You got a problem with a work requirement that you carry a biometric card?
About The Author

BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Yes; huge intrusion on the civil liberties front. I don’t support the immigration bill as a whole for the same reasons as Jeralyn at Talk Left:
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2010/4/30/11455/3058
My friend who immigrated here from India supports the bill, but she’s told me that she’d have a hard time opposing almost any immigration bill put out of this Congress. It’s something that hits home for her. She’s on her way to citizenship, though. She married a citizen, and she has a degree in petroleum engineering.
She thinks it will accelerate the rate at which we see progressive legislation because of the paths provided. I don’t think the path is fast enough for the people who are here (8 years!?!?). The massive war on drugs funding is bad, too. What don’t they get? It’s not working.
The Bush administration was better than this one regarding H1B/J/L caps.
I’d much rather they push the McCain-Kennedy bill again. That was a fairly sensible bill.
It doesn’t matter if it works or not. A lot of constituents and donors make money from it, therefore it is a good program. Q.E.D.
Love that PIC. I wonder if it’s a sign of hope with that ballot in California. A lot of states simply can’t handle prisons on their budgets anymore. Others are abandoning the death penalty for the same reason.
Smacks of fascism. The drift continues…
Less drift than gallop.
BIIIIIG problem with that.
Not really, it seems to be just a secure Social Security card. But then, I never objected to carrying my draft card (just the existence of the draft) and carried it and my last classification card until just a few years ago when I got a new wallet that had fewer spaces to keep stuff.
Moreover, wouldn’t it be nice to have a card that said you were pre-screened to not be a terrorist and didn’t have to wander through the airport holding your shoes and getting your underwear X-rayed?
I’ve carried a Social Security card for 48 years. Printed on it are the words “Not for Identification”. Yet until recently almost every business used the Social Security number as an identifier. Some financial websites still require authentication by typing in a portion of your Social Security number.
If I understand the description of the technology correctly, the card will have two pieces of data: an encrypted key that matches a record in a National ID database and a biometric identifier (fingerprint, iris scan, etc). The employer would have a terminal into which you would insert the card and then have your fingerprint read or your iris scanned (or whatever biometric is being used). If the biometric matched the one on the card, the key would be used against the database and produce a result either of “Good” or “Invalid”. And no doubt log the employer ID and transaction datetime.
The question I have is whether the employee would have to carry the card all the time or just for HR processing at hiring. And whether the employer would be able to store the key as a reference to their own IT systems; this of course opens the system to data mining and matching other information.
The other question is whether the system would be standalone among federal systems or allow data mining against other information – for law enforcement, immigration, passport information, etc.
The fact that the card records biometric data is no more scary than an employer requirement that you be fingerprinted. Or more accurately, the use of biometric data to provide access to employer facilities, which has become common in a lot of healthcare facilities.
It is the potential for future data mining using the card information that is the real concern. And given the persistence of the Total Information Awareness program (although under a different name) at the Department of Homeland Security, that possibility of data mining is troublesome.
Much simpler just say, “Dems nor Repugs want Immigration Reform.” by far one of the stupidest ideas ever.
yes.
I’m a little surprised I haven’t seen anyone make reference to the “microchip implanted at birth” yet, but then I tend to avoid the end-timer sites.
It’s not mentioned only because the technology is not available to implement it and might not be available for decades.
Yeah, I just thought the bobble-heads weren’t all that restricted by actual fact. Anything for a good scare, that bunch. I get the most amazing e-mails from a former colleague who recently moved to an undisclosed part of Idaho.