A Slate article today suggested allegedly neutral checkpoints might provide a means better than the current infamous "papers please" law passed:
If Arizona truly wants to identify undocumented aliens in a way that does not undermine legitimacy, it should try randomized checkpoints. Checkpoints are widely used by police to enforce drunk-driving laws and other routine safety checks—such as seat belt laws—that save lives.
To the degree that concerns are cited that the new law invades the federal realm regarding regulation of aliens, this solution seems of limited value. The same basic possible state invasion of a federal regime seems to be involved.
Second, the interests cited here underline that such checkpoints have been upheld for limited regulatory purposes. Having the general public being randomly checked, as compared to drivers those at borders or certain transportation hubs and so forth, seems to me "unreasonable" under the relevant precedents. Also, visual checks for alcohol or seat belt use is not quite the same thing as checks for immigration status, which involves racial characteristics and requests for identification. The likely effects in practice and social effects as well are different. The latter has some troubling self-incrimination concerns as well. Finally, one thing appealed to by many of the rulings is that one basically could avoid such stops by not driving or the like. If that was the case here, the value would be much decreased.
Police can do a good job finding offenders without having to play their hunches. Policing agencies are required to have a good reason to set up a checkpoint, of course.
It would interest me what this would be.
But once a checkpoint is set up, individual officers don't need to exercise their discretion. In fact, they can't under constitutional law. In the absence of discretion, the harm of being publicly targeted dissipates. And when officers don't need to invest in looking for individual offenders, but rather stop people on a routinized basis, they treat them equally and—we can hope—with more respect.
The discretion would be determining where to set up the checkpoints and having the proper authority to do so, the extended time and effort necessary not to be wasted when the courts determine they were acting illegally. Outside of border areas (and then core cases focus on federal action), has it been decided that such checkpoints are allowed? If so, why haven't they been used? Perhaps, like some sheriffs who oppose the new law, they find them relatively unhelpful to deal with the problems at hand?
It is questionable if such regimes will in action be as neutral as suggested here. Their legitimacy might still be questioned. But, their value as well. The reason for so many undocumented aliens is basically because the powers that be like the idea of a cheap labor force and support policies that encourage mass influx of people -- legal or not -- from Mexico. This is one reason current federal laws regulating hiring such people are so weakly enforced. Avoiding the point with makeweight solutions will be as useful as past measures that do not address underlining concerns, though when dealing with such mega issues, this admittedly might be all that is possible in the current climate.
Checkpoints might be of some value, I guess, but I'm doubtful.
[Update: Over at the Slate fray, I was told by a resident that the feds have such checkpoints. At one point it was noted primarily in the southern part of the state. It was unclear to that person how additional ones -- if the resources were really there to staff them -- would be that much more useful. Perhaps, if there was no more 'drug war' -- well, yes, that is one influence on the problem anyways, including a major increase in violence and disorder in certain major Mexican cities.
Another person basically reaffirmed my suggestion that in practice they would be carried out in a discriminatory way while being deemed intrusive without the limited possible (at least in the public's mind) value of a sobriety checkpoint. Some reference to employer/employee checks also were made, one person suggesting there might be constitutional limits to that (don't really buy it -- Congress, e.g., has power over interstate commerce and immigration matters, which can in that limited way include some identification requirements).
Again, the limits inherent in the system are apparent. As to national id cards, much debate on that in the past, privacy and technological matters raised. I'm left again with the idea that the supply and demand is high enough to suggest some panacea is not likely, if even we as a whole really want to make the real efforts necessary to do it. This "solution" in particular is dubious.]