Nethaway: National ID solves many problems

WACO, Texas — In a 6-3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a states can demand photo ID for voting.

The court ruling will not put an end to this highly charged issue now that Republicans and Democrats have taken opposite views on whether states should enforce voter ID laws.

Whether voter ID cards would prevent voter fraud, as Republicans argue, or prevent some poor, older and minority voters from casting ballots, as Democrats charge, could become moot if Congress would pass a national ID law.

A standardized national identification card for American citizens would solve myriad problems that vex this nation but appear insoluble because Republicans and Democrats would rather use national problems as partisan weapons.

In an effort to pass meaningful immigration reform laws that did not break down into partisan warfare, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1990 that established the bipartisan Commission on Immigration Reform charged with finding recommendations for Congress.

The person who chaired that blue-ribbon commission was former Democratic Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, a respected constitutional scholar, ethicist and civil rights advocate.

Members of the Jordan Commission represented both political parties, academia and business, as well as minorities and women.

The goal of the commission as set out by Congress was to make recommendations to curb illegal immigration, restore the nation's immigration policy as a method to provide humanitarian assistance to foreign refugees, reunite nuclear families and provide U.S. employers with workers by matching employer needs with worker skills.

Central to the commission's findings presented to Congress in several reports was the need to establish a national identification system.

The Jordan Commission told the nation's lawmakers that they should pass legislation to establish a national computerized identification system so U.S. employers could be held accountable for hiring illegal immigrants.

Former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson, who helped write immigration laws passed in 1986 and 1996, said that Congress' refusal to establish a secure national ID system to verify employment eligibility is the reason that the immigration laws failed to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

The bipartisan and highly respected 9/11 Commission recommended that Congress establish a standardized national ID system for U.S. citizens as a necessary security method to combat terrorists.

In 2004, an independent bipartisan commission led by former President Carter, a Democrat, and former Secretary of State James Baker, a Republican, recommended that Congress establish free standardized photo IDs for all voters to help ensure the integrity of elections.

The 21 Republican and Democratic members of the Carter-Baker commission unanimously backed 87 recommendations to improve voting, including photo IDs.

Nevertheless, the vote in Congress on states establishing photo ID laws for voters split along partisan lines.

Members of Congress do not need more blue-ribbon commissions to tell them that they should establish a standardized national identification system for all citizens.

A national ID system would finally allow employers to tell citizens from non-citizens and provide the means to enforce long-ignored employer sanctions.

It also would make it more difficult for foreign terrorists to hide in the United States.

Concerns about voter fraud could be lessened with a national ID system.

With a national ID, states could do a better job tracking dead-beat parents who avoid accountability by moving to other states.

Also, better services could be provided to poor and homeless citizens who now find it difficult to obtain reliable IDs.

At some point, voters need to insist that their elected representatives put partisan politics aside and do what's right for the nation.

Rowland Nethaway writes for the Waco Tribune-Herald.