In the midst of the ongoing crisis at the southern border, the Biden administration has unveiled plans for ID cards for illegal immigrants. Exclusive images obtained by Fox News Digital shed light on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Secure Docket Card program, which aims to track the volume of migrants being released into the United States. The program has sparked concerns among conservatives, who see it as part of an agenda to welcome, rather than remove, those in the country illegally.
The ID cards, which feature a photograph, biographic identifiers, and cutting-edge security features, aim to improve the current paper forms that often degrade rapidly. ICE hopes the cards can be used for check-ins and reporting meetings, as well as verifying an individual’s identity and deportability in the field. However, critics argue that this program goes against ICE’s mission of enforcing immigration laws.
RJ Hauman, president of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE), expressed his concerns, stating, “ICE is a federal law enforcement agency, not the DMV. When will Congress wake up and put an end to these open-borders, anti-enforcement programs that defy the agency’s mission and enable the crisis?” Lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee also worry that the ID cards could potentially compromise security and divert taxpayer resources from immigration enforcement.
ICE has defended the program, emphasizing that the ID cards will not serve as official forms of federal identification and will only be used for DHS agencies. They argue that transitioning to a secure card will save millions, streamline access to important immigration documents, and reduce the agency’s FOIA backlog.
This initiative is one of the many efforts by the Biden administration to address the escalating border crisis. In recent weeks, overwhelmed officials have resorted to street releases of migrants in Tucson and San Diego. Just days ago, thousands of predominantly Venezuelan migrants surged into Eagle Pass, Texas, hoping to be processed and released into the U.S. Critics attribute the crisis to the administration’s policies, including narrowed enforcement priorities for ICE, while the administration insists that Congress needs to provide more funding and reform the broken immigration system.
As the situation at the southern border continues to worsen, the ID card program for illegal immigrants raises questions about the true intentions behind the Biden administration’s approach to immigration and border security.
