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¶ … National Identification Card

A social security number is a nine-digit number issued to citizens, permanent residents, and temporary working residents. The original purpose was to identify individuals for the purposes of disbursing Social Security benefits, but over time the number has become used for other purposes and is now essential have in order to open a bank account, obtain a credit card and drive a car among other things. Recently a national debate has arisen over a proposal to add biometric information to Social Security cards.

The plan as described by Alexander Bolton (2010), was introduced by Senate Democratic leaders, and would mandate all workers across the nation carry a card with a digital encryption key that would match work authorization databases. Every worker would need to possess this national identification card with biometric information, such as a fingerprint, within the next six years. The program would be titled the Believe System, an acronym for Biometric Enrollment, Locally stored Information and Electronic Verification of Employment.

The driving force behind this legislation is immigration reform. According to Ezra Klein (2010) "The theory here is simple: Illegal immigration is a problem because illegal immigrants can get jobs. As the bill says, in order to prevent future waves of illegal immigration, this proposal recognizes that no matter what we do on the border, our ports of entry, and in the interior, we will not be completely effective unless we can prevent the hiring, recruitment, or referral of unauthorized aliens in America's workplaces. Jobs are what draw illegal immigrants to the United States."

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has long opposed the imposition of national ID cards upon the American public. In a 2003 article several issues are raised regarding the detriments of implications of their utilization. Among the concerns is that an ID card system would significantly diminish the freedom and privacy of law- abiding citizens. Once put in place it is exceedingly unlikely that it would be restricted to its original purpose. A national ID system would threaten the privacy that Americans have always enjoyed and gradually increase the control that government and business wields over everyday citizens.

To sustain national ID cards would necessitate the government establishing and constantly updating a database of every person in the country. In all likelihood there would be many errors, some that could render an individual unemployable with the potential to inflict far greater harm. Predictably once that database was established, law enforcement and other government agencies would soon seek to link into it. Eventually, employers, landlords, credit agencies, mortgage brokers, direct mailers, landlords, private investigators, civil litigants, and so forth would petition for access, further diminishing our personal privacy.

The ACLU (2003) also puts forth the idea that a national ID card will foster new forms of discrimination and harassment of anyone perceived as looking or sounding different. When the Employer Sanctions provision of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1985 was passed by Congress, there followed widespread discrimination against foreign-looking American workers, especially Asians and Hispanics. Failure to carry a national I.D. card would likely come to be viewed as cause for search, detention or arrest of minorities. The stigma and humiliation of constantly having to prove that they are Americans or legal immigrants would weigh heavily on such groups.