Senate Hearings On Fingerprinting All U. S. Workers

In case you thought Senator Charles Schumer was joking when he proposed requiring the federal government to keep fingerprints of everyone working in this country, the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee is holding hearings today on the feasibility of requiring all workers to participate in a "biometric verification system" using fingerprint or iris scan data embedded in a permanent identification card which would be required for verification by employers of the employee's legal right to work in this country. Business opposition to the plan so far is based on the issue of who would pay for such a system, rather than the privacy concerns expressed by the ACLU and others.

Senator Proposes Fingerprinting Everyone Working In The United States

Senate Judiciary Committee Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Charles Schumer proposed yesterday that everyone with a job in this country should be fingerprinted to document his or her citizenship or other legal right to work in this country. He proposes to make this a provision in comprehensive immigration reform legislation expected in Congress, and pushed by the Obama administration, later this fall. No one is talking yet about how the government will pay for the taking and processing of 100 million sets of fingerprints, but you can bet if Schumer's proposal actually goes forward, the cost will somehow be pushed off onto the nation's businesses which employ the people to be fingerprinted. Going to work in the twenty first century is looking more and more like going to jail.