As foretold, Trump is using immigration to mandate biometric digital IDs
As foretold by lovers of liberty and others not drinking the orange Kool-Aid, Donald Trump and his Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are using the so-called immigration crisis to create a government spying program that mandates biometric digital IDs for every American.
DHS and ICE have created an electronic version of the very thing the Founders feared: a roving license for agents of the government to search anyone, anywhere, at any time (via MS Now):
This summer, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested George Retes, a U.S. citizen and an Army veteran, during an immigration sweep as he was driving to work. Although Retes repeatedly told the officers he was an American and showed them proof, ICE detained him for days, strip-searched him and forced him to provide a DNA sample — all without charges. But that is not the end of the story.
Now, as ICE ramps up this type of data collection, Retes and countless other Americans are at risk. In addition to DNA, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has recently and quietly authorized ICE officers to forcibly collect and retain intimate identifiers: our fingerprints and digital images of our faces. Combined with other technologies, the department is creating a general warrant for our persons, the kind of abuse that ignited the American Revolution.
An app called Mobile Fortify allows ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers to photograph and scan anyone they “encounter” in the field, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. If there isn’t a photo match, officers can collect people’s fingerprints, which are then checked against DHS biometric records. Once DHS has that sensitive data, the app feeds it into CBP’s Automated Targeting System — an enormous watch list that merges border records, passport photos and prior “encounter” images. CBP retains every nonmatch photograph for 15 years, meaning that even if you’re an American citizen mistakenly stopped on the street, the government has your biometric records for a generation.
Mobile Fortify is just the latest cog in a much larger machine. When ICE agents arrest someone like Retes — citizen or not — they routinely swab their mouth to collect their DNA. Like faces and fingerprints, the government uploads those DNA records into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), where they sit indefinitely. So, if ICE mistakenly arrests a U.S. citizen like Retes, his genetic information can remain in federal hands forever. (Emphasis mine)
As I foretold just days after the 2024 election, Trump is using the border security and immigration issues to introduce a mandatory national biometric digital ID — you know, in the name of safety — that will give government the ability to track anyone and everyone it chooses.
This has been a part of Trump’s plan going all the way back to his 2016 campaign:
“We will finally complete the Biometric Entry/Exit Visa Tracking System which we need desperately. It will be on land, sea, and air. We will have a proper tracking system.”
Trump and his Republican buddies, who were in control of Congress at the time, attempted to implement a biometric digital ID in 2018 when they were allegedly working on a fix for DACA. I use the word “allegedly” because Trump had twisted himself in knots trying to look like he was dealing with the DACA problem while simultaneously promising to take care of illegals because he had such a “big heart.”
In an effort to help their fearless leader create a national biometric digital ID system, the Republican-controlled House introduced the Securing America’s Future Act of 2018 (H.R.4760), a 400-page monstrosity authored by Rep Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). Encompassing everything from education and the workforce to Homeland Security and the military, this so-called immigration bill contained a tiny little detail about biometric identification in the form of a National ID card that, much like the REAL ID program, would be required for every American.
According to former Congressman and current Chairman of Campaign for Liberty, Ron Paul, H.R.4760 gave DACA recipients a 3-year renewable legal status while simultaneously establishing a mandatory national identification system. Every American would be required to carry this new card; a card capable of carrying biometric data such as fingerprints and retina scans.
Though never implemented, this card was designed to be used as a tracking device, and it would have been required to hold a job, open a bank account, or get on a plane. Sounds like it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump away from being required in order to buy and sell, doesn’t it?
In fact, H.R.4760 would have given some serious liberty-killing power to Big Brother Washington:
- It would have allowed federal bureaucrats to include biometric identification information on the card, such as: fingerprints, retinal scans, or scans of veins on the back of hands, all of which could easily be used as a tracking device.
- It would have empowered government to require every US worker, regardless of their place of birth, to carry the card, and it would have made it illegal for anyone to hold a job in the US if they didn’t obtain the ID card.
- It would have required every employer to purchase an “ID scanner” and use it to verify the ID cards with the federal government. Every time an individual applied for a job, the government would know about it.
And here’s something to ask yourself: How long do you think it would be before these biometric ID cards would be required before government allowed you to make routine purchases? Before you answer that question, consider this: the Central Bank Digital Currency currently being pushed by tyrants in both parties in Washington would have that exact power — making a biometric digital ID card a perfect companion to the CBDC and the coming social credit system.
National ID cards of this type have been proposed in the past as part of immigration reform without success. However, in the Trump 2.0 presidency, it is about to experience a great amount of success this time around — especially when you consider the success government had with other forms of digital IDs created during the previous “crisis” known as COVID-19.
Current and former officials around the globe believe that COVID created the perfect timing to create a digital ID card program as the solution to dealing with the lockdowns and social distancing laws created during the so-called pandemic. For example, former Prime Minister Tony Blair had this to say in an appearance at the virtual CogX technology conference in June 2020:
“You can create a digital ID today that is much more easily protected so you can deal with a lot of the privacy and surveillance issues that worry people.
“It is a natural evolution of the way that we are going to use technology in any event to transact daily life and this Covid crisis gives an additional reason for doing that.
“I think people’s disease status – have they been tested, what is the result of that test and have they had the disease, do they have the disease – unless you are able to record some of this data in a way people can use, it is going to be difficult to go back to anything like a near normal in things like transport.
“If you are going to start international travel again, how can you do that unless people can be easily tested and have some record of that test?
“There has always been a good case for introducing some form of digital ID, but I think that case is even more powerful today.” (Emphasis mine)
Trump’s digital biometric ID will make it easier for government to track our every move, creating a society where liberty can be destroyed at the push of a button. It begins with “monitoring” immigration and the border, and it ends with military checkpoints and martial law, facial recognition, and a government holding full control over who will be allowed to move and who won’t.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties. He the author of The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty.
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