The Free Foundation – by Ron Paul
From massive NSA spying, to IRS targeting of the administration’s political opponents, to collection and sharing of our health care information as part of Obamacare, it seems every day we learn of another assault on our privacy. Sadly, this week the Senate took another significant, if little-noticed, step toward creating an authoritarian surveillance state. Buried in the immigration bill is a national identification system called mandatory E-Verify.
The Senate did not spend much time discussing E-Verify, and what little discussion took place was mostly bipartisan praise for its effectiveness as a tool for preventing illegal immigrants from obtaining employment. It is a tragedy that mandatory E-Verify is not receiving more attention, as it will impact nearly every American’s privacy and liberty.
The mandatory E-Verify system requires Americans to carry a “tamper-proof” social security card. Before they can legally begin a job, American citizens will have to show the card to their prospective employer, who will then have to verify their identity and eligibility to hold a job in the US by running the information through the newly-created federal E-Verify database. The database will contain photographs taken from passport files and state driver’s licenses. The law gives federal bureaucrats broad discretion in adding other “biometric” identifiers to the database. It also gives the bureaucracy broad authority to determine what features the “tamper proof” card should contain.
Regardless of one’s views on immigration, the idea that we should have to ask permission from the federal government before taking a job ought to be offensive to all Americans. Under this system, many Americans will be denied the opportunity for work. The E-Verify database will falsely identify thousands as “ineligible,” forcing many to lose job opportunities while challenging government computer inaccuracies. E-Verify will also impose additional compliance costs on American businesses, at a time when they are struggling with Obamacare implementation and other regulations.
According to David Bier of Competitive Enterprise Institute, there is nothing stopping the use of E-Verify for purposes unrelated to work verification, and these expanded uses could be authorized by agency rule-making or executive order. So it is not inconceivable that, should this bill pass, the day may come when you are not be able to board an airplane or exercise your second amendment rights without being run through the E-Verify database. It is not outside the realm of possibility that the personal health care information that will soon be collected by the IRS and shared with other federal agencies as part of Obamacare will also be linked to the E-Verify system.
Those who dismiss these concerns as paranoid should consider that the same charges were leveled at those who warned that the PATRIOT Act could lead to the government collecting our phone records and spying on our Internet usage. Just as the PATRIOT Act was only supposed to be used against terrorists but is now used to bypass constitutional protections in matters having noting to do with terrorism or national security, the national ID/mandatory E-Verify database will not only be used to prevent illegal immigrants from gaining employment. Instead, it will eventually be used as another tool to monitor and control the American people.
The recent revelations of the extent of National Security Agency (NSA) spying on Americans, plus recent stories of IRS targeting Tea Party and similar groups for special scrutiny, demonstrates the dangers of trusting government with this type of power. Creation of a federal database with photos and possibly other “biometric” information about American citizens is a great leap forward for the surveillance state. All Americans who still care about limited government and individual liberty should strongly oppose E-Verify.
I think you Americans as much as us here in Britain had better wake up to the fact that the government is bypassing the law with only a sop of lip service to the system of democracy.
Over here repeatedly the question is being asked “Show us how you at GCHQ complied with the law” and we get vague responses of “assurances” that the law has been complied with but WHAT laws?
An overlooked story of around 2008 people might find interesting is that a revelation in congress revealed that a full 1/4, a quarter of ALL CIA resources and assets were at work here in the UK, none of us could get even an admission from the government if this was true let alone why this was and all US personnel here in the UK are exempt from the law so literally can murder, steal and do what they want without fear of retribution and to have a full quarter of that agency loose in our nation was a scary, scary prospect.
How GCHQ and Menwith Hall operate is tricky, the NSA spy on the US and other countries from there and because it is not done in domestic territory, it is deemed legal and the facilities at this former RAF station are formidable with several new buildings recently added to the complex, GCHQ runs a trunk of the WWW and satellite telephone communication lines through its facility and they literally trawl thousands of millions of packets an hour looking for triggers and key words and a portion of these vast supercomputers are tasked to known businessmen, diplomats, bankers, dealers, directors and it is how the big US banks are able to get inside information on big trades, acquisitions of other companies, failing companies so they can short it to death, JP Morgan and the rest gain their financial power wholly to the NSA/GCHQ theft of data.
Oh my you should read this in reference to the above…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23098867
‘Hayden however draws a distinction. “We steal secrets too… but we steal only those things that keep British or American subjects safe and free. We don’t steal things to make Americans – or in GCHQ’s case British – subjects rich. The Chinese do.”‘
From the comedy series Blackadder goes forth, a reminder of such thinking…
Captain Darling: So you see, Blackadder, Field Marshall Haig is most anxious to eliminate all these German spies.
General Melchett: Filthy hun weasels, fighting their dirty underhand war!
Captain Darling: And fortunately, one of our spies…
General Melchett: Splendid fellows, brave heroes risking life and limb for Blighty!
E-verify is just another tool to get us closer to implementing that “Mark of the Beast” tattoo on us. Now instead of taking psychological evaluations and background checks, we have E-verify which links to a government database that says, “Yes you can work” or “Nope, you can’t work”. EVER!
WHY THE F**K DO WE THE PEOPLE AND COMPANIES ALLOW SUCH NONSENSE TO CONTINUE AND PASS????!!!! The people in our country must really like “Taken it up the arse!” (as Gerald Celente would say). That’s the only thing I can get out of this. To go on like this just makes no sense whatsoever.
What happened to the days of, “USING YOUR BRAIN TO ASSESS SOMEONE AT THE INTERVIEW”?? IT’S ALL A PART OF THE JOB!!! IF YOU CAN’T TAKE THE RISK, THEN GET THE F**K OUT!!!
This “Minimize risk” bullshit that the big businesses pull so that they can maintain their riches. F**K THEM! Business and risk go together. You can’t have one without the other. DEAL WITH IT!! If you (CEOs) can’t do your job right, then that’s your problem, NOT WE THE PEOPLE’s! So F**K OFF!!! And take your Fascist government with you!