Playing the devils advocate Rory...because if you are going to implement these laws and cards the immigration officers need very specific guidelines. Let's say I have friends in town, I turn them loose in my private vehicle, they get stopped because they are not in possession of a national ID card...a couple things can happen...they get hauled away being legit tourists, or they get a pass...but what's to stop the next private vehicle with an illegal in it from saying he is a tourist staying with friends...it's not that easy!! There are still too many loopholes and ramifications to some silly immigration officer over reaching on what his capabilities are because he is the boss of you and in control so his rules override all else.

Not realistic...then you would need to move away from a bazillion pieces of small little bits of paper that can VERY easily get lost or misplaced if you know the right person to talk to...to a more secure electronic format that is easily searchable!! All those people that file things away, and then have to go back into the files to retrieve them would likely be unemployed...think of the clerks man...think of the clerks!!

Bahahahahahahhahahaha...oh man, that's funny right there!!

Oh great!! Now you have bail and sureties not worth the paper they are printed on...the guy jumps bail and the judge just gives them a small fine.

Amen my brother!! I might just have to start getting religious all over again!!

Devils advocate here...some unsavoury person nicks my wallet...according to your specs, they are now in possession not only of my credit cards, drivers license (which also has my NIB number already on it), they also now have my DOB (that would be on license as well so dupe info), my place of residence, my passport #, etc. Armed with that information can be incredibly dangerous for an individual...and incredibly valuable for a criminal with some sort of tech background.

Well that is true...If I heard all the crime stats before I came here and was going to a place like Atlantis, I'd never leave the hotel property either...sad state of affairs.

So a tourist checks into their hotel...the first thing any smart tourist does is lock up all his valuables, passports, paperwork, cash, electronics, etc, etc in the room safe, or a safe deposit box down at the front desk. That tourist ends up touring about the island and comes across an immigration road block...explain to me what happens and how he or she keeps themselves from getting hauled away to the detention centre? Curious.

Fair enough...referendum it is...let's get it over with and give the gals what's right and fair.

Point taken...but sadly, there is a massive amount of negativity floating around out there. One positive spin to this whole concept though is this...I think the general populace is slowly coming around to seeing all the crap that both governments try to pull off and get away with. Back in SLOP days, it was PLP or nothing for various reasons, and no one held them accountable for anything, now, between the FNM and PLP coming in and out of power a couple times, I think more and more people are seeing the bigger picture and hopefully realizes that what these idiots in government spew out of their mouths on the campaign trail, they had better try to address while in power. Those that voted PLP this time around bought it hook line and sinker, the jobs, the crime, the economy, that they had a plan to do it all better and solve all your problems. Hopefully they realize (sadly they won't) that we are not going to take it any more...from any government...Doubtful the PLP will get elected again, and I don't think the FNM are in top fighting form either to be effective, does this next election get won by a third party? As it is, the status quo amongst our politicians is unacceptable, and I think the dialogues you see in these blogs is testament to that...people are pissed off at the powers that be, and they are not going to just let it get swept under the rug anymore. Accountability...neither of them have it...the only accountability is that it is always the other parties fault for the predicament we are in.