Beast In The Amnesty Bill: National Biometric ID for All Americans
Posted on Monday, March 08 @ 21:04:05 EST
Topic: North American Union SPP
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 ALIPAC NOTE: We expect these ID's to be eventually made mandatory for all American, Canadian, and Mexican citizens. We also expect them to contain tracking technologies such as Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) which allows you to be tracked by cameras attached to scanning computers. Speak out now against Amnesty and against Big Brother ID for all Americans!
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Wall Street Journal
MARCH 9, 2010
ID Card for Workers Is at Center of Immigration Plan
By LAURA MECKLER
Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have
settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a
national biometric identification card all American workers would
eventually be required to obtain.
Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the
Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants,
would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as
fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker.
The ID card plan is one of several steps advocates of an immigration
overhaul are taking to address concerns that have defeated similar
bills in the past.
The uphill effort to pass a bill is being led by Sens. Chuck Schumer
(D., N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who plan to meet with
President Barack Obama as soon as this week to update him on their
work. An administration official said the White House had no position
on the biometric card.
"It's the nub of solving the immigration dilemma
politically speaking," Mr. Schumer said in an interview. The card, he
said, would directly answer concerns that after legislation is signed,
another wave of illegal immigrants would arrive. "If you say they can't
get a job when they come here, you'll stop it."
The biggest objections to the biometric cards may come from privacy
advocates, who fear they would become de facto national ID cards that
enable the government to track citizens.
"It is fundamentally a massive invasion of people's privacy," said
Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties
Union. "We're not only talking about fingerprinting every American,
treating ordinary Americans like criminals in order to work. We're also
talking about a card that would quickly spread from work to voting to
travel to pretty much every aspect of American life that requires
identification."
Mr. Graham says he respects those concerns but disagrees. "We've all
got Social Security cards," he said. "They're just easily tampered
with. Make them tamper-proof. That's all I'm saying."
U.S. employers now have the option of using an online system called
E-Verify to check whether potential employees are in the U.S. legally.
Many Republicans have pressed to make the system mandatory. But others,
including Mr. Schumer, complain that the existing system is
ineffective.
Last year, White House aides said they expected to push immigration
legislation in 2010. But with health care and unemployment dominating
his attention, the president has given little indication the issue is a
priority.
Rather, Mr. Obama has said he wanted to see bipartisan support in
Congress first. So far, Mr. Graham is the only Republican to voice
interest publicly, and he wants at least one other GOP co-sponsor to
launch the effort.
An immigration overhaul has long proven a complicated political task.
The Latino community is pressing for action and will be angry if it is
put off again. But many Americans oppose any measure that resembles
amnesty for people who came here illegally.
Under the legislation envisioned by Messrs. Graham and Schumer, the
estimated 10.8 million people living illegally in the U.S. would be
offered a path to citizenship, though they would have to register, pay
taxes, pay a fine and wait in line. A guest-worker program would let a
set number of new foreigners come to the U.S. legally to work.
Most European countries require citizens and foreigners to carry ID
cards. The U.K. had been a holdout, but in the early 2000s it
considered national cards as a way to stop identify fraud, protect
against terrorism and help stop illegal foreign workers. Amid worries
about the cost and complaints that the cards infringe on personal
privacy, the government said it would make them voluntary for British
citizens. They are required for foreign workers and students, and so
far about 130,000 cards have been issued.
Mr. Schumer first suggested a biometric-based employer-verification
system last summer. Since then, the idea has gained currency and is now
a centerpiece of the legislation being developed, aides said.
A person familiar with the legislative planning said the biometric data
would likely be either fingerprints or a scan of the veins in the top
of the hand. It would be required of all workers, including teenagers,
but would be phased in, with current workers needing to obtain the card
only when they next changed jobs, the person said.
The card requirement also would be phased in among employers,
beginning with industries that typically rely on illegal-immigrant
labor.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn't have a position on the
proposal, but it is concerned that employers would find it expensive
and complicated to properly check the biometrics.
Mr. Schumer said employers would be able to buy a scanner to check the
IDs for as much as $800. Small employers, he said, could take their
applicants to a government office to like the Department of Motor
Vehicles and have their hands scanned there.
—Alistair MacDonald contributed to this article.
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