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I know this is America where we don't need no stinkin' badges AND because the idea originates with the evil Regime it must have evil purposes.

But I have had to show my passport to get a bank account in the UK, Japan, Finland, and Rwanda - the other countries in which I have lived over the last 40 years. I did not think it evil in those places.

I am not so much worried about the act of identifying citizenship, as different countries have different financial and tax regulations that apply to their citizens at home or abroad. Banks play a part in this system.

I am worried at the motivations of this government. How are they going to use this to hurt people.

Several possibilities have been mentioned from identifying people without proper permission to be in the country to economically disenfranchising people that don't have passports or other necessary papers to screwing people who can't get to the bank in person easily to provide the papers they do have.

I fall into the last category. It is a long and expensive trip if I have to fly from Rwanda to PA to show my passport in person at my American bank.

I think there are problems to overcome, but the basic requirement of signifying citizenship does not seem to me to be inherently wrong. I just don't want this regime to ask for it.