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Mayor's idea on immigrants
Knocking legislation in Congress, he pushes for DNA or fingerprint database to verify all legal U.S. workers

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

May 25, 2006

Mayor Michael Bloomberg thrust himself into the national immigration debate yesterday, advocating a plan that would establish a DNA or fingerprint database to track and verify all legal U.S. workers.

The mayor also said elements of the legislation moving through Congress are ridiculous, and characterized some lawmakers as living in a "fantasy."

In an editorial for The Wall Street Journal and an interview on CNN, the mayor reiterated his long-standing belief that this country's 12 million undocumented immigrants should be given the opportunity for permanent status, saying that deporting them is impossible and would devastate the economy.

At an appearance in Staten Island later yesterday, he explained further, saying that immigrants contribute to the fabric of the nation and he doesn't believe in the kind of country where "everybody who has blonde hair and blue eyes" is treated differently.

The mayor compared his proposed federal identification database to the Social Security card, insisting that such a system would not violate citizens' privacy.

"This is not a civil liberties issue. ... You don't have to work - but if you want to work for a company you have to have a Social Security card," he said. "The difference is, in the day and age when everybody's got a PC on their desk with Photoshop that can replicate anything, it's become a joke."

The mayor, a billionaire former chief executive of a worldwide financial information company, added that if the DNA and fingerprint technology is available, why not use it to create a worker ID database that will "uniquely identify the person" applying for a job, ensuring that cards are not illegally transferred or forged.