Homeland Security wants to destroy American business
Is it worth shopping north of the border to save a few pesos?
In what we hope is its last great act of lunacy, Michael Chertoff’s Department of Homeland Security has announced it will subject all non-Americans, including those who have been permanent legal residents for decades, to biometric tracking.
The tracking is part of the US-VISIT program that began in 2003. Various elements of the program have been delayed because the technology simply hasn’t existed to make them feasible. That fact hasn’t stopped other parts, and Chertoff has largely ignored concerns and protests from border officials, who surely have a better grasp of the logistics of crossing the border than he does.
Chertoff himself announced two years ago that exit tracking would not be implemented in 2007 because officials at our ports of entry said they simply couldn’t do it. His December ruling reverses that stoppage and actually expands the program to include biometric tracking of all non-U.S. citizens, including permanent legal residents.
All foreign citizens will be subject to electronic fingerprint scans every time they enter and leave the country. A “green card” holder who lives north of the border but works at a Mexican maquiladora, for example, will have to go through the process twice a day, even though he or she crosses daily and is well known to inspectors on the bridges.
A family of six could be held at the bridge for half an hour each time they cross, just so their crossings can be recorded.
Officials have said the process doesn’t take much time, estimating about five minutes per person, per crossing. That might not seem like much, but at five minutes per person only 12 will make it across the bridge in an hour. The Rio Grande Valley Partnership in South Texas reports 1.95 million bridge crossings into Mexico during the month of October, the most recent report posted on its Web site.
Sombrero tip to Benders’ Immigration Daily.
mexfiles.net 
You know? RFID chips in their laser visas would do wonders and speed up the process.
Why can’t they do that? It is the technology they use in the new Passport Cards.
Would it be too much to hope for with this tracking capability that is nothing new, that it might open the door for other deserving persons like my wife and several of my girlfriends to receive lasers?
To Whom It May Concern,
My name is S.Aran, I am a representative of Dream Activist where we are currently conducting a massive awareness and recruitment campaign in order to garnish support for the Dream Act.
I am an undocumented student, and find it extremely difficult to pursue my college education due to a status I inherited from my parents. Being brought to the United States at the age of 12, raised and brought to an American lifestyle, to graduating high school in 2007 at the top of my class. The DREAM Act would help me, and students in my situation, realize our dreams of becoming active members of society by allowing us to attend school or join the military.
Currently we have a project going on at CHANGE.ORG, a website that will present the top 10 ideas that it generates to the Obama administration upon its inauguration. The members of your organization are more than welcome to vote on our idea in order to keep it in the top 10. Heres a link to the site:
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/pass_the_dream_act_now
YOUR BLOG, is probably the most invaluable tool you have in order to help us.
Starting January 5th, the site and voting polls will re-open and we will need as many votes as possible in order to defeat our opposition; in which, we have only 10 days to gather enough votes so that our idea move forward and get presented to the Obama administration upon inauguration. There will be a widget that you can post on your blog to allow your readers to vote on our cause, and do not forget to make a post public for viewing and circulate it far and wide.
Another project we would like for you to be involved is the petition we will have online as of January 21 (www.dreamact2009.com). This petition is being hosted by DreamACTivist and the United We DREAM Coalition, in which we will aim to gather 65,000 signature by March 1st of this year.
Remember that is now a new year, this is our time to bring the Change that was promised to us. Let us work together towards a common goal, and enjoy the role we play in society as activists and advocated for not only immigrants, but education as a whole.
Please, let me know if you are interested, as the more help we get the better and faster our mission can get accomplished. If you have any questions surrounding the bill, or anything in relation to DO NOT HESITATE to contact me at this email address.
Hope we can keep in touch.
Thanks for your attention.
Sincerly,
S.Aran
DREAM Activist Representative and Editor
http://www.dreamactivist.org
s.aran@dreamactivist.org