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New images obtained by Fox News shed light on the Biden administration's planned ID for illegal immigrants as officials look for ways to track the volume of migrants being released into the U.S.
Fox News and other outlets reported last year on the ICE Secure Docket Card program, which Immigration and Customs Enforcement said will "modernize various forms of documentation provided to provisionally released noncitizens through a consistent, verifiable, secure card."
What is this really about?
Be informed, not misled.
Fox says, "Migrants who arrive at the border illegally and are not removed but instead released into the interior are often given a number of documents depending on their situation. The images show a card with room for a photograph, a QR code, and identifying information and security details, as well as the ICE logo in the top left corner."
President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is reportedly planning to give photo identification (ID) cards to border crossers and illegal aliens before they are released into the United States.
When news of the ID cards leaked, officials with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency defended the program, saying, “For provisionally released noncitizens, the digital modernization will provide ongoing access to important immigration documents through the secure card and connected portal.”
John Fabbricatore, a former ICE official and advisory board member at the National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE), says that the ultimate goal of the Biden administration is to limit illegal aliens’ face-to-face contact with DHS agents as much as possible.
More than a few are asking what is the real motive in this?
Fabbricatore says, "It’s a normalization of illegal immigration,”
Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, told Breitbart News that House Republicans should act to stop the ID cards, among other things.
“Congress needs to get a handle on the Biden administration turning ICE into another social services agency for illegal aliens and return it to a law enforcement agency that enforces the laws Congress made, including detaining and deporting Biden’s mass illegal alien population,” Ries said.
"ICE is a federal law enforcement agency, not the DMV. When will Congress wake up and put an end to these open-borders, anti-enforcement programs that defy the agency’s mission and enable the crisis?" RJ Hauman, president of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE) and a visiting adviser at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News this week.
"ICE should be arresting, detaining, and removing those who come here illegally, not doling out social services," he said.
That echoes concerns expressed by lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee last year, who said they feared it is "another Biden Administration move encouraging illegal immigration by rewarding illegal immigrants for breaking our laws."
They also fear that the card will include QR codes that link to court documents and other information that they say raises security concerns "as well as questions regarding the likelihood that significant taxpayer resources will be diverted from immigration enforcement to uploading documents into and maintaining a secure system."
“This administration continues to normalize and make illegal immigration easier for those who disregard our laws. This ID program is another example of wasting taxpayer money on programs that don’t solve this immigration crisis,” Retired ICE Field Office Director and current board member with the National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE) John Fabbricatore said in a statement.
Meanwhile, illegal immigration continues to surge at the southern border, where Border Patrol has recorded more than 1.6 million illegal crossings in the first ten months of fiscal year 2023, according to federal data. Additionally, a few thousand migrants have been seen crossing the southern border into the small Texas border town of Eagle Pass in recent days, leading the mayor to declare a state of emergency, according to videos of the incidents.
How it works.
AXIOS, not a conservative news organizattion, explains how it works: The details of the program and who would be enrolled in a pilot are not yet decided.
Generally, I.D. cards would be provided to migrants not in detention centers who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border or others without legal status going through the lengthy immigration or removal court processes.
The card would likely include a QR code that would provide the enrollee access to court information and documents via an app, the sources said. This could potentially lessen the mounting number of FOIA requests for information about immigration cases.
It would also allow unauthorized immigrants such as asylum seekers to prove — if stopped by authorities — that they are already in the immigration system.
Ideally, it would also incentivize unauthorized immigrants to provide accurate information about their location and virtually check-in more often with law enforcement —rather than having to wait in line at a physical ICE office.
John Fabbricatore told the Daily Caller, “This administration continues to normalize and make illegal immigration easier for those who disregard our laws. This ID program is another example of wasting taxpayer money on programs that don’t solve this immigration crisis.”
Indeed it is.
The Associated Press also reports that President Joe Biden announced Thursday that hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children will be able to apply for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges.
The irony.
It is more than ironic that Democrats want to pass out ID cards to people who have broken our immigration laws while simultaneously opposing requiring the presentation of voter ID on Election Day.
Voter ID has become a patchwork, with some states requiring a photo, some states not requiring a photo and some states not requiring any ID at all, except for first-time voters. Uniformity would help increase public confidence that election outcomes are fair and accurate, reducing the spectacle we have witnessed since the 2020 election in which Donald Trump and his supporters continue to claim fraud and a “stolen election” without credible proof.
Speaking about the proposed ID card for those who broke the law to enter the United States, as they wait for court dates (which may take up to several years, given the huge backlog of cases), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said: “During the worst border crisis in history, the Biden administration is now handing out ID cards to illegal migrants to make it easier to travel throughout the United States. This is the exact opposite of what he should be doing.”
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Bold. Be Prayerful.