Empower Wisconsin – by M.D. Kittle
MADISON — As the United States continues to shatter illegal immigrant encounters at the border month after month, the Biden administration is looking to roll out a policy to issue IDs to border crossers.
The move, according to U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Glenbeulah), provides further evidence the administration is actively encouraging illegal immigration.
“We continue to investigate the Biden Administration’s erosion of the rule of law and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s failure to engage in immigration enforcement,” Grothman and 15 Republican colleagues wrote in a letter to Tae Johnson, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The lawmakers raise concerns about a reported pilot program, known as as the ICE Secure Docket Card program, which is intended in part to help illegal immigrants circumvent checking in physically at ICE offices and more easily access benefits within the United States.
Congressional Democrats have proposed $10 million for the ID card program in their FY 2023 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“The ICE Secure Docket Card program is part of a pilot program to modernize various forms of documentation provided to provisionally released noncitizens through a consistent, verifiable, secure card,” an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson told The National Desk (TND). “Pending the outcome of the pilot, ICE will consider further expansion.”
“We are concerned that this pilot program is yet another Biden Administration move encouraging illegal immigration by rewarding illegal immigrants for breaking our laws,” states the letter signed by Grothman, U.S. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Rep. Jody Bice (R-Ga.), Ranking Member of the Committee on Government Operations, and others. Grothman serves as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on National Security.
The lawmakers ask whether identification cards will include QR codes that link to court documents and personally identifiable information related to removal cases. That would raise security concerns as well as questions regarding the likelihood that significant taxpayer resources will be diverted from immigration enforcement to uploading documents into and maintaining a secure system, they say.
And the issuance of ID cards raises the possibility that illegal aliens will use these identification cards to improperly access benefits such as housing, healthcare, and transportation, according to the congressional members.
In June 2022, U.S. Border Patrol made nearly 192,000 arrests of illegal immigrants at the southwest border, making the month the worst June on record. Department of Homeland Security personnel have encountered over 3.1 million illegal immigrants at the southwest border and the Biden Administration has released more than 1,048,000 illegal immigrants into the interior of the United States since Biden took office.
“Due to the Biden Administration’s pro-illegal immigration policies, the United States is facing the worst border crisis in our nation’s history,” the lawmakers wrote. “The Administration is now reportedly planning yet another reckless policy that will further exacerbate this ongoing crisis.”