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Originally Posted by Kitsune
..it seems to be optional for a lot of jobs and it doesn't seem to be enforced one bit.
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It's not optional at all. The enforcement has been vitiated by several factors, including a contradictory law preventing employers from demanding INS documentation from foreign-born employees because it's "discriminatory" (and because of scary visions touted by liberals of squads body-armored INS stormtroopers with tactical carbines descending on sweatshops).
There's also widespread opposition to a true national identity document system, for reasons that make no sense to me. I have a driver's licence, a pilot's licence, two firearms licences, and amateur radio station licence and a US passport, which I presented the last couple times I needed to do an I-9. What freedom I am gaining because there's no national ID card system escapes me somehow. The government knows who I am and where I live, if they care, which apparently they don't, much
I missed an opportunity to do contract work in Switzerland last year because I wasn't an EU citizen (yes, I know Switzerland isn't in the EU, go figure). Somehow I resisted the temptation to scream "Racism!" then.
Interestingly enough, the fellow organizing that contractor group would have been OK with the Swiss; he's Mexican-born but claims dual citizenship as a Spaniard though his maternal grandfather. Today he works for Wal-mart (the .com part) as a legal US resident.