from the are-judges-and-politicians-'hired'? dept.
The Legal Workforce Act (LWA), introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), would mandate E-Verify for all new hires in the United States. E-Verify is a government program intended to discourage the hiring of illegal immigrants by enabling employers to verify the legal work status of all new employees.
The next step will be a national biometric identity card for all citizens and legal residents to aid workplace verification of immigration status. LWA creates “pilot authentication programs” based on “new technologies,” which will "combine E-Verify with our biometric information to create a more foolproof system." Such a system was proposed in 2010. Organizations like the Federation for American Immigration Reform already support it.
But mandatory E-Verify could soon morph into far more than a workplace regulation.
(Score: 4, Informative) by MostCynical on Sunday March 29 2015, @09:15PM
"i'm sorry, we can't employ someone with your medical history"
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Sunday March 29 2015, @10:35PM
DON'T WORRY!
TPP will ensure that we have this National ID Anyway! Because it's required by Singapore, and other signatories.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday March 30 2015, @05:25PM
Another proud Republican keeping the government out of your business.
From Rep. Smith's own website: [texansforlamarsmith.com]
Small businesses, which have created 66% of all new jobs in the past 15 years, aren’t going to hire people when they are worried about paying higher taxes and facing more government mandates. With all the talk coming out of Washington, who would take that risk?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 29 2015, @09:40PM
What is the real chance of this becoming law? I'd like to know before I overreact again. You see, I'm trying to go a full week without my government freaking me out. Just one...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 29 2015, @09:48PM
Take all the on-line tracking and spying, stir in cell-phone location tracking, and then add increasing governmental observation... I start to wonder if "overreacting" is *possible*.
(Score: 5, Informative) by MostCynical on Sunday March 29 2015, @09:56PM
http://www.loonwatch.com/2015/03/the-intercept-whats-scarier-terrorism-or-governments-blocking-websites-in-its-name/ [loonwatch.com]
Quoting Glen Greenwalt, in The Intercept. Tl;dr: too late, expressing an opinion contrary to approved government thought is already a crime in France and even reporting the wrong things can be a crime in Australia http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/22/journalism-is-not-a-so-why-are-reporters-being-referred-to-police [theguardian.com]
Paranoid? No, just awake..
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 29 2015, @09:53PM
There is a good chance that any actual immigration reform bill will include mandatory E-Verify as a compromise for the nativists.
It was part of the most recent immigration reform bill that almost but didn't quite make it.
Regardless of the biometric angle, mandatory E-Verify is a terrible idea because you'll need to get permission to work. Conservatives ought to be screaming and yelling about having to get permission from Obama in order to feed your family (DHS is part of the executive branch) but the fear of brownies coming to take our shittiest jobs is bigger than the fear of the government preventing you from having a job in the first place.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by kaszz on Sunday March 29 2015, @11:01PM
Conservatives obviously has moved on from business agenda. Guess power and control is even better.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 29 2015, @11:02PM
Conservatives ought to be screaming
I am but not for the reasons you think (but thank you for putting words in my mouth).
Lets face it. Most of the 'illegal jobs' are low end jobs. We should go after the businesses that exploit these people. If they need them, they should sponsor them to become citizens. They obviously want to be here. They want to work. Yes there will be a segment that lays around and sucks off uncle sams teet. But guess what? We have that now with existing citizens. We should be encouraging motivated people to come here. Instead we exploit them and either fly them back (h1b) or bus them back (illegal alien).
These businesses that hire these people are the ones encouraging people to break the existing laws we have by breaking the laws we do have. Or in some cases twisting the laws to subvert others.
This is not free market. This is gov butting in and controlling the supply of workers at the expense of all the workers.
We should work to make it so coming here, is a lateral move. Where they come from is so damn shitty they are willing to walk here for the possible prospect of a crap job. Instead we encourage more market protectionism at all levels. Neither the D's or the R's have the guts to fix the issues. But pander to fear of the other party and what they 'might' do to keep their power. INS is not serious about fixing the issues (just acting like cops and pretending they are doing something). They have so many leaks they give up the times and dates they are going to show up so the business that is breaking the law is 'technically' not doing so. Otherwise the owner just picks up the phone and call his buddies who talk to the Governor who 'takes care of it'.
It is straight up bullying and political grandstanding in the name of 'doing something'. Obama is no better. He *knew* that his idea was a non starter. He had 2 years of total control yet did nothing. But now the 'other party' has some power he is using this issue to make the 'other side' look bad. I have taken to calling him the divisor in chief as that seems about all he is capable of doing. He has no interest in reaching across the divide. He only slings mud and to say 'see I cant do anything those big bad Rs are bad and they will not let me'. Its like dammit dude you are the president, act like one.
I like this video that describes the issue much more bluntly. We are ripping off the very ones who have the ability to help themselves to benefit those who already have so much. I disagree with some of his points. But it really brings focus to the discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE [youtube.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 30 2015, @12:02AM
A free market requires regulations, otherwise you have nothing but monopolies. This is still a fucking terrible idea, but the free market died long ago, so this had nothing to do with killing it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 30 2015, @12:31AM
A free market requires regulations
You misunderstand me. I did not say there should be no regulation. The existing regulations are being used to persecute others. It is abundantly clear that they are only there to serve the exploiters (both politically and business wise). They are not being used to help everyone. Instead of a free market those rules are being used to control people. This is not about dudes polluting their water supply. But using rules to exclude others from paying taxes and owning property to make sure they are unable to get ahead in life. All they can hope for is being sent back to where they came from to live 'better' because they have a small fat stack of cash that quickly runs out.
Then blaming the big bad republicans who 'want to keep out the darkies' and the democrats 'who want to take your jobs'. It is a narrative that is holding less and less water.
otherwise you have nothing but monopolies.
That is not a free market either. In the real world most monopolies exist by regulatory capture. As in a *true* free market anyone could enter with out fear, both legally and physically. That sort of market only exists in the minds of people making things up.
but the free market died long ago
Only because YOU let it happen. I am still working on it (and it will be going on long after I die). What are you doing about it?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fadrian on Monday March 30 2015, @01:26PM
So when did this free market you think has gone away because "WE" let it happen actually exist? Please be specific - list years and locations, if you can - I'd like to figure out the attributes of places to avoid.
Honduras today is one that even the L's won't claim, although they're warming up to Somalia (advanced guard of L's, tired of snark, are starting to promulgate the notion that it has a fine "tribal system" that obviates their need for more formal governance - a real anarcho-syndicalist paradise... Really!), so let me know when and where. Otherwise, it just seems like more Libertarian BS, amply demonstrating that logical rigor when divorced from external facts still leads to bad conclusions.
That is all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 30 2015, @01:19AM
We should work to make it so coming here, is a lateral move.
Instead we encourage more market protectionism at all levels.
I'm sure that sounds good to you. But it is 100% in contradiction with the history of the world.
Example numero uno - China. Without access to foreign markets they would still be where they were 40 years ago.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Monday March 30 2015, @03:00AM
I'm sure it will be years before you need to provide a small blood sample [a la Gattaca] to sign in and out of work. And home. And buy anything. And start your car.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 29 2015, @10:21PM
I shudder to think what 50 more years of this government is going to bring. The only comfort is that I should be compost by then.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by kaszz on Sunday March 29 2015, @11:15PM
Perfect for harassing people at will and say oops "glitch". Perfect to enable corporations to subscribe to where employees even try to get hired and subsequently fire them for being not loyal enough. Perfect to enable anyone to predict where you will apply for your next work and make those options go bad. And lets not forget all those hackers that will access it and the people that hack the hackers or just listening in.
Perhaps something to ponder..
More here. [markbeast.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 30 2015, @01:39PM
What does religion have to do with anything? We can screw things up fine without the need of supernatural beings bent on destroying us. Heck we do so willingly on a regular basis because we can't control our greed and thing that sharing is a bad thing.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Archon V2.0 on Monday March 30 2015, @04:23PM
While you're busy pondering the Mark of the Beast, ponder this: There are dispensationalists and such who WANT this to happen. They WANT the Tribulation. They WANT the Beast/Antichrist/whatever. They lust for the Whore of Babylon worse than any nymphomaniac, and stake more on the Four Horsemen than any gambler.
They want it all because they believe that the book you're quoting is a checklist, a collection of things that must happen before their Messiah comes back, and they want their Messiah to come back so very, very much. They stand aside as things go wrong; some even help to build Hell on Earth because they believe someone is coming to build Heaven once it's done. You can't make an omelette without breaking a few skulls, right?
And you almost can't hold down high office in the US without professing allegiance to either their sect or others that share some of the same tenets.
Yeah, Revelation makes me ponder. But not, I don't think, for the same reason it does for you.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday March 30 2015, @10:03PM
I just consider that piece as someone actually had some kind of insight. Centralized identification and control of a every citizen in a nation is a security risk for every citizen.
In essence it's a tool for control and power just waiting for someone to use it for abuse. Kind of have some similarities with the no-fly list.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jelizondo on Monday March 30 2015, @12:12AM
Coming soon to a corner near you:
Papers, please...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 30 2015, @12:40AM
No, they'll just scan your implant as you walk past. If you're out of compliance, you'll be nuked from orbit.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Justin Case on Monday March 30 2015, @12:59AM
See? You wanted the government to have more power to monitor those dirty Mexicans and now that same government ended up with more power to monitor you!
I don't like the way things are headed. And there doesn't seem to be any way to opt out. Even if you switch countries, the US government snoops there too.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 30 2015, @11:25AM
What I don't understand about the program is the existing corporations don't care and love to hire illegals, so they'll look the other way when some random brown illegal has a different random brown citizen provide their fingerprint. You can picture addicts selling their fingerprint for their next hit, etc.
Or the TLDR is if both the victims and the people supposedly enforcing the procedures and in general the .gov all don't want to enforce it, all it does is provide security theater for senior citizen white guys who watch CSI and yell in agreement at the TV during fox news. And I suppose a lot of fat .gov contracts to create the system, which is probably what its all about.