THE FUTURE WAS THEN

Imagine with our current technology that we could make an immigrant's green card into a "smart card."  A magnetic stripe on the back would contain a laser-written fingerprint, plus information about the owner's hands, face, eyes, and voice.  It could contain any information the INS thought useful in keeping track of foreigners inside the US.  And it would be virtually copy proof.  Someday that idea could become reality...or maybe even yesterday.  The L.A. Times reports that the INS has already issued more than 5 million of them since 1998.  That’s good, isn’t it!  But wait, don’t forget … we’re dealing with government here.  There must be a catch. 

Well, there is.  The catch is that while the INS has distributed 5 million of these smart cards since 1998, they haven’t installed one single machine anywhere in the country that can read them.   Government.