Charles W. Stenholm: “I rise in support of the McCollum amendment. This is not a national identification card; nothing could be further from…”

“I rise in support of the McCollum amendment. This is not a national identification card; nothing could be further from the truth to make this argument. We have to look and, first off, answer a simple question: Do we have an illegal immigration problem? The answer usually comes back, yes, we do. If we do, then we have to use all of the tools available to us to help solve the problem. We currently have the technology to make identification cards highly resistant to counterfeiting. I do not know why we do not use it. Frankly, I believe we need to look beyond the Social Security card, as the previous speaker just mentioned, and apply this same technology that we have available to birth certificates and the other documents used to verify one's status in our country. I think that would be committing the resources to the problem that we need to have in this country if we are, in fact, going to solve the problem. The Congressional Budget Office has scored the McCollum amendment at an annual average cost of approximately $51 million over the next 10 years.”