9. National ID Card – Get Over It

Immigration Bill, A big con job

Richard Salbato - May 2010

I have now read the proposed Immigration Bill that BO and Congress is planning to pass as soon as possible.  If you read it you would think it was written by conservative republicans unless you read carefully.  What this bill does not say is how they are going to finance it.  What they are doing here is letting future congresses pass finance bills to pay for it.  Why does that bother me?  Because under President Bush we passed the two most important things for any immigration bill:  1. building a fence and 2. the Biometric National ID Card for any employment.  However, after these were passed, the Democratic Congress refused to finance the fence; and the states refused to pay for the making of the ID cards that should have been paid for by the Federal Government.  In the end nothing was done.

The very idea of a COMPREHENSIVE Immigration Bill upsets me because you cannot vote for what you like without also voting for what you do not like.  What the majority of people want is to close the border first and then deal with the 14,000,000 illegal immigrants   after that is done.   

I believe that we have to build a double fence and staff it with Border Patrol and electric ground sensors every ten miles.  That is expensive but it will save more dollars in crime, packed jails and state expenses on schools and medical care than it costs to build and defend.  In other words it will save money.

The second thing that has to be done (even though many liberals and conservatives are against it) is to change the Social Security Card to a Biometric ID Social Security for all citizens and make it a mandatory ID for any job.  This alone will drive most of the 14,000,000 illegal immigrants out of the country.  By Biometric we mean that the card cannot be forged and it is on a national data base that records your birth certificate, your nationalization papers, or your green card, that proves you are legally allowed to work in America.

All the arguments against a national ID care are stupid:  the big brother argument that Washington can watch everything you do, they could trace your every move, they could control your life, etc.  None of these hold water because the SSC already does that except that a terrorist can use a dead person’s card and there is no way to prove he is who he is.

In fact, I want this data base to also include all major crime, like pedophilia, violent crime, robbery, excessive drunk driving charges, and work history.  I can find all this information on the internet right now, but this makes it easier for companies hiring and for the government tracing someone they might be looking for including terrorists.  All four of the people arrested in the New York attempted car bombing were working in America and three were here illegally.  Convicted Pedophiles have to register where they live but what company ever checks that before hiring them? 

The way the Social Security works now is no different than a Biometric SSC except that the SSC can be easily forged and the system cannot check it out without weeks of investigation. When I was born I had a SSC within a month of birth and the number shows how old I am, but employers do not know that and often a forged or stolen SSC card can be used by a 20 year old and the card shows a man 100 years old.  A legal Biometric Card will show in seconds his age his birth place, his work history and his criminal record.

Added to these two Immigration Laws must be very heavy finds for businesses or even individuals who hire people without this card.  If you still fear big government, reduce the size of government.

And so you will know, I have been in 34 countries and I don’t know any that does not already have a national ID card.  

Who Are Illegal Immigrants?

You have to have my background to understand the huge sin of illegal immigrants.  I grew up in a border town, San Diego, and lived in an all Mexican community. Every legal Mexican family helped or housed in one way or the other some illegal.  Many of these born Americans were in the business of sneaking them across the border and finding them jobs for a huge cut in their income.  Many lived in the sage brush and often caused fires.  I know of one peace of property where over 100 illegals lived with one small bathroom, and at least 40 slept in the attic space with the spiders and filth.  What is sad about this is that my Catholic Church supports this abuse of these people.  No matter what my priest of bishop says, I know that you cannot do evil that good can come of it.  That is Catholic doctrine.  Also it is a sin in Catholic doctrine to violate any legal government law.  By legal we mean and law that does not violate God’s laws, like abortion.    

The New Immigration Bill is a Huge Con Job

Democrats are worried about the November 2010 elections.  They know they are going to loose a lot of house and senate seats no matter what but they are trying to figure out how to hang on to the majority.  This bill they passed to make it easy for Porto Rico to become a state is one of their plans to get votes. The passing of this union worker bill is another.  But what they need the most is to hang on to the Spanish Vote which they carried in the last election. What Mexican Americans want is another amnesty bill, but Democrats cannot pass an amnesty vote because 70% of Americans are against it.  What if, however, most of the 14,000,000 illegals could vote in November?   To prove this is their master plan, let us read the actual bill first. What you will note is there is no fence. 

Immigration Bill

1. The crackdown on employers relies on the creation of national identity cards. "These cards will be fraud-resistant, tamper-resistant, wear resistant, and machine-readable social security cards containing a photograph and an electronically coded micro-processing chip which possesses a unique biometric identifier for the authorized card-bearer," reads the bill summary.

2. More Border Patrol officers
3. More Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, worksite inspectors, document fraud investigators and drug-war agents. [not financed]
4. The "installation of high-tech ground sensors throughout the southern border and for equipping all border patrol officers with the technological capability to respond to activation of the ground sensors in the area they are patrolling." [not financed]
5. More prosecution of drug smuggling, human trafficking and unauthorized border crossing
6. "[I]ncreases in the number of sport utility vehicles, helicopters, power boats, river boats, portable computers to track illegal immigrants and drug smugglers while inside of a border patrol vehicle, night vision equipment, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), Remote Video Surveillance Systems (RVSS), scope trucks, and Mobile Surveillance Systems (MSS)." [not financed]
7. All prisoners will be checked for immigration status and deported if found to lack documentation.
8. DHS will "identify, investigate, and initiate removal proceedings" against folks who came here legally but didn't leave. [not financed]
9. The bill would create "a broad-based registration program that requires all illegal immigrants living in the U.S. to come forward to register, be screened, and, if eligible, complete other requirements to earn legal status, including paying taxes."

The full summary can be read here.

The bill would make it illegal for anyone other than an employer to ask to see the enhanced social security card: "Possession of a fraud-proof social security card will only serve as evidence of lawful work-authorization but will in no way be permitted to serve--or shall be required to be shown--as proof of citizenship or lawful immigration status. It will be unlawful for any person, corporation; organization local, state, or federal law enforcement officer; local or state government; or any other entity to require or even ask an individual cardholder to produce their social security card for any purpose other than electronic verification of employment eligibility and verification of identity for Social Security Administration purposes. No personal information will be stored on the electronic chip contained within the social security card other than the individual's name, date of birth, social security number, and unique biometric identifier."

Other than number 9 and no fence no conservative would object to this bill, until you read the secret.

The Con Job

Democrats hope to convince people that they have a real strategy for ending the problem of illegal immigration. And if they can convince people of that, they think they can get a path to legalization for the existing community of illegal immigrants as a way to mop up the remainder of the problem.

Amnesty? Bureaucrats already drawing up plan to implement $1 billion, 30-week processing program revealed in leaked 14-page Homeland Security memo. Many of these will be able to vote in November. 

The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, already has drafted a plan for processing 13 million illegal alien applicants for amnesty in a 30-week period at an estimated cost of $1 billion.  

The plan anticipates the approval of so-called "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" legislation pending in Congress and assumes a nine-month ramp-up period for processing of applications.

The undated draft report anticipates the possibility of the legislation requiring public benefits to amnesty applicants.

"If the statute requires interim benefits while application pending, issue discrete variant of status document (shorter term duration that [sic] if issued after prospective immigrant status granted)," the 14-page memo states.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has enlisted evangelical leaders to promote the plan.

In other words, this is an extremely fast track for citizenship and a sure way to get the Spanish vote. 

Note One:

Is a biometric, national ID card an immigration game changer?

The Democrats' immigration-reform proposal (pdf) is 26 pages long. Pages 8 through 18 are devoted to "ending illegal employment through biometric employment verification." I don't think the Democrats are going to like me calling this a biometric national ID card, as they go to great lengths to say that it is not a national ID card, and make it "unlawful for any person, corporation; organization local, state, or federal law enforcement officer; local or state government; or any other entity to require or even ask an individual cardholder to produce their social security card for any purpose other than electronic verification of employment eligibility and verification of identity for Social Security Administration purposes."

But it's still a biometric national ID card. It's handed out by the Social Security Administration and employers are required to check it when hiring new employees. Essentially, if you want to participate in the American economy, you need this card. "Within five (5) years of the date of enactment, the fraud-proof social security card will serve as the sole acceptable document to be produced by an employee to an employer for employment verification purposes," the bill says. "This requirement will exist even if the employer does not yet possess the capability to electronically verify the employee by scanning the card through a card reader."

The theory here is simple: Illegal immigration is a problem because illegal immigrants can get jobs. As the bill says, "in order to prevent future waves of illegal immigration, this proposal recognizes that no matter what we do on the border, our ports of entry, and in the interior, we will not be completely effective unless we can prevent the hiring, recruitment, or referral of unauthorized aliens in America’s workplaces. Jobs are what draw illegal immigrants to the United States."

That's why some think the biometric ID card a game changer for immigration politics. Enforcement might be popular, but the public knows full well that it doesn't really work. As things stand, the border is pretty militarized but the flow of illegal immigrants hasn't stopped. By focusing on the employment prospects of illegal immigrants and forcing workplaces to use biometric identification,

 Note Two:

Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907 is exactly what we need to make law today.

'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.

"But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here.

"Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.'
                                        Theodore Roosevelt 1907

If this was the law, there would be no discrimination because you would not be able to tell who is a Mexican or an Italian, or who is an African or an Brazilian.