Republicans are sounding the alarm over President Joe Biden’s confirmed plans to give illegal migrants identification cards.
The plan, which is being developed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), would allow illegals to have government issued ID’s in an effort to modernize paperwork.
“Currently, noncitizens receive paper documents from the federal government about their immigration status. Paper documents pose a security risk, are easily lost, and degrade rapidly in real-world use, creating inefficiencies for the government and noncitizens. Moving to a secure card will save the agency millions, free up resources, and ensure information is quickly accessible to DHS officials while reducing the agency’s FOIA backlog,” a spokesperson told the Epoch Times.
The cards will have a photograph, biographic identifiers and "cutting-edge security features to the mutual benefit of the government and noncitizens,” according to ICE.
However, several Republicans are voicing their concerns over the possibility, including the security and cost implications of the plan.
A letter from 16 Republicans addressed to the acting ICE Director details how they believe this is yet just another attempt to further allow illegal immigration into the U.S.
“We are concerned that this pilot program is yet another Biden Administration move encouraging illegal immigration by rewarding illegal immigrants for breaking our laws,” the letter read.
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The group of Republicans also expressed caution that the ID’s could possibly give illegal migrants to improperly access healthcare, housing and transportation.
The letter continued to blast the Biden program for “apparently intended to permit illegal aliens to check in with ICE virtually instead of physically reporting to an ICE office,” noting that most illegal aliens fail to to check in as required as part of the Alternatives to Detention program (ATD).
“The ATD program’s failure to ensure illegal immigrants report to ICE is not a reason to issue them identification cards hoping the statistics improve, but instead an indication that more of these illegal border crossers should be detained during the pendency of removal proceedings,” the letter continued.
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