One of the reasons why the US was, for a very long time a place where no one had to carry "papers" and show them on demand, was the Naturalization Act of 1790 -- passed by the First Congress, which included many of the Founders, and which was signed by George Washington. This law defined who could become a citizen of the country: only people of European race. Therefore one could easily see with one's own eyes who was alien and did not belong here, and be right 95% of the time. No papers necessary.
Discussion
This doesn’t change the fact that no man, including men from the government, have the right to force one to identify and prove he is “legal.” This level of surveillance WILL be used against good people. It’s not about safety. They don’t give a fuck about safety. If they cared about people, they wouldn’t be forcing vaccines and shitty dietary recommendations on people.
Rights do not exist in Nature as actual entities. They are very valuable concepts for ordering societies, but they _are_ just concepts. We have only the rights which we are willing to defend with sufficient violence and/or intelligence. Autonomous networks powered by immutable code are a wonderful weapon on the intelligence side, but I suspect that some tyrants, like the ones in Tel Aviv and at the central banks, will also require the other kind of defense.
I agree rights don’t exist in nature but they don’t exist in society either. At the end of the day, it comes back to power.