US VISIT Program Starts

"If and when implemented, US-VISIT will require everyone entering the United States to register upon arrival and at departure. The means of registration will be though some kind of biometric identifier: an optically scanned fingerprint, iris, or other unique body part. (Don't go there.) U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge has promised the Canadian government that our citizens will be exempt from US-VISIT. However, Congress has not yet ratified that exemption, and even if Canadian citizens are allowed through without being scanned, permanent residents (what we used to call landed immigrants) will not be.

In order to keep our border open, then, the permanent resident's identity card, which already exists, will need to contain a biometric identifier. Sooner or later, the Canadian passport will probably need the same thing.

In that case, goes the argument, why not take the next step and simply issue everyone with a biometrically encrypted identity card? Not only would it satisfy American (and eventually European) security concerns, but such a card would make it easier to thwart terrorists, as well as those pettier criminals who now routinely steal people's identities in the form of credit card, bank card or health card theft."

Note: their fingerprints scan... We'll keep our fingerpr...