{"id":423994,"date":"2010-03-12T12:18:25","date_gmt":"2010-03-12T16:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailycensored.com\/?p=11939"},"modified":"2010-03-12T12:18:25","modified_gmt":"2010-03-12T16:18:25","slug":"americans-to-be-punished-for-government-incompetence-over-illegal-immigrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/423994","title":{"rendered":"Americans to be punished for government incompetence over illegal immigrants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Illegal immigration has been a problem for the United States<\/a> for over a century. It\u2019s a political hot topic and measures put into place to prevent it fail on a regular basis. Senators Schumer and Graham have introduced a bill that they hope will prevent illegal immigration<\/a>. The major problem with the bill is that it would introduce a de facto biometric ID card for everyone, including American citizens.<\/p>\n

\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To say the plan is potentially controversial is an understatement. The US<\/a> already has E-Verify, currently voluntary, which companies can use to check the legal status of its workers. It is mostly ineffective because it is not mandatory and hasn\u2019t been implemented correctly. Checking W9 forms is also supposed to prevent illegals from finding work. The failure in these systems is the employers not the employees.<\/p>\n

Biometric IDs, however are also not a viable solution. It would be to easy to track a person\u2019s movements, the cost of failure is high as well as numerous other privacy and civil rights issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The crux of the problem is that many of the illegals who have forged documents are already paying taxes, buying goods and contributing to society<\/a>. Many others are on work visas that are easily renewed, most of which do not require the foreign citizen to return to their home country<\/a> to reapply anymore.<\/p>\n

It is the illegals who are not working or working under the table for cash that are creating the problems. By requiring all Americans to carry biometric ID, you are punishing those who are not guilty while continuing to ignore the original problem. Mr. Schumer, however, does not see it this way.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the nub of solving the immigration dilemma politically speaking,\u201d 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. \u201cIf you say they can\u2019t get a job when they come here, you\u2019ll stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a> to track citizens.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Except that the card will cause more problems. You will continue to have undocumented workers who get paid in cash and a new wave of identity theft will begin. The latter, as well as individual privacy concerns, is where the objections stem from.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt is fundamentally a massive invasion of people\u2019s privacy,\u201d said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re not only talking about fingerprinting every American, treating ordinary Americans like criminals in order to work. We\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Graham says he respects those concerns but disagrees. \u201cWe\u2019ve all got Social Security cards,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re just easily tampered with. Make them tamper-proof. That\u2019s all I\u2019m saying.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Respectfully, Mr. Graham has forgotten that social security cards were never intended to be used for identification purposes<\/a>. It is unfair and disingenuous to make the comparison.<\/p>\n

\n

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<\/a> office to like the Department of Motor Vehicles and have their hands scanned there.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It should never be suggested that the DMV be in charge of collecting individual biometric information. The proposed card is for identification and verification of employment eligibility. It has nothing to do with driving a vehicle. The department of Motor Vehicles should not be responsible for collecting biometric information.<\/p>\n

The privacy concerns would be raised higher, given the fact that several states have already implemented<\/a> REAL-ID into their driver\u2019s licenses<\/a>. Now, not only would your personal identity documents be stored in a DMV database, so would your biometric data. These databases would become gold<\/a> mines for identity thieves and the black market.<\/p>\n

Before this ever gets out of committee and sent for a vote on the senate floor, we should inform our senators<\/a> that ID cards with biometric information is unnecessary for American citizens. It would be expensive and complicated to implement and, as Americans, we should never be treated guilty simply for wanting to work.<\/p>\n

\n

Possibly Related Posts:<\/h3>\n