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You need to tie the national ID number to a person, and before modern online biometric verification that meant a document (the "ID card") with a biometric (signature/photo/fingerprint) that could be checked against the person presenting it.
You can get large numbers of illegals to self-deport by cutting off services, but empirically there are plenty of illegal immigrants in the US who don't have legal employment or bank accounts. In any case, the right-populist voter base wants to see visible deportations as a show of good faith. I do not think the MAGA base would consider "Universal e-verify and deport foreign criminals when you catch them" to constitute effective enforcement without more.
The MAGA base knows what e-verify is and expects it as a means of encouraging self deportation.
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