Deadline for EVVE to Motor Vehicle Division input June 8th

BTC - You have until exactly June 8th to contest the implementation of yet *ANOTHER* national ID  program, according to Cato, integrating the motor vehicle driver license records into E-Verify's labor records databases.

You may submit comments, identified by docket number DHS-2011-0030 by one of the following methods:

Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.

Follow the instructions for submitting comments.

Fax: 703-483-2999.

Mail: Mary Ellen Callahan, Chief Privacy Officer, Privacy Office, Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC 20528.

Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name and docket number for this rulemaking. All comments received will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov,
including any personal information provided.

Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or comments received go to http://www.regulations.gov.


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

For general questions, please contact:
Janice Jackson, Acting Privacy Branch Chief, Verification Division,
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services,
Department of HomelandSecurity,
Washington, DC 20528.

For privacy issues please contact:
Mary Ellen Callahan (703-235-0780),
Chief Privacy Officer, Privacy Office,
Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC 20528.

DEBATE: Do we need a biometric worker card?

>>>OF NOTE: Ed Hasbrouck on "mission creep" of Social Security cards and national ID

BTC - The Op-Ed wars have begun. Narratives are blazing to address a recently proposed immigration bill containing the blanket issuance of a national biometric worker identification card . The opposing groundswell amplified after Chris Calabrese, an ACLU watchdog, barked late yesterday to an announcement of the Hill's next political science project: immigration reform. Based on everything we've seen and heard, it's already time for the Senate to go back to the lab.

It is official. President Obama has staked out the immigration issue for the next milestone of his adminstration as the Healthcare distraction ceases. In a letter released this week, he seems to be optimistic about the bipartisan support framework and is gearing up to address the U.S. immigration debates.

AN "Immigrant Treatment" BILL

The "comprehensive immigration reform bill" has no name to speak of. This leads us to our conclusions about its experimental nature. Since we know biometrics (pictures and fingerprints) alone do not determine statehood, nationality or American citizenship; what does their biometric system prove to the American worker?

This bill is a crackdown everywhere of everyone who has to earn a living. Everyone gets the immigrant treatment. Especially, if you're an indebted working American stiff with four forms of legal identity already.

Worst case scenario: you are arbitrarily arrested for not proving your citizenship on the spot and sent to an ICE/DHS detention center. That makes a buck for the same people who profit from privatized prisons, who profit from criminal justice, prison labor and who profit from monetized debt, liquid credit and poverty [i.e. Bail Bonds and instant credit]. At the very least, you will pay the State to ensure that you stay out of jail. Yes, you pay all the fees and fines and do all the public service necessary to clear away any criminal record. This creates a solid resource and revenue stream for the State. Citizens simply have to pay through the nose to stay above board as good law abiding citizens. Either way, your fingerprints and your face are part of a new biometric worker database at the DMV. So America's private workers join State workers, prisoners and immigrants undergoing scrutinies where their body images are concerned. Oh yeah, and the biometrics industry gets a buck too.

Afterall, we know how hard life is for people with criminal records. They can't get real jobs. They lose a lot of their rights as citizens. They don't get to vote. They can't really hang onto much of anything. They end up doing the low wage scut jobs no one wants in America just to survive. HEY! Aren't those jobs being done by immigrants?

You may want to compare this bill to a practical and less political bill co-sponsored by Senator Graham and Sen Schumer. The AgJOBS bill is an example of a bridge attempt to issue "blue cards" to migrant workers. It seems moderate enough, to be a solid proposal co-sponsored by Senators Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham. It actually deals with immigrant workers present in the United States in a fairly non-circuitous, uncomplicated path. It stays away from jails, indefinite immigrant detentions and rights of laborers in America.

THE ACTUAL DEBATE

Just for chuckles lets look at the debate arguments directed at the public right now asking for your consent to choose this system.

IN FAVOR OF COMPREHENSIVE NATIONAL IDENTITY TO WORK

The right way to mend immigration by Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham

We would require all U.S. citzens and legal immigrants who want jobs to obtain a high-tech, fraud proof Social Security card. Each card's unique biometric identifier would be stored only on the card; no government database would house everyone's information. The cards would not contain any private information, medical information or tracking devices. The card would be a high-tech version of the Social Security card that citizens already have.

OPPOSED OF COMPREHENSIVE NATIONAL IDENTITY TO WORK

Why not do it without the national ID? by Jim Harper, Cato Institute

In an earlier post, I called Senator Graham’s support of Schumer’s national ID plan inexplicable (before taking a stab at explaining it). Seeing the outline of their entire proposal, which would alleviate various pressures and begin a welcome transition back toward the rule of law in the immigration area, I am truly at a loss to understand why they would attach this grauitous and punitive plan to force law-abiding American citizens into a biometric national ID system.

E-Verify program fails at 52%, says Westat report

c/o Information week

The Department of Homeland Security's online verification system wrongly identifies unauthorized workers more than half the time, study says.

By Elizabeth Montalbano, InformationWeek
Feb. 26, 2010
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=223100838

Government system employers can use to check a potential hire's eligibility to work in the U.S. accurately flags unauthorized workers less than half the time, according to a research report.

A report from Westat found that the Department of Homeland Security's E-Verify system inaccurately identifies workers unauthorized for employment in the U.S. as authorized 54 percent of the time.

E-Verify is an online system that compares employee status with more than 444 million records in the Social Security Administration database and more than 60 million records in DHS immigration databases.

Only 6.2 percent of all E-Verify queries related to unauthorized workers, however, and the system is matching up legal workers with the proper status with 99 percent accuracy, according to the report.

The Westat report is based on research from two years ago but was just released in late January on the DHS Web site. Its findings were not widely reported until earlier this week.

The system's inaccuracy percentage drew criticism for the program and vows for reform from lawmakers, in particular Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), who is writing an immigration bill for his party.

He said the findings of the Westat report prove it is not an "effective remedy" for preventing employers from hiring unauthorized workers, according to published reports.

E-Verify is currently used by more than 180,000 employers at more than 675,000 work sites. It is mainly a voluntary program and applies only to new hires, not existing employees, at an organization.

::: DOWNLOAD REPORT & MORE HERE:::

Nurses Suing Employer over Flu Vax Mandate

AmedNews.com

A plan that officials at Seattle's Virginia Mason Medical Center had hoped would improve patient safety and save lives has landed them in some legal hot water instead.

The Washington State Nurses Assn., on behalf of the hospital's 500 nurses, filed a petition in federal court Oct. 1, seeking an injunction to stop implementation of the hospital's new policy of mandatory flu shots for all employees.

"Nurses feel they don't have a choice between getting a shot or leaving Virginia Mason," said WSNA spokeswoman Anne Tan Piazza. "The WSNA absolutely supports flu vaccinations and we are well aware of their benefits, but we think the approach to compliance is through education and not through threats of termination."

Virginia Mason spokeswoman Kim Davis said education efforts had achieved a vaccination rate of about 55%, which is significantly higher than the 38% national rate for health care workers, but the hospital is shooting for 100%.

Health Freedom Attorney to File Lawsuit Against FDA Over Swine Flu Vaccine in New York

Nurses speak about losing their jobs to a swine flu vaccine mandate.

c/o The NewAmerican

Health freedom attorney Jim Turner, of Citizens for Health, is filing a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., today, hoping to halt the distribution of the swine flu vaccine in America. What prompted his civil action is the ruling that licensed healthcare workers in New York State must receive the vaccine or lose their jobs.

Turner’s lawsuit, the plaintiffs for which are Dr. Gary Null and other healthcare workers of New York State, will seek an injunction against the Food and Drug Administration from approving the vaccine for general distribution. “And the core of the argument,” Turner told the Natural News Talk Hour Thursday evening, “is that they have not done the proper safety and efficacy tests on the vaccine to allow it to be released at this time.”

He explained further, “The FDA is required by law to establish that a vaccine is safe and effective before it can be given to the public. We are arguing that they did not establish that the vaccine was effective, and did not establish that it was safe. They are trying to get it on the market by a waiver.” ::: MORE HERE:::

TWIC'ked OFF

Jim Babka's, DownSize DC is doing some great work to stop Real ID's progress with his national machine, DownsizeDC.org . He's doing a lot in Conneticut, where the public seems to be still prety sleepy about Real ID and how they will inherit it. Real ID is a now a shapeshifting monster trying to survive.  In border states it looks like Enhanced Driver's licenses. In other coastal states it looks like some version of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. Enter Transportation Worker Identification Credential or TWIC.

"The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wants you to have a Real ID card that's very similar to the TWIC card. But DHS is failing to implement the Real ID because state governments are resisting. Twenty one states are refusing to comply with the REAL ID. It's probably the biggest rebellion against the federal government since the Civil War. So what can the DHS do to overcome this rebellion?

They can "pick off the herd" -- hit one industry at a time until so many people have Smart Cards no one is left to resist, " says Babka who later indicated that the commercial transport agencies and unions have been targets for Smart Card regulations.

Earlier this year TWIC, like all associations with citizens and Real ID, including TSA according to DHS were "voluntary".

Well, now the people who didn't volunteer their ID's at Airport checkpoints are being added to a separate watch list. 

The consequences for failing to comply with the TWIC program are threats to transport worker's job security. Lowell Rogers, a tugboat engineer of 23 years, talks about how a TWIC card threatens to end his career on Jim Babka's show this afternoon.

Babka will be hosting his nationally syndicated program on GCNlive.com at 3PM EST/2PM CST /Noon PST. Archives are available for 24 hours.