From the Hill:
A plan by Senate Democratic leaders to reform the nation’s immigration laws ran into strong opposition from civil liberties defenders before lawmakers even unveiled it Thursday.
Democratic leaders have proposed requiring every worker in the nation to carry a national identification card with biometric information, such as a fingerprint, within the next six years, according to a draft of the measure.
[…]
The national ID program would be titled the Believe System, an acronym for Biometric Enrollment, Locally stored Information and Electronic Verification of Employment.
It would require all workers across the nation to carry a card with a digital encryption key that would have to match work authorization databases.
“The cardholder’s identity will be verified by matching the biometric identifier stored within the microprocessing chip on the card to the identifier provided by the cardholder that shall be read by the scanner used by the employer,” states the Democratic legislative proposal.
The American Civil Liberties Union, a civil liberties defender often aligned with the Democratic Party, wasted no time in blasting the plan.
“Creating a biometric national ID will not only be astronomically expensive, it will usher government into the very center of our lives. Every worker in America will need a government permission slip in order to work. And all of this will come with a new federal bureaucracy — one that combines the worst elements of the DMV and the TSA,” said Christopher Calabrese, ACLU legislative counsel.
“America’s broken immigration system needs real, workable reform, but it cannot come at the expense of privacy and individual freedoms,” Calabrese added.
Leaving aside for the moment that the ACLU will, under other circumstances, allow for all sort of government intrusion into the lives of private citizens if and when increasing secularism is the end game (in this way, it mirrors many libertarians), in this instance they are absolutely correct.
And in fact, one wonders if the Dems aren’t introducing just such a measure in order to fail — and so have something to point to when it comes time to “prove” their anti-illegal immigration bona fides without having to worry about a measure actually passing.
Still, it will be difficult for the press to negotiate between the recent “liberal” outrage over the supposed “papers please” tenor of the Arizona border security enforcement measures just passed by that state, and this “liberal” call for legislation that would require actual papers.
Real reform takes one of two forms, each consisting of two things happening simultaneously. The first choice would allow for an increase in legal immigration and a guest worker program, with a corresponding fix to anchor baby laws and a paring back of government entitlements under the welfare state. The second choice would require a dramatic increase in border security and enforcement (and a crackdown on those already in the country illegally) in exchange for a dramatic increase in legal immigrations.
Americans at some level realize this. And consequently, they’re beginning to see other alternatives — such as this one to be introduced by Democrats — as nothing more than cynical ploys meant to feign reform without ever having to do the difficult work of having to achieve any.
(h/t JHo)
Presumably the Senate Dems would have no problem showing this National ID card as proof of citizenship or eligibility for voting … right?
Right?
Bueller?
Well said.
I will be disappointed with feckless useless stupid Team R if they don’t run against this fascist national ID business and feature it in ads this year.
diappointeder I mean
Again, the Dems show how fundamentally unserious their outrage is.
Republicans should immediately insist that it be required to vote.
*disappointeder* I mean
I thought the most vocal opposition to a National ID card came from the more fundamental Christian groups, who choose to interpret the card as representative of the “mark of the beast needed to buy and sell etc. etc.”.
Not that there aren’t valid reasons for opposing National ID, that’s just the one I tend to hear louder than others. And they are, of course, primarily associated with Team R.
The National ID card movement, be it biometric or whatever, is the DUMBEST possible thing we could do if the goal is be able to have people prove their identity/immigration status. We currently have a freaking portfolio of possible government issued identification cards available (State ID’s, drivers license, social security card, passports, military ID’s, green cards, guest worker permits, etc.) and all of these ID’s get counterfeited and their databases breached on a daily basis.
In 2009 there were 439 data breaches resulting in the loss of personal identification information (social security #’s, etc.) for over 20 million people.
That’s in one year.
The problem with security ID’s (biometric and otherwise) is that you cannot guarantee the safety of the data, which means that inevitably you have counterfeit versions of the ID’s that result in identity theft.
Under the Democrat’s plan, you will have to show your National ID for everything (except to vote for America’s leaders of course).
Because showing valid ID, and the elimination of “absentee” and “early” voting is a plot by teh racists!
A plot that happens to radically cut down on the number of Democrats elected. See: Oklahoma/counties for Obama
Let’s see the leftist OUTRAGE and the wailing and gnashing of teeth and rending of garments in the MSM over this. I will not be holding my breath.
Actually real reform would be a moratorium on immigration, enforcing the borders, and enforcement through attrition.
THIS IS AN INVASION OF PRIVACY!1!!1!eleventy I BLAME BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
Oh, wait…On second thought, I’m sure the usual suspects will be all too happy witth this proposed legislation; although ACE posts that Eschaton and Ballon Juice are starting to twist their panties into a bunch.
No, they’ll be fine until, you know, another Rethug! is elected, or if it were stipulated that the ID had to be presented in order to vote-and any absentee ballot would have to be cross referenced to a legitimite, unique, ID.
This is personally offensive to me on several levels, and seems like pissing in the wind. And I tend to agree that this is being proposed in a purely posturing attempt in order for Dems to prove their “tough!” on illegal immigration.
Peggy Noonan actually had a great article in the WSJ this morning about immigration. link at my blog. Or,if you don’t have a subscription, I’ve got a few choice quotes.
You know, it just seems like both parties are trying to put one over on the people. The GOP had the will of the people on the issue of immigration reform without amnesty in the run up to the 2004 election, and did nothing with it. Now again, we see the other party playing a game that is obviously not something they intend to follow through on.
Immigration reform isn’t really a hot button issue with me, but I grow increasingly tired of both parties thinking I’m stupid not to recognize that they are going to pull the football away if I were to try to kick it. They think I’m Charlie Brown and it’s really starting to piss me off.
Bob – it is ironic that in their attempt to appear tough on illegal immigration, they are proposing something universally disliked, and something that does little to nothing to actually stop illegal immigration, all while flexing their fascist muscles.
But, this is really just a brilliant 14D chess move by Teh One.
They are not serious about this. Everyone here knows that.
Every move the dems make from now until november is only made in order to achieve some reaction from the right.
“Every move the dems make from now until november is only made in order to achieve some reaction from the right.”
This is why Immigration reform may not be such a boon to dems: they don’t seem to get that you’re supposed to let the other people ask for shitty things.
And if we don’t like you, we turn off your ID.
Eh, the GOP is not the only party that does stupid self destructive things. Anyone remember the Dems demanding a vote to cut off funding for Iraq only to have to vote against it in the end? This could be like that.
Imagine how much easier a national ID card will make the jobs of Arizona law enforcement. Ooops!
The ultimate biometrics would be to implant RFIDs in the forehead and palm.
I’m just sayin…
I understand your reference, di, but in any case these implants have been known to cause problems in animals so I don’t think they’re ready for prime time.
“it will usher government into the very center of our lives. Every worker in America will need a government permission slip in order to work.”
Hello! What does the health care and education reform act mandate? A national database of everyone’s medical and genetic information. No exceptions allowed. You want medical care? Better be in the database and HOPE that you get a government permission slip to be treated.
Somehow the ACLU and Dems and progressives are all fine with that.
I was pretty much joking, cranky. Not that I don’t believe in the book of Revelation, I just intend to interpret it in retrospect.
Until then, I withhold all judgment.
Yeah, I thought you were joking but I just HAD to be pedantic. It’s a compulsion.
I just HAD to be pedantic. It’s a compulsion.
I don’t understand that compusion in the least. :D
We have reached the point where we must choose between anonymity and trust. The former is sold as “privacy,” but that’s a sophistry. Mutual trust is what makes it possible to live together in a society. But when we cease to be trustworthy, anonymity becomes a luxury we can no longer afford. The rise of ID theft, terrorism, illegal immigration, etc. should make that obvious.
Even as we obsess about privacy, we employ more technology to for surveillance because it’s necessary. Unless we create some unforgeable ID, we won’t be able to use checks and credit, to travel without invasive searches (as if they weren’t already), or even have our votes count.
Privacy is an illusion. We pay lip service to it and use it as a legal fiction, even as our kids send nude photos of themselves over their cellphones and porn is the biggest use of the Internet. The only way to protect your privacy is not to do anything you mind sharing with the world.
The real question here is how reliable and secure this BELIEVE tech is, and how do we know whom we can trust with it. The latter point has always been a problem with the power of government, which we should have considered more carefully before allowing it to become our master.
Yeah. Cause nothin’ shouts ‘Liberty’ quite as loud as ,” Show me your papers.”
Got a match, Guv’nor?
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