The US House of Representatives is scheduled to vote this week on HR 3398, legislation stating that it is the policy of the United States government to encourage other nations to require all citizens to have national identity cards.
HR 3398 also directs the US government to work with multinational organizations and private entities on imposing registration, identification, and documentation laws on people around the world. As is often the case with legislation intended to increase government power and expand foreign intervention, HR 3398 presents as its justification helping the children—girls in particular this time.
Section 3(1) of the bill defines the policy of the US government as follows:
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It is the policy of the United States to—
(1) encourage countries to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and enact laws that ensure girls and boys of all ages are full participants in society, including requiring birth certifications and some type of national identity card to ensure that all citizens, including girls, are counted;
Subsections (b) and (c) of Section 4 of the bill establish the roles of the US Secretary of State and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in working with multinational organizations and private entities to “collect data on girls” and impose registration, identification, and documentation laws on people worldwide:
SEC. 4. UNITED STATES ASSISTANCE TO SUPPORT COUNTING OF GIRLS IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD.
….
(b) COORDINATION WITH MULTILATERAL ORGANIZATIONS.—The Secretary shall coordinate with the World Bank, relevant United Nations agencies and programs, and other relevant organizations to urge and work with countries to enact, implement, and enforce laws that specifically collect data on girls and establish registration and identification laws to ensure girls are active participants in the social, economic, legal and political sectors of society in their countries.(c) COORDINATION WITH PRIVATE SECTOR AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS.—The Secretary and the Administrator should work with United States, international, and local private sector and civil society organizations to advocate for the registration and documentation of all girls and boys in developing countries to prevent exploitation, violence, and other abuses.
In 2010, Ron Paul talked with Fox New host Megyn Kelly about a proposal to impose on Americans a US national ID card, which would include biometric information such as a fingerprint, hand, or iris scan. Proponents justified the national ID card proposal with another common pretext for expanding government power and violating individual rights—opposing illegal immigration. In the interview, Paul comments on the authoritarian nature of a national ID card mandate:
People over the decades now in this country, there have been some who have wanted this national ID card. They’re looking for every opportunity to do it.
….
To me it violates the whole principles of privacy, the principles of the Constitution, the principles of the Republic. And to me it is a gross distortion of what we should be doing. It’s part of an authoritarian society. Dictatorships have this, but not a republic.
Watch here the complete six-minute interview in which Paul, the chairman and founder of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, also relates the push for a national ID card to the US government’s desire for pervasive surveillance:
