April 17, 2007 3:40PM 

# The Border … Is You 

By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) 

---

<a class="js-popover-trigger cursor-pointer popover-trigger" data-bs-placement="bottom" data-bs-trigger="click" id="popover-trigger"> 

SHARE 

</a> 

Tomorrow, the House Homeland Security Committee is hosting a “[Border Security Tech Fair](http://homeland.house.gov/press/index.asp?ID=198&SubSection=1&Issue=0&DocumentType=0&PublishDate=0).”

Vendors scheduled to participate include: [Sightlogix](http://www.sightlogix.com/), [Scantech](http://www.scantech-id.com/), Wattre, [Hirsch](http://www.hirschelectronics.com/), [Bioscrypt](http://www.bioscrypt.com/), [Cogent Systems](http://www.cogentsystems.com/), [Cross Match](http://www.crossmatch.net/), [L1 Identity](http://www.l1id.com/), [Sagem Morpho](http://www.morpho.com/), [Motorola](http://www.motorola.com/governmentandenterprise/northamerica/en-us/solution.aspx?navigationpath=id_801i/id_955i), [L3 Communication](http://www.l-3com.com/), [Authentec](http://www.authentec.com/), [Privaris](http://www.privaris.com/), [Mobilisa](http://www.mobilisa.com/home.aspx), and [Lumidigm](http://www.lumidigm.com/).

I don’t know all of these companies, so I made some educated guesses about the links (and I may have gotten the wrong division of Motorola), but it appears that fully 11 of the 15 participants are in the biometrics industry.

If you think for a minute that this is about *the boundary line dividing the United States from its neighbors*, I have a bridge to sell you. No wait — I have a “biometric solution” to sell you. Mobilisa, for example, is being used to [run background checks on the citizens of Clermont County, Ohio](http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-09-handheld_N.htm).

Participants in the Homeland Security Committee’s lunch briefing are all in the biometrics industry. One of them, James Ziglar, wrote an op-ed in favor of a national ID in Monday’s *New York Times*. He [claims it’s not a national ID](https://www.cato.org/2007/04/16/if-its-not-a-national-id-then-what-is-it/), but then, he’s got [a biometric solution to sell you](http://www.crossmatch.com/pr/Ziglar_08_16_05.html).

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).