Papers Please—and Your Biometric Data

By Kurt Nimmo
May. 23, 2007

According to the New York Times, by way of Raw Story, the immigration bill currently wending its way through Congress “would require employers to re-verify the identity of every single person currently employed in the United States. Not only would it place a considerable burden on both government and business, but the verification system currently being tested has shown a significant rate of error.”

Of course, the New York Times does not bother to suggest a solution for this supposed problem. Congress critter David Bonner, however, has proposed that the Social Security Administration require SS cards “contain an electronic signature strip that contains an encrypted electronic identification strip, unique to that individual,” according to Bonner’s web page. Neither Bonner’s scheme or the one included in the “immigration proposal with traction in Congress” specifies “what the biometric would be, but it could range from a simple digital photo to a fingerprint or even an iris scan,” notes Wired News.

As to be expected, the American Civil Liberties Union is clueless. “Do we really think the migrant workers are going to show up at the pickle farm and the farmer is going to demand ID and have a laptop in the field to check their ID?” said ACLU legislative counsel Tim Sparapani. It has nothing to do with pickle farmers or illegals streaming across the border in search of jobs that pay such dismal wages precious few Americans will take them. Rather, it has to do with eventually making sure every American—indeed, every person on the planet—has his or her papers in order. Of course, papers are so yesterday, so the idea is to capture biometric data on every person, beginning with workers. It will begin with an SS card and eventually a subdermal microchip, as cards are easily lost or stolen.

It appears the effort to attach a biometric SS ID card to current “immigration reform” (i.e., across the board amnesty for illegal immigrants) is a way to cut off Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy at the pass, as Leahy plans to introduce a bill to repeal the Real ID Act. “Under the Act, states and federal government … would share access to a vast national database that could include images of birth certificates, marriage licenses, divorce papers, court-ordered separations and medical records for more than 240 million Americans with no requirements or controls on how this information might be used,” writes James Parks on the AFL-CIO Now Blog. “The database also could contain detailed information on the name, date of birth, race, religion, ethnicity, gender, address, telephone, e-mail address and Social Security numbers for every American.” Mr. Parks neglected to mention such cards would likely also contain biometric information such as retinal scans, fingerprints, DNA data and RFID tracking technology.

As Orwellian as retinal scans, fingerprints, DNA data, and RFID tracking technology sounds, it is simply a matter of selling the scheme to the docile, fear-conditioned masses. Get them used to swiping a biometric card in order to get a job or a driverā€™s license and it will only be a matter of time before they will be convinced an identity theft proof biochip for the same purpose is the next logical step. “Over half of the population now supports some form of national identification,” writes Charlotte Twight for the Cato Institute. “If Americans accept a National ID system as they accepted SSNs, and if the intrusiveness of such a system expands as did government-mandated SSN usage, ten years from now the idea of a national microchip system may not seem as alien and repugnant as it does today. As with SSNs, people will get used to it.”

And for those unable to get used to it, there is the prospect of starvation, as no doubt a “smart” microchip will eventually be used for financial transactions—or more to the point, if you refuse to be scanned, you will not be allowed to buy food in the Brave New World envisioned by our neoliberal corporate rulers.