REPORT FINDS BIOMETRIC ID CARD COULD COST TAXPAYERS AT LEAST $40 BILLION

In policy debates, Biometric ID cards often are held out as the “magic bullet” in enforcement of employer sanctions under the U.S. immigration laws. A new report, released by the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law & Social Policy at UC Berkeley School of Law, finds that a biometric ID card would not only have a price tag of over $40 billion in initial costs, but also $3 billion in ongoing annual expenditures. The study also finds that such a card would infringe on Americans’ civil liberties, and fail to stop the employment of undocumented immigrants.

KJ