“The Department of Homeland Security is proposing a rule that would allow the government to use facial recognition data to identify everyone traveling to and from the country, including U.S. citizens.
Non-citizens traveling through U.S. airports have been required to get their fingerprints scanned and have their picture taken since the mid-noughties. American citizens have enjoyed the choice of opting out of this requirement. However, in a recent regulatory filing, DHS is pushing to require all international travelers — including U.S. citizens — have their photograph taken.
“To facilitate the implementation of a seamless biometric entry-exit system that uses facial recognition and to help prevent persons attempting to fraudulently use U.S. travel documents and identify criminals and known or suspected terrorists, DHS is proposing to amend the regulations to provide that all travelers, including U.S. citizens, may be required to be photographed upon entry and/or departure,” the filing continues.”
Read more at
Note that any citizen of any country in the rest of the world had been required to register their biometrics, now US citizens outside the razorwire must be identified also.
Currently, the only people not assumed to be guilty of crimes are US citizens living inside USA, but that’s not stopped most other stompings on the Bill of Rights
WOW, just WOW! Let no one be under the assumption that you are a free man (woman). Next will be biometric tagging of some sort or wait for it……………….. digits imprinted on your forearm. Sci-Fi has now become reality.
btw, it notes that the procedure had already been implemented in Orlando arrivals.
Your article states “American citizens have enjoyed the choice of opting out of this requirement.”
That is not correct. It is NOT a requirement for US citizens (if it were, there would be no choice to opt out.) Rather, the vast majority of US citizens simply go along with what some employee tells them to do, whether it’s a requirement or not.
Some airlines have been photographing outgoing international passengers as well. Again, this is not a “requirement.”
Scanning my Canadian passport and presumably taking a photo – I don’t remember ever doing fingerprints – has not yet helped CBP to figure out that I was born in the US, have in the past regularly entered as a US citizen, and on one occasion was stopped and told to use a US passport. They really don’t seem to care all that much.
I live in a small town and recently I’ve noticed that the one and only grocery store has installed more cameras — almost more than our few banks. It doesn’t feel as small town friendly in there anymore. First they biometric your travel access. Will they eventually biometric your food access too? After all, those nasty terrorists have been known to eat and it’s only the little people who cheat … never, never the elite. I fear people will never vigorously enough defend privacy, sovereignty and freedom and then it will be gone and those who survive will surely be living in a panopticon prison. Hyperbole? Maybe. This proposed new DHS rule attacks freedom to travel and everyone should be aware by now that freedom of speech is under attack too. It’s Orwellian. For those who know the tune “What a Wonderful World” I think I’ll repost a song parody I did a few years back.
What an Orwellian World
I see FATCA threats, lost savings too
I see them loom for me and you
And I think to myself
What an Orwellian world.
I see skies of grey, dark clouds in sight
The bleak fearful day, the long haunted night
And I think to myself
What an Orwellian world.
The colours of our lives now so ashen in their hue
Are also on our faces when our taxes are due
I see friends betray friends for the IRS rules
They’re really nothing but sad fools.
I hear babies wail, their future’s dim
They’ll learn too soon this prison we’re in
And I think to myself
What an Orwellian world
Yes I think to myself
What an Orwellian world.
Oh woe!
Thanks again @Embee for telling it like it is via your always pithy verses.
Your inspired creations lit up the darkness of those early days and nights (stretching into months and years) trying to find my way out of the US extraterritorial CBT quagmire and US citizenship serfdom.
I laughed ruefully, and went on with a renewed spirit.
We still can use that uplift.
Thanks for sharing!
EmBee: Great stuff! I must have missed it when you posted it years ago. I would surely have remembered it!
It’s a world of “death by a thousand cuts”. I blame a lot of it on the nefarious, social-media-manipulation-process, which people have slowly become accustomed to. By design, they seem to want to inject distrust/anger/adversity into our basic way of life. I’m starting to see it now in literally everything. And no, not a conspiracy-theorist. I’m just finding it much easier now to see “it” for what it is. It’s scary to think there are so many people who appear entirely oblivious.
Well just look at recent events in Syria and ISIS. This trash participating in atrocities had amongst them dozens who carried US passports. Fully support DHS to screen out this human garbage
B Garre. They won’t identify anything from ISIS. The only positive I’d will be you, your family, or people like you. But many people like to be the critical object of the police state because it makes them feel secure. Many communist societies throughout history were active in bringing about their own control.
B Garre – Who makes the determination to: “to screen out this human garbage” if you are American, Read The US Constitution, There is [DUE PROCESS], If you are Canadian, Read the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, similar provisions exist. These prevent the Government or it’s agents from throwing people into a category where their lives are ruined or over.
Criminals will always be a segment of society, attempts at complete surveillance with any technology that is not proven to be 100% accurate greatly diminished the rights of Citizens in a Democratic State where freedoms are cherished!
Be careful what you wish for. The more security you want ,the more freedoms you lose.
Interesting that the media always mentions the Chinese and Russians surveiling their citzens as examples of how free we are but fails to mention or criticize the use of the same technology on us. Oh yes, it is only there to protect us from those nasty terrorists. In the long run ,that attitude is far more dangerous and eventually leads down the same road.
Long after the real reason for surveillance is gone, the surveillance apparatus is institutionalized . Long after ISIS is dead, you will still need to remove your shoes,laptop,etc, and for a very long time to come. In a small way, they did win their war of terror.
Read Edward Snowden’s memoir, Permanent Record. He offers intelligent but chilling assessments about the current and future state of the surveillance state, entirely relevant to this discussion.
@BGarre
I believe it was Joseph Goebbels who said in 1933
“ If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” It was also a Stasi mantra when they tapped phones and opened mail.
The surveillance State is the biggest fear.
Individual freedoms are enshrined in the US Constitution, they worth defending.
How is the US Constitution and ‘Due Process’ changed by DHS screening out human garbage carrying US passports? DHS hasn’t changed the US Constitution. They’ve been crying sob stories for the last 70 years about “losing Constitutional Rights” from the 1940’s with the introduction of finger prints to SSN, zip codes, computer punch cards, machine readable passports, 3-strikes laws. If you’re worried about losing privacy, don’t worry about the US Government, you should be worried about private companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook and others collecting every bit of data and information available on you without your consent.
What is the definition of Human garbage?!
I have a British colleague who is a professor of Medicine in Scotland, she was born in Iran and as such is not permitted to enter the US for conferences because of her birthplace. Another US prof of Physics working in the US on defense systems is not allowed to have his elderly parents visit as they are from another ‘human garbage ‘country. These are rules that serve no purpose as does blanket screening of US citizens that have done nothing wrong.
Yes, I am concerned about Google who also pass info onto the US gov and Verizon who pass on all call numbers US citizens make. It’s all part of Mega State control. Thats why I don’t use google, facebook or anything else I can avoid. But I agree it’s a loosing battle.
Those terrorists don’t need bombs they have turned the US against itself and the US constitution on its head.
The DHS “has backed down for now”. Pardon me if I don’t give a sigh of relief because they’ll probably try again later.
https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/75645/dhs-wanted-to-add-us-citizens-to-the-long-list-of-people-subjected-to-mandatory-face-scans-at.html
@Barbara
Edward Snowden’s “Permanent Record” is a good read and definitely a wake up call.
@Embee
“What an Orwellian World” also a great wake up call. I didn’t see it the first time you posted either.