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Government Privacy Republicans United States

Chris Christie Proposes Tracking Immigrants the Way FedEx Tracks Packages 576

PolygamousRanchKid submits the news that New Jersey governor (and Republican presidential candidate) Chris Christie said yesterday that he would, if elected president, create a system to track foreign visitors the way FedEx tracks packages. The NYT writes: Mr. Christie, who is far back in the pack of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, said at a campaign event in New Hampshire that he would ask the chief executive of FedEx, Frederick W. Smith, to devise the tracking system."At any moment, FedEx can tell you where that package is. It's on the truck. It's at the station. It's on the airplane," Mr. Christie told the crowd in Laconia, N.H. "Yet we let people come to this country with visas, and the minute they come in, we lose track of them." He added: "We need to have a system that tracks you from the moment you come in." Adds the submitter: "I'm sure foreign tourist will be amused when getting a bar code sticker slapped on their arm."
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Chris Christie Proposes Tracking Immigrants the Way FedEx Tracks Packages

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  • Yeah, nah. (Score:5, Informative)

    by YukariHirai ( 2674609 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @08:37AM (#50420211)
    I'm somewhat interested in visiting the US, but this kind of bullshit would absolutely kill any desire to go there.
    • Re:Yeah, nah. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Sunday August 30, 2015 @08:38AM (#50420223) Homepage Journal

      I'm somewhat interested in visiting the US, but this kind of bullshit would absolutely kill any desire to go there.

      It took this? Not our general policy of running around the world tampering with governments, murdering people, and blowing up cities for profit?

      • Re:Yeah, nah. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by kyrsjo ( 2420192 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @09:14AM (#50420395)

        Even if we may be skeptical to or disagree with US policy, it doesn't mean that we dislike everyone who lives there or what is there.

      • Re:Yeah, nah. (Score:4, Informative)

        by YukariHirai ( 2674609 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @09:28AM (#50420471)

        It took this? Not our general policy of running around the world tampering with governments, murdering people, and blowing up cities for profit?

        Those did kill it most of the way, and the "somewhat interested" is conditional on some pretty unlikely things, such as someone else footing the bill for the trip.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Anyone who still visits the US after the iris/fingerprinting/laptop-snooping/body-scanning/anal-reaming bullshit is already an embarrassment to humanity.

      At least a barcode slapped visibly to one's forehead would be an honest expression of what's going on, and frankly I'd rather that than all of the above.

      • Re: Yeah, nah. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        It's not a barcode, it's a Star of David and it must always remain visible

      • Of course, without details, people can make this out to be anything they want without being reasonable. Its not necessarily tracking tourists as it is specific to those with visas. It seems to be a way for those with visas to check in on occasion, and could be nothing more than that.
    • by stooo ( 2202012 )

      Why not a nice tattoo like this one : http://wpmedia.o.canada.com/20... [canada.com]

    • I can see it now. Ivy league university hires world class researcher, who has to get tagged with an RFID as if they were cattle to be allowed to work in the US.

      Similar for other professions: medical, engineering, etc.

      This will work so well. Christie and his entourage must be completely incapable of critical thought to consider this idea for more that 10 seconds. A proposal like this would destroy the ability of the US to maintain world class leadership of anything.
      • It's not the tag that will humiliate you. It's the method of implantation.

        "Remove your clothing, face that wall, put both hands up on the wall, put your feet back so that you're leaning against the wall."

        ZIIIP!

        Placing the chip on the head of his penis, the inquisitor approaches you.

      • Re:Yeah, nah. (Score:5, Informative)

        by Mr D from 63 ( 3395377 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @11:16AM (#50420997)

        I can see it now. Ivy league university hires world class researcher, who has to get tagged with an RFID as if they were cattle to be allowed to work in the US.

        And where specifically did you read that people will be tagged with an RFID? They could simply carry an ID card. A perfectly reasonable requirement. They could check in once in a while. Another perfectly reasonable requirement.

        Many here are making up unreasonable scenarios then arguing how stupid they are.

        • That may be reasonable, but is NOT how FedEx-style tracking works. And that, and not something reasonable, was the key point.

    • Don't worry.Visit the US, if you can tolerate the airport bullshit. Christie has little to no chance of winning unless he knocks off all the competitors. Even then, he still might lose. He's not appealing to the US mainstream crowd.
  • Christie is ideal (Score:5, Insightful)

    by msobkow ( 48369 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @08:45AM (#50420255) Homepage Journal

    Christie would make the ideal VP for Trump. They're both ignorant bigots.

    • by dinfinity ( 2300094 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @09:30AM (#50420485)

      At first I thought that Trump was deliberately put into the picture to draw the playing field towards 'the right', i.e. make one guy say the most outlandish stuff so that the previously outlandish things the rest said actually seem reasonable (and conversely, making the actually reasonable stuff sound silly and far away from reality).

      But the completely baffling thing to me is that there are actually droves of people in the US that not only support Trump, but actively defend his words and say asinine shit like: "He's a true American. We need a guy like that for president" and: "The media are making him sound racist". I remember being very surprised that a moron like Bush Jr. could become (and stay!) president, but this is definitely a new low for the US. Trump hasn't been elected yet, but the fact that so many people like him and support him is already deeply, deeply disgraceful.

      • Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @09:47AM (#50420585)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        "He's a true American. We need a guy like that for president"

        Actually, that's not far from the truth. What's the other party running with, anyway? Traitorous scum of course. Clinton and Kerry both make a patriotic Trump look good in comparison. FFS, the left pampers and rewards outright terrorists with appointments as "professors". What sort of reaction do you EXPECT?!?!?!

      • by swb ( 14022 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @10:59AM (#50420915)

        Trump's immigration "policies" get a lot of support because they basically mirror the same kind of simplistic truth people believe: Illegal immigrants have broken the law and should be deported, walling off the border between the US and Mexico will keep them out, lack of rigorous immigration enforcement enables illegal immigrant criminals to commit crime.

        It seems easy to me to understand why people so easily believe in these ideas, they have a kind of uncomplicated truth to them. If you are not residing or working in the US legally, why shouldn't you be deported? Certainly a large wall on the border would greatly hinder illegal imimgrants from infilitrating the border. We certainly don't want people with violent criminal histories entering the US, bypassing immigration allows these people to enter the US and potentially commit crime and deporting illegal immigrants before they commit crimes seems to have a certain preventative logic to it.

        Of course, none of these "positions" or "ideas" is more than surface deep. The basic logisticts of deporting all illegal immigrants is pretty crazy and lacks a certain humanity in many cases. It's debatable how effective some giant wall would be and who the hell would pay for it?

        None of it seems to address deeper questions of the problems of the current immigration system or why both political parties seem willfully unable to address it, or the value their constituences see in the current system, from cheap, wage-suppressed labor or for political pandering to immigrant groups to expansion of presumably political friendly constituencies.

        And all of them avoid the kind of hard debates on well, who should be allowed to assume residency and work in the US? Is someone going to actually step up to the plate and argue for an open borders policy in an honest an direct manner (it would appear that Trump is the advocate for the opposite policy)? If it's not open borders, then how, exactly will we regulate and enforce an immigration policy in a way that's consistent and achieves desirable goals?

        What's always surprised me is the lack of African American voices in the immigration debate. They have the highest unemployment rates and illegals take the kind of low-skill, entry-level jobs one would assume that would be the easiest for the many African Americans with poor educations to take. This leads to the questions of racial discrimination, although that seems complicated by the idea that Latinos can get these jobs. Then there's arguments about jobs "we won't do" but this begs the quesiton as to why those jobs don't pay more (I guess they don't have to with a supply of illegals) or whether people have some moral right to not work for jobs they don't want, yet be able to demand subsidies for not working.

  • by aepervius ( 535155 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @08:50AM (#50420275)
    "I'm sure foreign tourist will be amused when getting a bar code sticker slapped on their arm."

    Yeah i am sure amused to be tracked all the time like cattle with a tag and not having a private moment. Being treated like an animals sound fun. Why don't you start first Chrissie sweetie. How about we attach a gps tag on your ankle. That sound fun right ?
    • by khasim ( 1285 ) <brandioch.conner@gmail.com> on Sunday August 30, 2015 @09:43AM (#50420561)

      But it wouldn't work anyway.

      I don't think he even understands FedEx. FedEx cannot tell you where a package is RIGHT NOW. They can only tell you where it was LAST SCANNED.

      The reason this works well for packages is that packages don't move themselves. And even then it has failures. This will completely fail because HUMANS can wander around on their own.

      Sounds more like Christie wants to associate his campaign with something that people have a mostly positive opinion of. But I'm pretty sure that FedEx will not want to be associated with a losing candidate OR the concept of tagging and tracking undesirable races/nationalities (shades of Nazi German there).

  • Yup, playing to the unwashed masses. Same as Hillary saying the Republican party is a "terrorist group" [time.com].
    • Well, if by terrorist group she means keeping people constantly afraid that some immigrant is going to rape and kill them, and that we have to ship them all away...

      Watch fox news for about 10 minutes, and there will be some fear-mongerer there.

      (Note, I could not read you link, Time seems to be buggy and not show anything more than the first paragraph.)

  • by 3vi1 ( 544505 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @08:54AM (#50420297) Homepage Journal

    FedEx packages are travelling through a confined system of checkpoints. Unless Christie wants to put checkpoints all around America and have everyone showing their papers to TSA agents on every public highway, it just won't work.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30, 2015 @09:03AM (#50420341)

      He probably does.

      • Well, once the infrastructure is in place, we might as well use it to scan other groups of US citizens, as well. Such as, convicted criminals and the members of the Ohio Presbyterian Grandmothers Association Luncheon.

        Why members of the Ohio Presbyterian Grandmothers Association Luncheon?

        Why not? "Because we can", says the NSA . . .

    • And it is not that accurate as Christie believes it is. There is a limited number of locations the package can be: cargo airplane, truck, border/customs, distribution centers. FedEx doesn't update a map with the GPS coordinates of your package.
    • I rather want to believe he thought it was a joke rather than an immigration policy initiative...you know, the kind of thing a celebrity bounces off his sycophantic entourage instead of a single critical ear.

      Part of Trump's charm seems to be his lack of a filter in this be careful as fuck what you say era we live in.

      It would appear the Jersey Governor may lack the Donald's Teflon skin.

    • by romco ( 61131 )

      Have you been paying attention to the republican plan?

      1. Track Aliens
      2. Put walls up at both Canada and Mexico
      3. Destroy Public schools
      4. More private prisons
      5. Stronger drug and other sentencing to fill said prisons.
      6. Bigger war machine
      7. No minimum wage
      8. Cut taxes for rich and business, increase tax for everyone else
      9. Health care plan "Let them die"
      10. Reduce voting of poor people.

      These people are no longer republican, they are fascist. Yes, they are going to want to see your papers.

  • by jeffb (2.718) ( 1189693 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @08:59AM (#50420317)

    Sounds like Christie was inspired by last week's news from Austria [go.com].

    Like so very many problems, this one becomes much simpler once you stop thinking of "them" as people.

    • I am sure Chrissie sweetie would cream his pant at the idea of attooing or putting tag on tourist/visa visitor, but the idea is quite old : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] and it was done efficiently too.


      /gowdinning the whole article.
    • So what are we looking ideally?
      1. Chip that is compatible with Electronic toll collection used in EU(Autopass, etc) just for tracking
      2. Plant it on them, with identification
      3. Do nothing really, except enjoy statistics and maps

    • by Alomex ( 148003 )

      They are not people. They are illegal aliens (from another planet I guess) who come here to steal our jobs (does anyone hold certificate of ownership to a job? because if you don't then it cannot be "stolen" from you) and rape our children (even though their incarceration rate outside of immigration offenses [duh!] is lower than the general population).

      Just ask that man of the people, Donald Trump.

  • Until they can't (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dirk ( 87083 ) <dirk@one.net> on Sunday August 30, 2015 @08:59AM (#50420319) Homepage

    Sure, FedEx can tell you exactly where a package is, until they can't anymore. It's not like they don't lose packages. The only reason they can track them as well as they do is because they are going to a limit number of areas where they are scanned going in and out of each. And they still lose them sometime. Unless we are going to have immigrant get scanned in everywhere they go, there isn't a way to track people the same way we track packages.

    • by kyrsjo ( 2420192 )

      Well, they could always take a book out of China (until some years ago) or North Korea's book, and demand that all foreign visitors are at all times followed by a minder...

  • How do fucktards like this even get to be a governor? People in this country who vote are really fucked in the head.
  • by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @09:32AM (#50420497)
    Each year since the late 90's the Republicans have become more and more batshit insane. It's become like a contest now.

    And there are a lot of us out there who would vote Republican again if only they would lose that crazy shit, and get back to real conservative principles, like watch the money, but pay the bills, and to let people alone.

    What is amazing though is that some of their base will go along with this, even though Christie's Star of David patch idea smacks a little of a mark of the beast as well. The amazing thing is that a mainstream candidate like Christie would not think twice about proposing this really bad idea with really bad precedents.

    • Yeah, the Republicans are batshit insane. But - you're going to pretend that the OTHER PARTY IS NOT?!?!?! The Dems are at least as psychotic as the R's are. How 'bout that bitch, Hillary Rodham?

  • by Impy the Impiuos Imp ( 442658 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @09:33AM (#50420503) Journal

    Both the Republicans and Democrats know the only way to stave off Social Security money scarcity is to inhale large numbers of younger workers (this, by the way, is the exact problem Ponzi schemes have, and why they were made illegal, and why it's a legitimate comparison -- they always run out of new investors to pay back previous ones. They just don't have the legal power to force everyone to invest, delaying, but not stopping, the inevitable. No "investor" gets back as much as they put in...in either.)

    The Republicans are just pissed The Donald has made a stink of it, and now they have to respond with idiocies like this, the more outrageous the better, apparently. Seriously.

    • Social security is not a Ponzi scheme and they planned for this LONG ago. People contributed a lot more than necessary to build up a fund to make sure social security stayed solvent and based on their predictions it worked.

      The problem social security has is other parts of the government took the money and replaced it with IOUs.

      Social security is not broke, it was robbed and it now broke as a result. I hope the cost of those wars we got with the money was worth it.

  • by kheldan ( 1460303 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @09:34AM (#50420507) Journal
    Let's say for arguments sake that people actually thought this was a good idea; how long would it be before someone came up with some half-assed justification to treat everyone, citizen and visitor alike, this way?

    Also, what ever happened to:

    Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
    With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
    Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
    A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
    Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
    Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
    Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
    The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
    "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
    With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
    Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
    The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
    Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
    I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

    An idea like Mr. Christies' flies in the face of one of the things this country was supposed to be about in the first place. I know damned well that the United States I grew up believing in never really existed, but damnit, why can't we make it that? I want the Founding Fathers of this country to turn out to be right, not George Orwell!

    Finally, what kind of an asshole do you have to be to come up with an idea like this? Fuck that, and fuck Christie sideways with a rusty chainsaw for even suggesting something like this.

  • He'll never be president, he has to many skeletons in the closet... ...of cows.

  • by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @10:08AM (#50420705)
    One Republican candidate wants to round up 11 million people and ship them away.

    .
    Now another Republican candidate wants to put bar codes on the people to track them.

    Have the Republicans gone insane?

  • by nitehawk214 ( 222219 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @10:14AM (#50420727)

    We all have rfid implants, and set up scanners everywhere? Because how would you know the visitors from the residents unless you track everyone?

    Even if this wasn't a giant affront to rights, how would he even expect to technically implement this?

    Do republicans really go apeshit for this kind of complete fantasy bullshit? So much for "freedom 'murcia." (oh right, freedom only applies to people born here that are christians)

  • Is that part of the "deep bench" from the GOP?

    Do they mean by deep bench "we can replace any of our lackluster, mediocre candidates by another equally untalented, saying equally thoughtless platitudes, to the delight of the unthinking GOP base"?

  • I know when I travel to Asia, South America, or Europe, I need to present my passport at all hotels I stay at. When I worked in Belgium, Chile and China, I had to register with the Government and provide the local police station with my information - and inform them if I moved to a new apartment/house. In the US, I don't think that tourists need to provide their passports at hotels, nor do visa holders need to register with the local police station. So - how is what is proposed much different than 90% of
    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      I know when I travel to Asia, South America, or Europe, I need to present my passport at all hotels I stay at

      Sounds like you've never travelled to Asia, South America or Europe... Because you only use your passport as a method of ID at hotels. A Hotel needs to know that you are the person you claim to be. I travel to a few places in SE Asia on a regular basis. They know who I am and dont bother asking for ID any more. So much so I've even got a rapport with a few customs officers at Perth. Also, I was al

  • Don't worry ... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Rambo Tribble ( 1273454 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @11:13AM (#50420987) Homepage
    ... it's just a little code tattooed on your forearm. Oh, and we'd like you to sew this little gold star on your clothes.
  • This is Stupid (Score:5, Informative)

    by whistlingtony ( 691548 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @11:28AM (#50421043)

    Here are the top ten leading causes of death in the USA.

    1. Heart disease
    2. Cancer (malignant neoplasms)
    3. Chronic lower respiratory disease
    4. Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases)
    5. Accidents (unintentional injuries)
    6. Alzheimer's disease
    7. Diabetes (diabetes mellitus)
    8. Influenza and pneumonia
    9. Kidney disease (nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis)
    10. Suicide (intentional self-harm).

    I looked. Homicide is 15th. Death By Terrorism isn't on this list. Overdose from drugs bought from drug dealing immigrants isn't either. Just once I wish we'd wage a war on Cancer or Drunk Driving, ya know?

    Also, because it has to be said.... Maybe we can put their tracking bar code on some kind of armband? This shit is !@#$ing stupid and dangerously close to Nazi levels of moron. We have a serious politician blaming the Jews Immigrants and willing to label them. Oh. Come. On!

    The Republican party invited in the stupid and completely has lost it's !@#$ing mind.

  • by alvieboy ( 61292 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @12:00PM (#50421193) Homepage

    > Who are you?
    > The new number 2.
    > Who is number 1?
    > You are number 6
    > I am not a number, I am a free man

    I am not 1010010111101010100010111101101000101, I am a free man.

    US problem is not visa attribution - US problem is same problem as everywhere else: too many people, too few jobs, too much lack of education, too many dreams and too many deceptions.

    Labeling people will not only not help, but will make thinks worse.

    The Nazi system labeled jews, you still recall for sure.

    I read an intresting summary today (I am not sure it's accurate though), but it stated that when The Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989 there were other 16 such walls in the world (not necessarly built same way). Nowadays 65 exist, either already in place or being finished. Last one is between Hungary and Serbia, being finished. This is a border line. Not different from the border you see at any international airport.

    Most migrants are not searching for The Ultimate Life, but rather seeking survival.

    Labeling them is to treat them as if they were animals - or even worse! I guess I could more easily get a permit for my Dog than one of those migrants can get a Visa for entering the US.

    And yes, I am somehow revolted, even with my country, due to how it refuses to receive migrants from North Africa.

    Alvie

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • How about? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by CanadianMacFan ( 1900244 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @12:16PM (#50421267)

    Whenever a politician suggests something stupid like this then they have to apply it to themselves first to see how it works. Not when it passes, just when they bring the idea out in the public forum.

  • by sjbe ( 173966 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @12:42PM (#50421389)

    "Yet we let people come to this country with visas, and the minute they come in, we lose track of them." He added: "We need to have a system that tracks you from the moment you come in."

    And about 3 nanoseconds later this would be used to track citizens and violate all kinds of civil rights. If we actually aspire to be a free country we have to let people go about their business especially when we have no reasons to suspect them of anything.

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @02:08PM (#50421797)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by Karmashock ( 2415832 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @04:43PM (#50422537)

    ... What is happening in the EU right now with immigrants? Hmmm? Its easy to point fingers at the US and say "well that's not good"... but then look at what's happening in your own backyard. Is that good?

    Frankly, we're not going to get through our shared problems here without some political incorrectness.

    REAL nations can and do hold their borders. That's what borders are in part. They're the line in the sand you hold. Now if you don't do that... then so be it. You don't have a country then.

  • by Nyder ( 754090 ) on Sunday August 30, 2015 @04:47PM (#50422547) Journal

    Since stickers & ID cards can be lost, we should probably tattoo the number on the persons forearms.

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