Judy Stahl

Valley City

Under the pretense of limiting illegal immigration, U.S. Representative Bob Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia, has introduced H.R. 4760, the Securing America’s Future Act of 2018. This bill introduces mandatory national ID cards called “E-Verify” containing biometric data such as retina scans. To get Democratic support for E-Verify, this bill also extends DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) providing amnesty to about 741,546 young immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. DACA began in 2012 with Obama’s unconstitutional executive actions and if allowed to continue will open the door for even more amnesty.

Employers would be required to use E-Verify to determine work status of potential employees to check for illegals. To get a job every law-abiding American citizen would also be subjected to this sort of warrant-less surveillance. Some may say they have nothing to hide but being considered guilty until proven innocent is not the American way. And the control it gives the federal government over us to use private information against us is a dangerous equivalent of the “mark of the beast.” It may also be eventually required for such things as banking, boarding a plane, and much more.

Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul warns about the potential for E-Verify to violate the privacy and liberty of law-abiding citizens and stated, “That’s right – the statists want to control you. Just think about it…Gun ownership. Employment history. Family and friends. Purchasing habits. Health records. Travel. Religious beliefs. Past political contributions… just imagine all these records and more on every American citizen stored in a massive national database right at a federal government bureaucrat’s fingertips.”

Contact Congress to oppose H.R. 4760. We need neither DACA nor E-Verify.