Privacy Advocates Fear Immigration ID System

July 7, 2011 RSS Feed Print

Privacy advocates are growing increasingly worried that a system meant to identify illegal immigrants will morph into a Big Brother-style high-tech ID database of all Americans.

This "is part of a historical pattern in our country: We erode the civil and privacy rights of the most disadvantaged thinking there will be less push back," says Angela Chan, an attorney with San Francisco civil rights organization the Asian Law Caucus. "The next thing you know, though, those same rights are then taken away from all of us."

[Read Controversial Immigration Program Spurs Federal-State Spat]

At issue is Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Secure Communities program, which involves the FBI sharing fingerprints with the Department of Homeland Security in keeping with a post-September 11 congressional mandate for data sharing among agencies charged with stopping terrorism. The program makes sense to proponents of illegal immigration control, but some privacy advocates are worried this is only the first step toward a comingling of personal information of everybody in the United States.

A joint FBI-DHS PowerPoint presentation—provided to Whispers by groups involved in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against DHS—indicates Secure Communities is a test case for a larger FBI biometric database initiative called "Next Generation Identification," or NGI. It is being built to replace the FBI's current fingerprint database with more robust records like palm prints, photos of tattoos and scars, iris scans, and facial imaging. [See a gallery of immigration cartoons.]

Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, worries about a lack of transparency and oversight in implementing such a broad database. "It's not just about what it is that is private," Coney says. "It's the rules that are out there to protect the individual and the society from abuse and misuse of that information. We just don't have that."

Tags:
privacy,
technology,
immigration reform

Reader Comments Read all comments (6)

Add Your Thoughts
Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.

How many illegals are we going to allow ?? unlimited?

https://www.numbersusa.com/content/resources/video/educational/immigration-world-poverty-and-gumballs-updated-2010.html

ifnotnowwhen of AZ 2:38PM December 29, 2011

Through April 30, 2011, more than 77,000 illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, including more than 28,000 convicted of aggravated felony (level 1) offenses like murder, rape and the sexual abuse of children were removed from the United States after identification through Secure Communities,” ICE says on its Secure Communities website. A relative of mine who is a police officer informed me of a very new piece of technologically, that has been assigned to Los Angeles police station called "Blue Checks" He explains it in detail, that this new system allows officers to confront a suspect and request them to hold out their hand. The hand-held device digitally scans the digits of the suspect’s hands, and within minutes the official receives a full criminal background account on the person. Only those in the system have reason to fear if they are wanted for a crime of some classification.

This new piece of equipment is under bombardment by a whole group of left leaning activists, as seeing it as an evasion of a person’s privacy. The "Politically Correct" are already coming out of their grubby holes in the rotting woodwork, crying foul and hoping that the lawmakers rescind its use. The ACLU doesn’t like "Blue Checks “saying the device is an invasion of privacy. Imagine criminal aliens who have reentered the United States being apprehended immediately that may save thousands of American lives. Supporters say they'll be able to find out if someone has prior arrests, in seconds, instead of hours. I see it as a brilliant compact that all should be placed with law enforcement including ICE. This small unit should have access to national Security agencies, connecting to the Social Security Administration, US Citizenship and Immigration Services and of course ICE. Every patrolman should be issued with this module as it offers instant recognition and could catch, illegal aliens using fraudulent ID.

Immigration laws have been ignored for far too long, and the last I heard there were an estimated 8 million aliens in jobs that Americans should have been hired for? This is incomprehensible when 9.3 percent of own people remain out-of-work. This is plain stealing and employees should be held to the highest penalty allowed by law. WHY COMING TO A SOVEREIGN LAND ILLEGALLY IS NOT A FELONY, MAKES NO SENSE TO THE MAJORITY OF THE AMERICAN POPULATION. Michelle Bachmann said she will enforce the 1986 Immigration laws, with no exception and zero tolerance that breaks these laws. It is the same with Governors and mayors who abuse city and State laws, applying a blind eye to Sanctuary Cities and States. This illegal immigration battle has been brewing for thirty years or more, except the law abiding people have finally come out of their somnolence.

Brittanicus of IN 6:47PM July 09, 2011

They don't want to secure the border, but they DO want the potential VOTES from the Illegals. They want to take away Citizens Rights to keep and bear arms, and so they pull an Illegal stunt like sending Guns to Mexican Drug Cartels...so they can blame Gun Shops and Gun Shows and use the murders on the border, in Mexico and here as the excuse to Ban Law Abiding Citizens from owning GUNS...which we Need for self defense. Everything this Regime does is to gain ever growing Control of our lives, property, health care and our future is looking darker each day. We are the Frog in THEIR POT of slowly simmering water. They are forcing this once Great Nation to the breaking point.

seenbetterdaze of NC 5:27PM July 09, 2011

About this blog

About this blog

Washington Whispers has been featured in U.S. News & World Report since 1933, offering a fun, insider's view of Washington.

advertisement

Latest Video

advertisement