Works for me, but, yes, collecting the biometrics = Racism. I can hear the squawking and screeching already. Probably would never happen under DaBlob or Cuomo.
Depends on the biometric. Skin color might be, but I wouldn't think it would be a functionally useful biometric. Too much variation within and overlap between self described racial groups not to mention tans, spray tans and makeup products.
But what's the race of a fingerprint? So far as I know the only relevant race is the human race (well gorillas, chimps and koalas also have fingerprints. But none will be filing welfare applications and if the former wants to cheat Fare stops, let it!) All 'races' have fingers, generally the same number of them and I've not heard claims there were any racial characteristics expressed in their prints. There's loads of court tested data on how much stored fingerprint data would be sufficient for the task, including with how computers store and compare it. Perhaps it would't be sufficient for final legal determinations, but I'd think it could suffice as probable cause for further investigations with due process available for folks to dispute its findings. I gather our military used fingerprints to track the population over in Iraq etc. and found it quite helpful. Even though when I first suggested it here early in the war some Freepers said it wouldn't be practical.