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National Biometric Identification Card

There’s a fine line between enforcing the law and taking away freedoms for the law abiding. With the push for a national biometric identification card, the government  is crossing that line in a manner that should alarm everyone:

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.

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill are proposing a new national biometric ID card that would be required of all U.S. workers. WSJ’s Laura Meckler explains the proposal and the objections from privacy advocates.

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. 

I heard Judge Napolitano give a perfect reason as to why this should give us all pause.  Due to the countless television shows dealing with law enforcement in one aspect of another, I expect that majority of Americans know that they have “a right to remain silence.”  Yet, with a quick swipe of a biometric card, a government employee, any government employee, would instantly know more information about you than they have any right to know. 

I’ve warned before (during the previous administration) that this is a slippery slope that is just plain scary. It will turn us into a country that none of us will like regardless of our political persuasion.