"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."
Really neat idea, except that it won't work. It won't even be an improvement on the current method. People paying illegals cash under the table will continue to do so. This ID card won't do anything to change that. It will give the government increasing ability to monitor law-abiding citizens without doing anything to affect the problem it's supposed to solve.
While this should be self evident, Senator Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) obviously thinks that biometrics are magically going to force all employers to check employees eligibility and pay by traceable means that make it necessary for all employees to be legal. He actually believes that requiring a biometric card is more effective than requiring a Social Security Card. Talking about illegal immigration he says, "If you say they can't get a job when they come here, you'll stop it." The only problem is, we say that now, and it's patently a lie.
Of course, not everyone thinks a national employee ID is a bad thing. The Christian Science Monitor is very much a believer in a national employee ID. In an editorial entitled "Immigration reform rests on a national worker ID" the CSM editorial board states:
"Obama could quickly reduce the nation’s high jobless rate with passage of a law requiring legal residents and Americans, even teenagers, to obtain a federal ID as legal workers. Migrants working outside the law would then be forced to come clean on their illegal activity, leave the country, and perhaps properly apply for a US visa – as millions of law-abiding people do around the world who wait years to enter the US.
To reach full employment, Obama needs to create about 8 million jobs – or nearly the number of illegal immigrants in the US."
I have two problems with that quote. The first regards illegal workers having to come clean. Why? What is this ID going to do that will force illegal workers (or their employers) to suddenly 'fess up? Even assuming most illegals bother with forged or stolen Social Security numbers, what's to keep employers from paying in cash and misreporting their number of employees anyway? Admittedly, if you're paying more than two or three employee’s cash can be problematic.
The other is the figure of 8 million illegals. That may be the suspected or deduced number, but it is impossible to prove. Even if it's correct, to say that all 8 million are working is a stretch.
On Foxnews.com, Alex Nowrasteh's article, "5 Reasons Why America Should Steer Clear of a National ID Card" gives a very clear, thought out explanation of the problems inherent in a national ID card. Briefly, they are:
1. Workers would have to ask the Federal Government before getting a job.
2. National ID's are perfect for controlling citizens movements: "Your papers, please."
3. The system will accidentally exclude millions of legal workers and fail to catch the majority of illegal ones.
4. The scanners are up to $800 - or employers can make a trip down to the local DMV to check their workers ID.
5. Law abiding citizens are treated like criminals - we will have to divulge information that the government cannot require of us now because we are not criminals. (That's the biometric data, in case you're wondering).
There is one way the national employee ID card would work. It would require a fundamental change in the way we live, not to mention being a harbinger of the end times. If we move to an entirely electronic economy we get rid of all but an insignificant amount of illegal alien employees. If we go to an entirely electronic economy and make your biometric employee ID your bankcard, too, then the only way to buy anything is with your employee ID card. It can be tied to your credit cards, debit cards, and all of your accounts. Utilities, insurance, gym memberships, all pulled from your national employee ID card. It would solve so many problems. It would be much harder for illegal aliens to find employment, it would encourage employers to hire U.S. citizens or legal aliens, and it would give the government what it wants - a way to track all citizens at all times. All you have to do is surrender your privacy and freedom.
I commented on this topic at another blog, and I thought it was worth putting here. I give you the most paranoid interpretation of the push for a biometric worker ID by yours truly:
ReplyDeleteThis is the first step to a cashless economy. First it will be your work ID. Then it will be tied to your bank account. Then you will be encouraged to use it to pay your bills, buy your groceries, etc. using your worker ID card. Then you will be told that it is to expensive to print bills and mint coins, so physical money is being phased out. Everything will be paid using your national ID card. Oh, and as a plus, it will going completely electronic financially will finally almost completely do away with the illegal workers.
As a small side effect of this, the government will be able to track every single thing you do, everywhere you go, and control where you go by only allowing your card to work in certain defined areas if they wish to. Yes, this is definitely the first step that could lead to a Big Brother every bit as bad Orwell imagined.
Read more: A Biometric ID Card for all American Workers? — Mises Economics Blog http://blog.mises.org/12113/a-biometric-id-card-for-all-american-workers/#ixzz0hnngn7YW
Wow! as a bonus they automatically added a link to their blog when I copied my comment! Now I'm getting paranoid.
That idea would just create more confusion and more fraud. Is the system so messed up it can't verify current social security numbers. It can't cross check state I.D.s and drivers lic. Makes no sense. Why do I keep a birth certificate if has no meaning. We have enough verification already. We just don't have anyone to cross check and do anything about it. Garbage.
ReplyDelete"How to serve man" IT'S A COOK BOOK!
In answer to your question, yes. Yes it is.
ReplyDeleteTWILIGHT ZONE! YEAH!
Or the short story it was based on by Damon Knight. Love those semi-obscure scifi references.
E-Verify is like a revolving door, that has comes into existence by law. But if it works too good like any good enforcement tool, less honorable politicians will try to rescind it. Using all their influence at their disposal Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, Speaker Pelosi nearly managed to get it tabled before it left the Senate. Infuriated by this, these lawmakers instituted another method to try and pry it from enforcement purposes. My guess is Janet Napolitano, who has never been good at accepting enforcement of immigration law, from the time she was Governor of Arizona. Came to the Democratic parties aid and used what she hired a non-biased company to research the success rate of E-Verify. But being supposedly non biased doesn't necessary mean your not politically influenced by serious donations or grants from a government agency or a outside commercial entities.
ReplyDeleteEvery non-prejudiced think tank, foundation or other so called non-profit is somehow swayed by an injection of money or other reward. E-Verify is subject to the same rules of every other piece of software, that it is only as good as the injection of government data-bases. Errors are bound to happen and that it already has a very successful rate of pinpointing illegal workers, It cannot be scrapped just because a lot of fraudulent ID carrying workers sneak through the applications barriers. In months to come more tools will improve its performance, that will halt illegal immigrants taking American jobs. We must remember Sen. Schumer has a poor record on immigration enforcement, that why himself and his friendly obstructionists are trying to distract us, with yet another innovation. It's a big ruse, as its always been. In 1986 the legislators promised the American people, that there would never be another AMNESTY
At least that's what the late Ted Kennedy proclaimed? But we all know the government or its public servants, never tell the truth. So here we go again, pushing for another AMNESTY of even more mind numbing proportions. Outside of the fact that millions more will try to gain entrance to America's doors, before any kind of AMNESTY takes effect? Where are they going to get the money for processing? The millions that are here? The millions that will keep on coming? The Criminals will stay in the shadows, those who are deportable will not be processed. Whatever new enforcement is enacted, it is never going to work. Because its--NEVER--meant to work--or even enforced? The fence was never meant to be a real deterrent. ITS ALL ONE MONOLITHIC LIE. .That's what's happened to our country? The liberal, far-left socialist in the Democratic party has seen to that. Its even scary to think of the--BILLIONS--of dollars will be pried by the IRS, to support those already here and the millions who will definately come.
BETTER START FIGHTING BACK, TO STOP OVERPOPULATION AND MASSIVE ILLEGAL ALIEN WELFARE
Those illegal workers who think they have got past the E-Verify barriers, who think they have sneaked through. Better think again. ICE will return at certain intervals and recheck I-9s and audit those very companies again. E-Verify will be eventually a permanent tool, fully funded or the majority of the American people will want to know why? JUST DO NOT LET UP AT CAUSING YOUR POLITICIANS HEARTBURN AT 202-224-3121.
Don't forget to give a livid mouthful to your lawmakers in each state.
I agree with the above article, but in reality we already have a National ID card of sorts. It is called a SS card.
ReplyDeleteWhat really should be done is to make a SS card more secure. A photo/thumb print and perhaps a magnetic strip like a credit card could be added. SS cards should at least be as secure as credit cards and driver's licenses. If the government doesn't want to protect the citizens of this country from identity theft or an illegal work force, it should stop using SS cards as an identifier.
I sort of agree, although I'm not sure I consider either credit cards or drivers licenses particularly secure. But they do have the SS card beat by a long shot. The sad truth is, the only way the SS cards were originally allowed was because of the assurances they wouldn't be used as a national ID. I wish they'd kept at least that promise.
ReplyDeleteI've never been a fan of requiring biometric data on ID. Sure, it makes forgery harder, but it doesn't stop it, and all somebody has to do is scan my thumbprint off the ID, put it in a database and hey! Instant Bert clones, as many as you want. I don't like having to put my thumbprint on checks when I write them for the same reason. I've seen too many cases of sensitive documents that were supposed to be trashed mysteriously appearing intact in dumpsters.
WELCOME TO NAZI GERMANY. DO YOU HAVE YOUR PAPERS SIE/MADAM??? THE GESTAPO IS COMING FOR YOU!!
ReplyDelete"To reach full employment, Obama needs to create about 8 million jobs – or nearly the number of illegal immigrants in the US.”
ReplyDeleteActually, to reach full employment, Obama needs consumer spending to increase to prior levels, so getting rid of these folks would also eliminate 8 million domestic consumers. Since we have a trade deficit, we won't solve the economic crisis with exports. (And since Mexico is one of our largest export markets, limiting money sent back home by immigrant workers actually harms exports, as well.) It's a fallacy all those businesses would turn around and hire Americans: many would just scale back or close.
In that light, would eliminating 8 million consumers - even those on the low end of the income scale - really help the economy after so many have already lost their jobs? IMO it'd be an economic catastrophe and make things worse if they all went home tomorrow.
Nobody talks about that part - people want to pretend economics is a zero-sum game, and it's not at all because money circulates. If I make a dollar, that's not the end of the story because money circulates: I spend it, then that person spends it, then another, etc..
You make some very good points. One of the problems with tariffs and other economic "equalizers" is that they assume the money that is spent on goods from overseas never comes back. The reality is that money spent on Japanese TV's may go to Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Argentina before coming back to the U.S. Every time economic decisions are made assuming we are a closed box economically, they are bound to do more harm than good.
ReplyDeleteBased on past experience, we shouldn't trust the federal government with this much information. After all, Social Security numbers were never supposed to be used for identification. We simply need to rigorously enforce the laws already on the books.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that. Now write your representatives and make sure they know how you feel.
ReplyDelete