Category Archives: Immigration
Open Market: E-Verify National ID System Threatens Americans’ Privacy
“I’m not a criminal, so there’s really no reason for me to be in a criminal database.” That was James Shepherd, a Kentucky native and a roofer, after he was stopped by police under “suspicion of trespassing” at a Florida hotel. The officer on the scene asked to take his picture and ran it through Florida’s facial recognition database. Finding no matches, he uploaded Shepherd’s photo with the label “suspicious person.”
Florida is one of 26 states that use facial recognition software to verify identities of individuals who possess state ID photos or have their photos added by police, according a new report by The Washington Post. The Post report exposes how quickly systems created for one purpose can be coopted for other purposes. This should make those who support, in order to stop illegal immigration, the E-Verify national ID system contained in the Senate immigration bill consider what other applications authorities could find for the System.
E-Verify violates “a key principle of privacy”
The Senate immigration bill would create a centralized database with photos of every legal U.S. worker or potential worker. It does this by combining the Social Security database – names, addresses and Social Security Numbers – with passport and state ID photos (p. 1317). The bill incentivizes states to provide photos by offering hundreds of millions of dollars in exchange for making them accessible to the federal government (p. 1377).
This much alone violates what Robert Ellis Smith, publisher of Privacy Newsletter, calls a “key principle of privacy.” As Smith explains, “The principle is that information gathered for one purpose ought not be used for an incompatible purpose without consent of the individual.” In this instance, Americans never conceived their Social Security accounts or driver license photos would be used for immigration enforcement, violating the premise under which they handed them over.
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Video: How to Resist Unlawful Checkpoints
The Washington Post: Senate panel approves immigration changes requiring fingerprint system at 30 U.S. airports
Every immigrant leaving the United States through one of the 30 biggest airports would have to be fingerprinted by federal authorities under an immigration reform measure that won early committee approval in the Senate on Monday.
The plan approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee is a concession to Republicans and some Democrats who support establishing a nationwide biometric tracking system at all U.S. air, sea and land ports of entry, a key recommendation made by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to track potential terrorists entering or leaving the country.
The committee rejected a similar GOP proposal last week that would have forced the Department of Homeland Security to establish a biometric immigration tracking system at every U.S. air, sea and land port of entry. The committee’s Democrats and the four members of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” who wrote the immigration bill and sit on the panel said such a plan would be too expensive.
But bipartisan negotiators sought a compromise after Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) — a key GOP member of the “Gang of Eight” — said he supports the concept of a nationwide biometric system and would fight for the proposal once the immigration bill reaches the full Senate.
Under the new agreement sponsored by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), DHS would need to establish a fingerprint tracking system at the nation’s 10 largest international airports within two years of the bill’s approval. The program would expand to the next 20 largest international airports within six years.
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Yahoo News: Boston bombing suspect’s arrest presents intelligence opportunity, legal challenges
BOSTON – Keeping bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev alive and able to answer questions would be a badly-needed intelligence coup for terror investigators, a former U.S. District Attorney told Yahoo News on Saturday.
“The fear of law enforcement has always been the small, insular cells that are kind of under the radar,” said Richard Roper, a federal prosecutor for 21 years. “Either the lone wolf or the small cells … they’re difficult to obtain intelligence on. I hope they get some good stuff out of him.”
On Saturday, Dzhokhar was reportedly clinging to life and under heavy guard at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He apparently suffered gunshot wounds to the neck and leg during separate gun battles with authorities on Friday.
Tsarnaev, 19, and his brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, are believed to have planted the two backpack bombs near the finish line of Monday’s Boston Marathon. The twin explosions killed three people and injured 180 others……..
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“There’s a need to immediately question the guy whether you Mirandize him or not to save lives,” Roper said. “The question is how far do you go before it turns into a custodial interrogation?”
Republican Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina went a step further, suggesting Dzhokhar be treated as an enemy combatant like a soldier captured in war. The move drew the ire of longtime McCain aide and speechwriter Mark Salter.
“My friend, Lindsey Graham, is wrong on this,” Salter posted on his Facebook page. “However unforgivable his crimes, he’s a US citizen, arrested on US soil, with, at this time, no known associations with foreign terrorist organizations at war with the U.S. To declare him an “enemy combatant,” and deny him his rights is un-American.”
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What do you all think, does the constitution only apply to some citizens or all?
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ABC News: Avoiding Stumbling Blocks on the Pathway to Citizenship
So eight senators have agreed on a “pathway to citizenship” for America’s undocumented, leaving a mere 92 to go. And make no mistake, there are many stumbling blocks on this road to legalization.
Pro-pathway advocates are concerned that too many people are being left out, because anyone here after December 2011 will not be eligible for citizenship and will still be vulnerable to deportation.
For many on the other side, the border will never be secure enough, even if this new immigration reform bill does call for $4.5 million in funding for new border patrol agents, equipment including drones and more security fencing.
Plus history is working against the bill. A similar version failed in 2007 because of conservative outcry.
But at the White House today after Senators John McCain and Charles Schumer say they received the president’s seal of approval on the legislation, quote “very supportive of the bill” the two senators defended its chances, saying the American people have changed since 2007.
Americans’ views of immigration have pushed to support by a 2-1 margin.
According to a newly released ABC News/Washington Post poll, Americans were evenly split on the issue (49 percent to 46 percent) in 2007, whereas today that number is 63 percent to 33 percent.
That may mean the difference between the 2012 bill’s passage and the 2007 bill’s demise. Schumer said the fact that labor is on board now, when in 2007 they were most definitely not, means this bill has a greater chance of success.
Attitude of American people has changed since 2007,” McCain said at the press briefing today, including the effect of the Latino turnout in the election of President Obama, which he said “quite frankly” had an “impact as well.”
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Rand Paul offers up alternative Immigration Plan From business week: Paul Looks to Broaden Appeal by Backing Immigration Shift
Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky endorsed immigration changes that would give legal status to undocumented immigrants in the U.S. in a move to broaden his appeal ahead of a potential 2016 Republican presidential bid.
Paul’s plan, outlined in a speech yesterday, would create work visas for an estimated 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally and let Congress verify border security before revamping the nation’s immigration laws.
Paul set his proposal apart from one being crafted by a bipartisan group of senators, including another potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, Marco Rubio of Florida. Their plan would provide a pathway to citizenship.
“I’m not creating a new line for citizenship,” Paul said on CNN yesterday. “I’m just saying, you get in the current line that exists.”
“You don’t have to go back home, but we also don’t want to put you at the front of the line because that’s unfair to people who’ve been waiting legally,” he told reporters on a conference call yesterday.
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What do you think about Paul’s plans and the other bipartisan plan proposed? Click below for the full article.
More on Immigration Bill From Bloomberg Business Week: Criticism of immigration bill from left and right
To some conservatives, it’s amnesty.
To some immigration advocates, it’s unnecessarily punitive.
The Senate’s new bipartisan immigration bill drew criticism from the right and from the left Tuesday — convincing members of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” that wrote it that they’re on the right track.
“This has something for everybody to hate,” said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.
Said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.: “No one gets everything they want.”
Schumer and another leader of the effort, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., met with President Barack Obama on Tuesday to brief him on the bill, a top second-term priority for the president. Obama issued a statement after the meeting supporting the Senate effort and urging action.
“This bill is clearly a compromise, and no one will get everything they wanted, including me. But it is largely consistent with the principles that I have repeatedly laid out for comprehensive reform,” Obama said. “I urge the Senate to quickly move this bill forward and, as I told Sens. Schumer and McCain, I stand willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that comprehensive immigration reform becomes a reality as soon as possible.”
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http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2013-04-16/bipartisan-bill-would-remake-immigration-system
AP News: Bipartisan bill would remake immigration system
The U.S. immigration system would undergo dramatic changes under a bipartisan Senate bill that puts a new focus on prospective immigrants’ merit and employment potential, while seeking to end illegal immigration once and for all by creating legal avenues for workers to come here.
The bill would put the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally on a 13-year path to U.S. citizenship that would cost each $2,000 in fines plus additional fees, and would begin only after steps have been taken to secure the border, according to an outline of the measure.
The sweeping legislation also would remake the nation’s inefficient legal immigration system, creating new immigration opportunities for tens of thousands of high- and low-skilled workers, as well as a new “merit visa” aimed at bringing people with talents to the U.S. Senators planned to formally introduce the bill Tuesday, but a planned press event including immigration advocates, business groups, religious leaders and others was delayed until later in the week because of the tragedy at the Boston Marathon.
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http://news.yahoo.com/bipartisan-bill-remake-immigration-system-134409846.html