Tamper-proof ID cards

[Recursion]

So Bush wants tamper-proof biometric ID cards for resident aliens with work permits.

First off, I'm confused about the term "biometric" since pictures, height and weight (which every state-issued ID card I've seen has) are biometric. But that aside, I see a big problem and a danger.

First off, tamper-proof won't mean jack if it's just for one class of identification, since an immigrant would still be able to forge a driver's license and birth certificate and pretend he's a citizen.

Is this the foot in the door for a national ID card? I really, really, really hope not because one thing I really like about living in this country is that nobody can ask for "my papers" since this country doesn't give me "papers" to have in the first place.

[warrens]

1. It's a dumbass idea

It will work with passports, where experts can scrutinize them, but they will be useless in normal day-to-day business. There are millions of fake drivers licenses in circulation, and any biometric can be forged. This idea is going nowhere...for now.

[MadHound]

2. The other thing about such cards

Is that no matter how "tamper proof" you make them, somebody can always come up with a very, very good forgery.

And yes, sad to say, I think this is another step down the road to "Papers Please":scared:

[originalpckelly]

3. Yes it is going to become a national ID, but on steroids...

Digital Fingerprints, why would a person need digital information on their card if that digital information isn't going to be stored in a database somewhere? The President specifically mentioned digital fingerprints:

"This card should use biometric technology, such as digital fingerprints, to make it tamper-proof. A tamper-proof card would help us enforce the law, and leave employers with no excuse for violating it. And by making it harder for illegal immigrants to find work in our country, we would discourage people from crossing the border illegally in the first place."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060515-8.html

Everyone will have to get one of these, employer's will not want to face massive criminal penalties associated with hiring an illegal, so they will make everyone get one of these cards.

No one will be in a better situation if we don't give them to everyone. The illegal immigrants will still use forged American documents.

This slope is a slippery as ice. <- pun intended

[napi21]

4. Yea sure, and can't you just imagine the employers scrambling

to buy the necessary reader too!

How damn hard is it to check a SS#? From what I understand, most illegals use their own name, and just snag some SS# to go with it. How damn hard is it to pick up the phone, OR access a Gov't database to verify that the number matches the name?

Why do the feds always try to make a solution so complicated?

[dipsydoodle]

5. Might be wrong

but I thought the whole point of biometric cards was they had eye scans.

edit - just checked and the UK ones will have both eye scan and fingerprint information. That's how our driving licences will be in a year or so.

[noonwitch]

6. Did he ever live in Palm Beach?

I remember back in the 80s, there was a big deal about how the rich people in Palm Beach provided their employees with id cards, so that they could pass back and forth from their communities without the police harrassment usually given to non-whites on their island.

This program reminds me of that.

I don't know if there is a sane way for Bush to deal with his own radical party on immigration. The Minutemen aren't coming from our side, after all.

Are they going to send the guard to the canadian border, too? I'll tell you this-Detroiters don't want to see the national guard on the streets ever again. It would not go over very well here.