March 9, 2010

Are worker ID cards a good idea?

Posted: 05:00 PM ET

From CNN's Jack Cafferty:

If you think health care reform is ugly, just wait until Congress tries immigration reform again.

The Senate has begun work on an immigration bill and at the center of this new plan is a controversial requirement for all American workers to get identification cards.

It's meant to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants. Right. If you think the corporations that make huge profits on the backs of an illegal alien workforce are going to let something like that get through, think again.

Under the plan - all legal workers, including citizens and immigrants, would have to get an ID card that includes biometric information like fingerprints.

The Wall Street Journal reports the card would be phased in among all workers, including teens; and among all employers, starting with industries that rely on an illegal immigrant workforce. Now there's an idea.

Supporters say such a worker ID card would be a way to guarantee illegal immigrants don't come here for jobs because they wouldn't be able to get them.

But critics worry about violating people's privacy. They say such worker ID cards could wind up being a type of national ID card that would allow the government to track everything people do - from working to voting to traveling. Many European countries require everyone to carry ID cards.

This immigration bill would also offer a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already living here, but they'd have to register, pay taxes, pay a fine and wait in line.

Amnesty with some inconvenience attached. And for many Americans, it's a nonstarter. Anything resembling amnesty won't cut it.

Here’s my question to you: When it comes to immigration reform, are worker ID cards a good idea?
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