TWIC port card pilot program on the ropes

c/o HSToday.us

"Data collected by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) during a pilot for readers of transportation worker identification cards is so bad that Congress should ignore it and order a new security assessment of the project, congressional investigators have reported." 

:::MORE HERE::: 

REDUX: E-Verify substitution bill, CISPA & More

House bill would replace H-2A, E-Verify programs

Immigration reforms that would replace H-2A visas with an agricultural guest worker program under the U.S. Department of Agriculture would provide growers with a stable, legal work force for the first time in decades, produce leaders say.

:::MORE HERE:::


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Here is second life for news that matters:

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NOTE: Twitter hashtag for WE TOLD YOU SO is #WTYS

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INTERCEDE on Behalf of the Worker

Database seamstresses Intercede could be coming to a DPS location near near you.

This up from ShareCast:

Identity credentials specialist Intercede has confirmed that more than one million people have been enrolled in the United States Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Worker Identification Credential programme (TWIC) at around 149 port locations.

Intercede's IDCMS software product enables the seamless integration of the credential with the relevant IT infrastructure at each location.

Transport Industry BeatsThe Chip

THIS WEEK ON WAKING UP ORWELL/ KOOP 91.7 FM

Jim Babka from Downsize DC will be on the show to discuss his work to stop the Transportation Worker Identification Credential. Jim will be discussing these ideas with with longshoreman and activist Lowell Rogers, who has confronted consequences to his line of work for refusing to comply with TWIC standards.

Jim Babka is the co-founder and President of the Downsize DC Foundation and DownsizeDC.org, Inc. He is also the host of The Downsize DC Conference Call on the Genesis Communication Network. He has guest-hosted other shows including the Harry Browne Show

FROM DOWNSIZEDC.org
Lowell Rogers has been an engineer on a brown-water tugboat for 23 years. He loves his work, and his employer likes the way Lowell does his job. But starting April 2009, thanks to the Maritime Safety Act, Lowell's employer will have to assume he's a potential terrorist, unless he has a Transportation Worker Identification Credential -- a TWIC card.

Waking Up Orwell airs live in Austin, TX from 2:30 - 3:00 PM CST Thursdays on KOOP.org .


RECENT NEWS

Facing TWIC criticism, TSA temporarily allows alternate ID at ports

LANDLINEMAG.com - 12/15

Truck drivers and other workers who have wrangled with aggressive enforcement at many ports for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential may get extra time to fully comply – at least for a few weeks.

The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that certain ports are allowing port access if workers present acceptable identification and proof that their TWIC card has been printed and is ready for activation.

The new temporary system will revert back to mandatory TWIC card possession for unescorted access through port-defined “secure areas,” with different deadlines for each of three groups of ports.

The first group will be allowed to use the temporary ID system until Dec. 22, including ports located in “Captain of the Port Zones: Boston, Northern New England, Southeastern New England, Cape Fear River, Corpus Christi, TX, North Carolina, Buffalo, NY; Detroit; Duluth, MN; Lake Michigan; Sault Ste. Marie, MI; Charleston, SC; Long Island Sound; Jacksonville, FL; and Savannah, GA.

The second group can use the temporary ID system until Feb. 1, 2009, including ports in Captain of the Port Zones of: Baltimore, Delaware Bay, DE; Mobile, AL; Lower Mississippi River, MS; Ohio Valley, Pittsburgh; and San Diego.

The last group may use the temporary ID system until Feb. 13, 2009. It includes ports in Captain of the Port Zones of Hampton Roads, VA; Morgan City, LA; New Orleans; Upper Mississippi River, MS; Miami; Key West, FL; and St. Petersburg, FL.

Acceptable proof of activation-ready TWIC cards includes:

• Printing the e-mail sent by TSA during notification process that the TWIC is ready for pick-up.
• Providing the facility security officer with the applicant’s TWIC application ID number, which can be checked on www.twicinformation.com.
• Providing the facility security officer with the worker’s first and last name. That information can be checked by the officer, using the password-protected portion of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Web site.

“Captain of the Port’s should work closely with facility owners and operators to ensure that the above policy is implemented to provide equivalent security at Maritime Transportation Security Act-regulated facilities while minimizing impacts on maritime operations and commerce,” read a statement from TWIC’s policy advisory council.

For more information, visit
The TWIC program eventually will require more than 1.5 million port employees, longshoremen, mariners, truckers and others who require unescorted access to secure areas of ports to have background checks before being issued cards with their biometric data and residency documentation.

Nationally, TWIC cards will be required for truckers and other port workers who need unescorted access into secure areas by April 15, 2009, although most ports are implementing earlier mandatory TWIC enforcement.

OOIDA has been critical of several TSA processes during the TWIC rollout including the price of enrollment and the ability of foreign nationals to access ports without background checks required by TWIC applicants from the United States. One filing of the Association’s comments on TWIC can be found here.

Standard TWIC enrollment costs $132.50, although workers with “current, comparable” threat assessment background checks such as hazmat endorsements, Merchant Mariner Documents or Free and Secure Trade (FAST) cards may obtain a TWIC card for $105.25. The card is designed to last five years.

Replacement cards for those who lose or damage their TWIC card cost $60, according to the TWIC Web site at www.tsa.gov/twic.

According to TSA, as of Thursday, Dec. 11, 725,742 workers nationally had enrolled in TWIC. Of those, 637,262 cards have been printed and 488,713 had been activated. About 120,000 truck drivers have enrolled.

– By Charlie Morasch, staff writer
charlie_morasch@landlinemag.com

TWIC'ked OFF: Credential Offices Opening

The Transportation Worker Identification Credential  or TWIC Centers will be opening.

Here is what workers are saying:

Without a TWIC, your license is invalid. Don't think you can wait. This whole program has been plagued by confusion, delays, and poor communications, especially on the part of the USCG, who at the local level are barely up to speed on this issue. I still see Internet forums with captains quoting local CG personel that they won't need a TWIC. Do not make the mistake of going to the USCG for advice about the TWIC. The USCG has made their official position very clear with the NVIC quoted above.

Friends don't let friends get TWIC'ked off and drive, fly or maneuver dangerous machinery. 

Call your local AFL-CIO or transport union today and demand justice.  This is your identity *$@damm%!!  YOU ONLY GET ONE!!   SAY NO TO TWIC WHILE YOU CAN!!

RIGHT HOOK: Downsize DC Takes on TWIC

We can thank the due dilligence of Jim Babka for putting pressure on our national leaders with some of the most important people in the world : transportation workers.

Downsize DC is doing a second pass on an earlier action. If you haven't signed up to support this effort, please do so now. Support Downsize DC's efforts to protect the privacy of transport workers nationally by signing this petition.

FATAL FLAWS OF THE TWIC SCHEME - by Jim Babka

Please read this and send a copy of Babka's letter to anyone you know who operates a vehicle, boat or aircraft for a living - this will affect them. I also wouldn't hurt to send a copy to your local AFL-CIO and corresponding transportation workers union.

Hey your TWIC is lagging...

TWIC Enrollment Approaches 500,000
9/2/2008

Journal of Commerce

WASHINGTON -- Enrollment for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential nears the half million mark, but card activation still lags, according to data from the Transportation Security Administration.

The TSA's latest TWIC "dashboard" indicates that 496,144 workers have enrolled for the biometric identification card, but just 292,812 have been activated.

The Coast Guard announced it would begin enforcement of the TWIC rules on Oct. 15 in selected captain-of-the-port zones. TWIC becomes mandatory on April 15, 2009, for all workers who need unescorted access to secure areas.

The dashboard may be found at the Coast Guard's Homeport web site, http://homeport.uscg.mil. Follow the TWIC prompts.

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.