Democrat's immigration bill includes an I.D. card. It will only be used for employment?

[midnight]

In order to calm the craziest in this country we all have to carry cards... That's if we are looking for employment? Who isn't? There seems to be something bigger going on here. I don't think this has anything to do with jobs. It seems to be a way to stir up fear, and pass crazy laws.

"The Democratic proposal includes increased money for border patrol and drug war agents, equipment, helicopters and unmanned drones. It would create a national ID -- which is dubbed a "biometric social security card." Though Democrats insist that it is not an ID card and can only be used for employment purposes."http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/29/national-id-card-included_n_557721.html

[hughee99]

1. There's a solution for the "your papers please" problem, they're proposing issuing "papers".

[William Z. Foster]

2. it is awful

The proposal is awful and must be stopped. You cannot out-Republican the Republicans and hope to stay in office.

Other than the biometric ID card idea (does anyone here support that??) this is already the policy being pursued by Homeland Security ("laws? We don't need laws! We are protecting the homeland!") and it is much worse than things were under the Republicans. Democrats are more competent and serious, which unfortunately means that when they accept the right wing framing of a issue they can wind up out-Republicaning the Republicans, or trying to. Republican policies administered by Democrats - better and more efficiently - are worse than having Republicans in office. The public did not vote for politicians who could carry out Republican policies more effectively, they voted in rejection of the Religious Right, the racists, and Reaganomics. So many people worked so hard for so long to accomplish that, and it is horrific watching that historic public gr9ndswell against the right wing be squandered and corrupted and perverted.

Damned Democrats are trying to "solve" a "problem" that was manufactured by the right wing, and that does not exist as they are presenting it and that therefore has no solution - no sane solution, no solution consistent with the Constitution and with honoring human rights, not to mention consistent with the principles that Democrats, liberals and progressives supposedly stand for. We elected Democrats to question and attack and overturn the premises and assumptions and framing of the right wing program, not to manage it better while perpetuating those premises, assumptions, and framing.

The "problem" is that the racists do not want brown people in the country. All of the yap aboput
"illegal immigration" is just a smokescreen. How any Democrat can fail to see this and accept the right wing lies about it, and than set about helping them solve their "problem" is a mystery.

- Further militarization of the border can only make things worse.

- "Increasing penalties" is clearly pandering to and mollifying the tea baggers and racists. "See? we Democrats can be tough too!" Cowardly stance.

- Including employers as a targeted group is a stunt to get liberals and progressives on board with what is a racist right wing program.

- By law all jobs have to pay above minimum wage. "Advertising to Americans" - WTF? Think about that. This section is double talk and nonsense.

- New biometric Social Security card tied to a computerized database? I there anyone here whop could support that?

The process for existing immigrants protection while they work through it is good.

The increased family based immigration is good.

So we have Democrats helping to advance the agenda of the racists, and simultaneously handing an enormous political advantage to the Republicans on a silver platter with the call for national ID cards, while at the same tom still leaving themselves vulnerable to charges of being "soft on immigration." And this is good how exactly? Looks like the worst of all worlds to me - bad for everyone - immigrants, farmers, citizens, and Democrats. It is great for Republicans and racists, though. A dream come through for them, as the Democrats snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and yet again breathe new life into the prospects for the Republican party.

[midnight]

3. I agree this does not look like a win for the Democrats.

[William Z. Foster]

5. that saddens me

I think that is is true that this, and many other things the Democratic politicians have done since they have been in power, will hurt the party. In the last two elections the public rejected the right wing, the racists, the Religious Right and Reaganomics. That represented a spectacular opportunity to turn the country around and to put the Democrats in power for a generation or more. Every day that recedes, as the Democrats still feel that they need to compromise with the right wing.

Triangulating places the Democrats in a no-win position. Still, should we not oppose Republican-light legislation on principle rather than on partisan electoral political concerns? Fortunately, the Abolitionists did not. They did not place the fortunes of the Whig part, and later the Republican party, above the cause. Nor did organized Labor cast their lot with the "lesser of two evils" and subordinate the cause to partisan electoral considerations.

[The Northerner]

8. +1

[Tempest]

4. That's what they said about our SS numbers

Now it's used for just about everything.

[grasswire]

6. on MSNBC it was said that Dems are willing to antagonize...

...those who support civil liberties, both on the left and on the right, to get this immigration bill.

Well damn to hell. Hurry-up bills are what Bushco specialized in. Scare the people, pass ever more draconian measures restricting liberty!

No. Just hell no.

[midnight]

7. I have to say this is not what I could have every have imagined the Dems. to

come up with after the crazy Arizona just pulled....

[amandabeech]

14. This bill will not make it through Congress.

Not enough voters want "immigration reform" right now.

Personally, I think that opinions about immigration in general would be more liberal if there were plenty of decent jobs out there.

As I have written elsewhere on DU, if the pro-immigration folks want a law, they should be urging Obama to get going with the jobs.

I know what the pro-immigration economic answer is, and I think that it has some validity in good economic times, but I don't think that their argument makes much sense now in the jobless economy.

Perhaps the pro-immigration groups should get on the "repeal MFN for China" bandwagon. That might do the trick, and it might send more jobs back to Central America and Mexico, from where many, many immigrants come.

[Citizen Worker]

9. Repeal NAFTA, GATT?

As I recall one of the "selling points" of NAFTA was that it would end "illegal immigration." If that was said it is quite obviously not true. The solution, repeal NAFTA, and most or all of the HIspanic people who fled Mexico to try and support their families after being booted from their subsistence farms may well return home. Mexico, once a net exporter of corn became a net importer following the passage of NAFTA. The subsistence farmer simply could not compete with the government subsidized corn from the US. The same with rice and Haiti. Even Clinton has admitted that he made a "mistake" in forcing Aristide to sign a "free trade" agreement before the US would return him to the presidency.

[midnight]

10. That bill was a real job killer for the middle class.

[William Z. Foster]

11. well said

As in all things, the weakest and most poor are being blamed for social problems caused by the wealthiest, and people are reaching for police state "solutions" to the "problem." We expect that from the Republicans, but it is disheartening to see so many Democrats doing the same thing.

[eyewall]

12. exactly so

I've been astonished at how easy it is for a wealthy prevaricator like Rush Limbaugh, who makes hundreds of millions of dollars, to convince struggling middle class listeners that poor people are stealing all their money.

[Better Today]

13. We already have an ID card for employment purposes, our SS card.