Biometric Red Card: Microchip, Fingerprints and retina scan

By Anita Crane~The Cutting Edge News

President Barack Obama invited a group of Senate and House members to the White House for a June 25 meeting on comprehensive immigration reform. Among other things, he announced that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will work with lawmakers and that the federal government will target employers who hire undocumented workers.

For years, Helen Krieble, president of the Vernon K. Krieble Foundation in Denver, has been trying to help business owners and temporary migrant workers. Therefore, she developed the Red Card Solution. After all, she owns the Colorado Horse Park, an international equestrian center in Parker, Colorado, which depends on the labor of migrant or guest workers (an interchangeable term). Yet she has never been invited to meet with President Obama. Still, on June 23-24, Krieble conducted Red Card seminars in Washington for lawmakers and everyone who would listen.

Currently, U.S. law dictates that only 33,000 H-2B visas are granted to seasonal guest workers per each half of the fiscal year, but Krieble said that’s too few workers for the demands of small business owners across America.

She said, “We have criminalized hard-working people, not to mention the business owners who are made to choose between hiring illegal workers, or going out of business without them.” “In even the toughest economic times,” Krieble explained, “American workers reject certain jobs.” These jobs literally mean putting food on the table via the fishing industry, livestock care, farming, and grocery and restaurant labor – to name just a few occupations. Krieble said, “The labor shortages cause businesses to close, worsening the economic recession.”

Thus, the Red Card is an assignment ID pass that border officials can swipe to legally admit temp migrant workers. A microchip in the card would allow U.S. law enforcement officials to verify a foreigner’s work assignment status in moments.

The Red Card is also designed to include the biometric data of a migrant worker’s fingerprints and a retina scan for the purpose of eliminating identity fraud and the entry of criminals.

Embedding a migrant worker’s assignment and photo in his ID would be good, but the biometric data concept might elicit an outcry from those who object to Big Brother government. For example, all 56 U.S. states and territories have either stalled implementation of the Homeland Security National ID and its privacy-invading database, or rejected it.

Nevertheless, apparently Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), new chairman of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, has adopted part of Krieble’s idea – with a different twist. On June 24, at the Migration Policy Institute’s conference, he announced plans to write an immigration bill requiring that illegal aliens report to the U.S. government, become documented by surrendering their biometric data, and apply for citizenship. And he presented this plan to the White House.

However, Krieble’s proposal is for temporary workers and it depends on the free market. “The Red Card Solution is underwritten when employers pay to list jobs with the private employment services opening offices in foreign countries,” she said. “That means that business, not taxpayers, will foot the bill.”

ARTICLE CONTINUES…