Date 7/16/94 Subject USA Editorial on ID Cards From Dave Banisar To Dave Banisar USA Editorial on ID Cards USA TODAY'S OPINION (1) (7/15/94) Think the federal government already knows too much about your private life? Hang on. The granddaddy of all privacy invasions - a national ID card - is marching onto Capitol Hill. Startling numbers of Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, are embracing variations of the identity card - all in the name of immigration reform. They contend the cards could keep illegal immigrants out of American jobs by requiring potential bosses to use the cards and accompanying national data base to verify citizenship. The cards present gargantuan potential for abuse with enormous costs. Just ask Eddie Cortez about the possibilities. The mayor of Pomona, Calif., was stopped and ordered to produce proof of citizenship by U.S. Border Patrol agents more than 100 miles from the Mexican border last summer. What did Cortez do to warrant such suspicion? The mayor was sitting in a pickup truck, wearing jeans and looking like a Latino. Civil rights organizations and advocates for Asians, Hispanics and other minorities believe the national ID cards would mushroom such incidents of harassment. Even if true, what's the harm if law-abiding citizens have a card to clear them on the spot? Fear of constant harassment is the problemm. Having to carry a card to guarantee your freedom is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind. Then there's the price tag. Production costs plus a supporting computer data base are estimated conservatively at $2.5 billion by the Social Security Administration. More elaborate systems could top $6 billion or more. Still, proponents believe the means justify the end - closing the jobs door to illegals. Not likely, say technical experts. Right now, on street corners in California, Texas and other states, fake Social Security cards, passports and driver's licenses can be had for a price. Should a national ID card go into effect, these same counterfeiters would merely turn their talent to producing fake IDs or to producing the fraudulent documents necessary to obtain the national ID. National ID cards are an old idea and a bad idea. The last thing the federal government needs is another peephole on personal privacy that ends up costing U.S. taxpayers more money than it saves. OTHER VIEW (2) DAN STEIN is executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Washington, D.C.: A decade-old plan to create a counterfeit-resistant work-welfare eligibility document to help stop illegal immigration got a boost when the Commission on Immigration Reform hinted this week that it might recommend the idea. This tame proposal is endorsed by Democrats and Republicans. California's Dianne Feinstein and Pete Wilson support it. Polls by `Time,' Roper and Field show most Americans do, too. The `Los Angeles Times,' `San Diego Union' and `Sacramento Bee' nod approval. Liberals such as Barbara Jordan and the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, who've chaired our last two major immigration commissions - are also on board. So why the flak? Because the idea got mislabeled as a sinister-sounding "national ID card." Ridiculous. In a country where the average American now carries a driver's license, credit cards, calling cards, bank cards and leaves electronic fingerprints all over town, isn't it time to improve the integrity of America's birth records and make the Social Security card fraud-proof? Americans are comfortable with today's technologies and want illegal immigration stopped. With secure documents, we could do it. Without them, we can't. There would be other benefits. A secure identification system would save us money, reduce welfare fraud, voter fraud and tax cheating, while improving delivery of vital government services and reducing discrimination. Most compelling is the fact that illegal immigration pressures are growing fast. You heard it here first: These are the "good old days." Unless we take steps now to improve our ability to tell who's here legally and who's not, we're going to lose the nation. Because of birth-record fraud, our citizenship is built on a foundation of sand. Americans may not notice it, but criminals and smugglers do. Crime rings know that if you've got a good laser printer, you can become a citizen of the USA - by making a phony birth certificate and Social Security card. That's all it takes to make the phony foundation for other state and federal documents and benefits. We're taking steps to secure the currency of the USA against fraud. Isn't it time our citizenship is given the same protection?