Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 13:15:42 -0400
To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
From: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
Subject: Re: ID card: The password to the police state
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 03:02:20 -0400
To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
From: James Moyer <james@moyer.com>
Subject: Re: ID card: The password to the police state

Matt,

Dare I disagree with a well intentioned article, I think Mrs. 
Schlafly is wrong about requiring immigrants to carry smart ID cards.

I am convinced that it would be impossible in the long run to treat 
aliens differently from Americans. If you want to see what your next 
driver's license may look like, look at the current green card, a 
frighteningly encompassing document. In fact, take a look at the new 
California license (pic at 
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.070301/bb2) which 
has a lot of the features of the green card.

How can an officer demand ID from one group of people (immigrants) 
and not be able to do it to another group (citizens)? It almost seems 
inevitable that both groups would have to carry citizenship 
documentation.

Or you can have a situation in which the citizen just says "go 
away...I'm a citizen." In absence of any proof to the contrary (where 
"proof" does not include "speaks with an accent" or "looks foreign") 
the officer (or whomever) just lets you go. That's that whole 
innocence before guilt thing. Person claims to be a citizen, and they 
are trusted to be making a true claim.

But the innocence before guilt thing doesn't work so well if the 
immigrant says "I haven't done anything wrong and I'm not going to do 
anything wrong" and is not believed. (The basis of the article being 
that foreigners are more likely to promote acts of terrorism--and 
based on this idea don't deserve the same Constitutional rights.)

I'm not here to argue whether or not immigrants should have the same 
rights. My issue is, I don't think it's possible to operate a 
"selective" police state--treat some with rights, treat others 
without.

This idea should be compared to the income tax--we promise that only 
immigrants have to carry the smart ID cards--we promise that only the 
really rich will be taxed. Government grew too much for the latter, 
and I believe it can with the former as well.

James


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