA writ even larger.

Against. We have an excess of laws and a dearth of enforcement. This changes nothing.

Against. I don't care what color the card is, this is just another effort to depress American employment and wages.

This is a guest worker program. The fact of there being a red card involved in incidental. It's a silly to fixate on the significance of the ID cards. Which makes me think that they're hiding something.

Guest worker programs don't tend to have much effect on illegal immigration, which participates in a black or gray labor market. More skilled workers may use it, but their participation reduces their value to employers - what's the advantage in hiring them? So the end result would probably be very similar to what we have now, but with another layer of bureaucracy. And of course if immigrants' status has to be checked, citizens will as well.

"It will remain illegal to hire a worker not in the country legally."

So, what you said is, "this is not happening".

You close the first Wal-Mart for a day because the landscapers are illegal aliens, you'll see serious action.

But that won't happen, because of money. Too many Americans think this cheap labor by little brown people is necessary.
Haven't you been told food prices will go up if the law is enforced? Didn't you allow the law not to be enforced by agreeing with that?

Do you support minimum-wage law? No, I guess not. Not really, if you make excuses for illegal immigration. Don't lie.

Another program is not necessary. People know who they hire.

Cards? RFID Implants!

(And when you get six arrests the chip releases the anthrax spores.)

"The reason businesses hire illegals is because they cannot sue for being paid below minimum wages and can be dumped at any time. Businesses which pay the minimum wage pretty much hire legals. "

That's what I thought too. But I'm finding out now that in north Alabama at least, that's not what happened. Here's something interesting: In the rural counties of northern Alabama (excluding Madison/Morgan/Limestone, which are Huntsville metro area), unemployment is down a full percentage point since the Alabama immigration enforcement bill passed. Turns out that an awful lot of illegals were working in factories, farms, and construction jobs where they were being paid legal minimum wage or above.

Now that they're leaving, employers are hiring and citizens are taking those jobs. I have a relative who works at an auto parts factory and she reports that they are hiring everyone who walks in the door, as long as they're legal. The factory was staffed with illegals before. Now they're hiring citizens, and the jobs pay $10/hr and above. These are factories that were staffed with illegals before, and citizens couldn't get jobs there. How did that happen? I have no idea. But it did.

(Auto parts manufacture is really taking off here, since the earthquake in Japan seriously impacted the supply chain. It's good jobs for people who don't have much education. And if you can use it to work your way into a skill position, such as tool/die maintenance, welding, or CNC technician, you can actually make some serious coin. Plants around here are screaming for welders.)

Pass the word, Cousin. The whole reason illegals are a problem is that people MAKE a place for them here.