How Big Brother is using immigration debate for control

June 17, 11:24 AMDC Immigration ExaminerAndy Arnold

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Big Brother and Big Bro lite are coming and their names are Chucky and Dano. Furthermore, they are using the immigration debate as the groundwork for the mark of the beast. No, this is not the opening of another bad novel; however, it is what is happening in Washington, D.C. as you read this.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y) has been picked to create the Senate’s comprehensive immigration legislation. In a book he penned in 2007, the senator favored a “forgery-proof” worker ID card, secured with biometric data such as fingerprints, for all eligible workers in America. Schumer, the chairman of the Senate Immigration, Refugees and Border Security subcommittee, is expected to hold hearings next month.

June 15 Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) introduced the Providing for Additional Security in States’ Identification Act of 2009 (S. 1261) to change the Real ID Act of 2005. Ironically, immigrants were not mentioned when Akaka introduced his bill.

This legislation starts with repealing part the existing REAL ID Act, and replaces it with a modification of the original act that peels away the most troubling aspects that add high costs without real security benefits, and implements strong new protections to protect the privacy rights of individuals, the senator said.

“Perhaps the most important improvement in the PASS ID Act is the removal of the mandate that states share all of their driver's license data with each of the other states,” he said. “This provision created a clear risk to the privacy of all Americans' personal information and posed a great risk for identity theft and fraud. Moreover, it was this provision that raised the specter of a national database of all Americans’ personal information.

“The PASS ID Act instead will allow states to continue to maintain their own individual databases with more stringent security requirements,” Akaka added. It would also save states money.

The American Civil Liberties Union and some labor representatives have already spoken out against the proposed PASS ID Act.

“Four years after becoming law, the Real ID Act is essentially dead,” said Chris Calabrese, counsel of the ACLU Technology and Liberty Program. “Sen. Akaka is right in his efforts to eliminate a substantial number of the more problematic aspects of Real ID, including the creation of a national database of driver information and misuse of license information by the private sector. But while these attempts at improvement are commendable, Real ID cannot be ‘fixed,’ and we oppose anything that would revive it.”

For more info: Remarks on Real ID Act by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano on immigration. The  ACLU comments on REAL ID.