Papers Please! National ID will be a part of “immigration reform”

Bookmark and Share
Posted by

  • Share on Tumblr

real-idIt looks like another hot button issue will be coming to the forefront of American politics this year as the Senate is planning on tackling immigration. You may recall that President George W. Bush tried to tackle this issue with the Democratic-controlled Congress in 2007. The proposal, sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), was meet with fierce opposition by conservatives and Republicans and ultimately defeated.

Reform that makes it easier for immigrants to come to seek the American Dream, should be welcome. Unfortunately, much of the opposition (though not all) was rooted in xenophobia, nativism and, in some cases, racism. Because of this there was no opportunity to have a substantive debate on the points of the bill, such as provisions of McCain-Kennedy dealing with REAL ID, which was a defacto national ID card approved by Congress in 2005.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sen. Chuck Schumer may be incorporating a biometric national ID card in his proposal:

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.

The ID card plan is one of several steps advocates of an immigration overhaul are taking to address concerns that have defeated similar bills in the past.

The uphill effort to pass a bill is being led by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who plan to meet with President Barack Obama as soon as this week to update him on their work. An administration official said the White House had no position on the biometric card.

No doubt many conservatives and Republican support a national ID. In fact, the Heritage Foundation promoted REAL ID. The fact that there is no constitutional basis for a national ID or the obvious concerns for privacy don’t seem to stop the conservatives for clamoring for it.

Separately, you have to wonder why Democrats are trying to touch on so many controversial issues in an election year. You may say that this is bipartisan, and I would agree, but Democrats are basically handing another issue for the Republican base to unite in opposition to. We’ll be seeing anti-immigration tea parties before the summer break.

cross-posted from UnitedLiberty.org

If you enjoyed this post:
Click Here to Get the Free Tenth Amendment Center Newsletter,

Or make a donation to help keep this site active.

Support the Tenth Amendment Center!

2 Responses to “Papers Please! National ID will be a part of “immigration reform””

  1. Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by TenthAmendment: #10th: Papers Please! National ID will be a part of “immigration reform” http://bit.ly/aLOSdy

  2. brittanicus says:

    It will be the same with the National ID card? Don't know the rights or wrongs of it, but it will be yet another issue that is balanced on enforcing immigration laws, national security and personal privacy.

    Every 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.

Leave a Reply