Want to work in the USA? Give us your DNA

[SVZ]

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/05/24/D8HQE6B80.html
By SARA KUGLER
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK

Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg thrust himself into the national immigration debate Wednesday, advocating a plan that would establish a DNA or fingerprint database to track and verify all legal U.S. workers.

The mayor also said elements of the legislation moving through Congress are ridiculous and said lawmakers who want to deport all illegal immigrants are living in a "fantasy."

In an editorial for The Wall Street Journal and two nationally televised interviews, the mayor reiterated his long-standing belief that the 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States should be given the opportunity for citizenship, saying that deporting them is impossible and would devastate the economy.

Aides said Bloomberg believes his views are relevant because he has a rare perspective as a former businessman who ran a company for two decades before he became mayor, in charge of enforcing the laws in a city with an estimated half-million illegal immigrants. They said that the editorial was his idea and that CNN and Fox News approached him to discuss his views on the air.

In the article and on air, Bloomberg slammed lawmakers who want to deport all illegal immigrants, saying on Fox News that "they are living in a fantasy world."

Asked in that interview whether his opinions put him at odds with his political party, the mayor, a former Democrat, shot back: "With which party?

"I'm not a partisan guy," Bloomberg said. "I am a mayor who has to deal with 500,000 people who are integral to our economy but are undocumented."

Bloomberg compared his proposed federal identification database to the Social Security card, insisting that such a system would not violate citizens' privacy and was not a civil liberties issue.

"You don't have to work _ but if you want to work for a company you have to have a Social Security card," he said. "The difference is, in the day and age when everybody's got a PC on their desk with Photoshop that can replicate anything, it's become a joke."

The mayor said DNA and fingerprint technology could be used to create a worker ID database that will "uniquely identify the person" applying for a job, ensuring that cards are not illegally transferred or forged.

Donna Lieberman, director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said a DNA or fingerprint database "doesn't sound like the free society we think we're living in."

"It will inevitably be used not just by employers but by law enforcement, government agencies, schools and all over the private sector," she said.

[Grimmlok]

Oh just have them sew patches onto their jackets like everyone else.

[A*O]

Sure! Help yourself. I have nothing to hide.

[pacific breeze]

Is that the point, though? I may not be doing anything illegal, but I still don't want a camera watching my every move. I think this is a similar thing.

[A*O]

Yes I think it IS the point. If you have nothing to hide, you hide nothing. So what if a camera watches you go to Walmart or the bank or the beach. If I'm doing nothing wrong I have nothing to worry about. Those cameras also watch people who ARE up to no good and might actually help nail the shits.

[Grimmlok]

"If you're doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about."

How many times has that been used to justify fascism?

Well, then you won't mind if Bush wiretaps your phone without a warrant. You won't mind if the police search your house without informing you. You won't mind if you're carted off to guantanamo bay.

Because hey.. you have nothing to hide.

Come on!

[A*O]

Don't be ridikerlous. It's drawing a VERY long bow to say that one day my DNA is put on a database leads to someone is listening to my phone convos (and very boring they are too) leads to being plucked off the streets and locked up in Cuba. You liberal pinkos are SO paranoid You'd be amazed what personal info is already on file anyway if you own a credit card, a bank account, health insurance, passport, etc.

In any event, most newborn babies have a blood sample taken (needle prick on the heel) and I'd bet the house that the DNA from that sample is on file somewhere. I fail to see what's so sinister about having a DNA registry especially if it helps catch crims and turrists and liberals.

[lalala]

^^ you have a short memory or don't follow the news - I remember that a lawyer from Oregon was arrested after the Madrid Al Quaeda bombings because someone in the US thought that his fingerprints matched the ones found on an explosive device in Spain - his fingerprints were available because he did a stint in the army before- the fact that his wife was muslim and that his daughter had Spanish textbooks was considered as incriminating evidence while the guy didn't even have a passport and hadn't left the US for a while...it could happen to you too - the lawyers working in the next office were all too ready to testify against him and declared to the press that he was a suspicious character

[A*O]

Oh I'm sorry - that breaking news didn't reach us here in Australia. So what happened to him?

[lalala]

He was released after a while but from what I read I got the impression he was left with some reputation in his area, such as "no smoke without fire" from the obliging neighbours - It has to be noted that the Spanish secret services had insisted from the start that the fingerprints were not really matching but their American counterparts didn't want to take it into account - I've heard about it because it was covered by the NYT, but only after the story was over - There's such a thing as a slippery slope in matters of national surveillance I belive

[A*O]

There's no solution to over-zealous, dumb cops I'm afraid. Nor for paranoia and hysteria from the general public. If DNA evidence had been found, instead of a vague fingerprint, then a DNA register would have cleared him before the cops even came to visit. I still don't see how having my DNA recorded somewhere could be used for sinister purposes (unless some crazed Dr Evil wants to clone me), nor that it's an erosion of my 'civil liberties'. The people who huff and puff about privacy and state surveillance are the same people who complain when terrible things happen but the authorities didn't act quickly to prevent it for fear of 'violating' someone's human rights. You can't have it both ways.

[lalala]

Originally Posted by A*O

I still don't see how having my DNA recorded somewhere could be used for sinister purposes

Well the issues of DNA and prevention were discussed recently as there were questions raised about DNA research that would cross-study criminals DNA to isolate possible characteristics that could be used to screen potential criminals within the general population (meaning before a crime was committed) as a measure of prevention...

Another disaster scenario stems from the fact that no database is entirely safe so it could be exploited either to manufacture evidence or commercially by companies to screen potential employees...or hackers could blackmail people, etc...

[A*O]

But I promise you there is NOTHING in my DNA profile that could possibly be used for any kind of blackmail purposes. And we are straying into Brave New World territory if you seriously think people are going to be locked up (or worse) because their DNA suggests they 'might' commit a crime at some future point. We already have way more accurate predictors of potential future criminal behaviour (broken families, unemployment, sociological factors, mental illness, etc). I just don't see why this is such a big deal, unless you have something to hide and as I said before if you have a passport, credit card, etc there is already more than enough personal info stored away somewhere that could be misused if it fell into the wrong hands.

[lalala]

Originally Posted by A*O

I just don't see why this is such a big deal, unless you have something to hide and as I said before if you have a passport, credit card, etc there is already more than enough personal info stored away somewhere that could be misused if it fell into the wrong hands.

And that makes you feel better? I luckily don't have a medical condition that I wish no one was aware of but many people do and I don't want to live in a society where people could fall prey to inquiries into their genetical background - I wouldn't want to have children that would be listed as potential criminal from birth because a violence factor would be revealed by their DNA -and such DNA research is being disputed right now so it's not fiction territory -

We already have unacceptable situations where people are forbidden to fly because their names are similar to someone listed as suspect, it's not a wild strech of the imagination to imagine people being barred from activities or jobs because of their DNA markup

[A*O]

I DON'T CARE if my personal/medical/genetic information is stored somewhere because I HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE !!! If people DO have something to hide then I can understand why they'd get twitchy about possible misuse of the information. So what if someone knows you have 'a medical condition'? Your doctor knows, your pharmacist knows, and if you take regular meds then the drug companies probably know too. And if it's a condition that prevents you from doing a particular job then you employer has a right to know too. He's paying you.

And I really don't think DNA technology is so far advanced or sophisticated that it can be used to predict future criminal/violent activity. This is assuming there is a 'criminal gene' and a 'violence gene' in the first place. I do not believe that behaviours are 'inherited' via DNA; they are learned.