Implanted microchip ID for guest workers?

Houston Chronicle:

A tiny microchip implanted just under the skin offers the best tamper-proof identity system for immigrant guest workers, says the head of a Florida-based company that has already implanted millions of the identity chips in household pets and livestock.

But the idea of planting microchips in the arms of migrant workers, which a prominent Washington lawmaker brought up last week, has outraged immigrant advocates, privacy watchdogs, employer groups and immigrants themselves.

"For me, it would be a humiliation," said Jose Luis Vasquez, a 48-year-old undocumented worker in the Rio Grande Valley.

"That's like treating someone like an animal, not a person, or a delinquent they want to control."

"Oh my God," said Laura Reiff, co-chair and founder of Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based employers group working for immigration reform. "I can't imagine it being contemplated in the near future. It's wild."

Scott Silverman, chairman and CEO of Applied Digital, where the chips are made, doesn't think it's such an outlandish idea.

In fact, he said, key congressional leaders — who he declined to identify — have told him they're interested in the technology as a tamper-proof guest worker identification system.

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Silverman said chips made by his VeriChip division, already implanted in some hospital patients, could be easily scanned by immigration officials and private employers to verify guest workers' identification and work status, and to store tax and medical records.

"We look at our technology as one of several the legislators can choose to be the technology platform for the guest worker program," he said.

Silverman said his company would sell the microchips only to buyers who agreed they'd be implanted voluntarily.

The chips are not tracking devices, do not contain GPS transmitters, and are more reliable than biometric credentials that use fingerprints or optical scans to confirm identity, Silverman said.

Silverman said the VeriChip tag, the size of a grain of rice, has been implanted in 30 million pets during the past 15 years and was approved for human use by the FDA in 2004.

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They would probably be a challenge for the counterfeiters for a while at least.