Border Crisis Is Being Exploited to Introduce Biometric Digital ID System, Journalist Warns

During a recent interview, Whitney Webb, a writer and contributing editor for Unlimited Hangout, issued a warning about the potential for political figures to manipulate conservatives into accepting a technocratic control system.

According to Webb, fears surrounding the ongoing border crisis are being leveraged to coax Americans into accepting a biometric digital ID system, a move she argues could be exploited against U.S. citizens.

Webb described the U.S. southern border with Mexico as "continuously porous," a condition she claims has been manifest regardless of the administration in power, including during the tenure of former President Donald Trump.

“His first presidential campaign rested heavily on the idea of creating a physical barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border. But by 2019, Trump had abandoned that idea and was promoting this smart wall, the biometric, an artificial intelligence powered smart wall that functions autonomously,” said Webb.

“And this is actually something that the Bush administration first kicked off. The newly created department of Homeland Security, at the time, launched this program called SBInet, which failed and has sort of come back over the last several years or so, and has been promoted both by Democrats and Republicans,” stated Webb.

"Webb has been a professional writer, researcher and journalist since 2016," according to the Unlimited Hangout site. "She has written for several websites and, from 2017 to 2020, was a staff writer and senior investigative reporter for Mint Press News. She is contributing editor of Unlimited Hangout and author of the book One Nation Under Blackmail."

According to a government document, SBInet was to include mobile and fixed towers along the border wall, cameras, radars, and ground sensors in order to help Border Patrol agents detect and respond to illegal activity.

Webb stated that when Trump was pitching the idea of a physical border barrier, the response from Democrats was to promote the idea of a smart wall, rather than a wall that would physically stop illegal crossings.

Under the Biden administration, border patrol encounters with undocumented immigrants have surged to over 10 million, setting a new record and intensifying media scrutiny.

Webb argues that the increased attention from independent media on the border and migrant crisis is casting the situation in militaristic terms. This framing, she suggests, is strategically designed to garner public support for military-style solutions, steering the conversation toward more stringent and technologically driven measures.

Webb explained:

Well, here's the thing about the biometric entry exit wall. This is something that is not just happening in the U.S. It is being rolled out and promoted in lockstep throughout the entire western world. The European Union is implementing it starting this year. The UK is poised to do it in 2025, and it is essentially part of this broader agenda to impose digital identity or digital ID on people. And digital ID is something that a lot of people in Trump's base and people that were dissenters during the Covid era were very opposed to because vaccine passports were fundamentally the trial run for a global interoperable digital ID style system.

And that's essentially what these entry exit systems will be. And it's not something that's just they're trying to do on the physical terrestrial borders of the U.S.

All ports of entry, including airports, are going to have this, or they're hoping to impose this on people, this new paradigm for identification for travel. And obviously, as was reported during the Covid era with the vaccine passports, the goal is not just surveillance, but restricting people's freedom of movement, in the case of vaccines, whether or not you've been vaccinated. But that of course opens the door to anything — potentially even your social media posts, or your online activity, your travel should be restricted, or from the net zero carbon market side of things if you've spent too much, you've traveled too much this year and your carbon footprint's too big, your travel's being restricted and all of that.

Webb says that political actors are using manufactured crises to get Americans to consent to a widespread, persistent surveillance system, because such a system “only works if there’s mass compliance to it.”

Numerous warnings have been issued about the rising number of foreign nationals from regions like the Middle East and from countries like China illegally entering the U.S.

FBI Director Christopher Wray recently warned about the heightened potential for a terrorist attack on U.S. soil attributed to illegal aliens pouring across the border.

Webb argued that this is how the technology of digital IDs will be sold to Republicans and conservatives. She added that it will also be pitched as a private sector initiative, rather than a government initiative.

Webb says those pushing a digital ID system will also position the technology as the answer to concerns over voter ID and election integrity.

“This is already being promoted by people like Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba and people like that on the podcast circuit saying, ‘Why don't we have [the security system CLEAR], CLEAR being like the company at airports alongside TSA, where you can scan your eyeball — not unlike Worldcoin — and get through security faster.’ She was like, 'Why not do that for voting?'” Webb explained.

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“This is the beginning of them trying to manufacture consent to Trump's base, or rather, right-leaning populace for the same exact digital ID system that they were opposed to during Covid,” Webb stated. “It's very clever. And this is why I would encourage people to look at the current border situation as something that is being intentionally manufactured also by the Biden administration, because this is ... something where the Biden camp and the Trump camp agree.”

“And precisely this intentional policy on the part of Biden's DHS is creating the situation whereby the solution that both parties want can be imposed. But the opposition in this case, Trump, can ride in and offer this solution, and his base will be clamoring for it, even though it's the exact same type of framework that was proposed during Covid,” she said. “And of course, as you pointed out, the mandates were to force people to onboard onto this. So, if you can't vote without digital ID, you can't get a job without digital ID, you have to prove you're an American citizen, right — not a migrant. But the only way to do that now is with smart ID.”

Editor's Note: A previous version of this article did not include background info on Webb.