your argument with the failure rate doesn't convince me at all. Even now, when I come to any country outside of the EC they routinely check my identity, look at my passport, compare my present lookings with my passport picture, sometimes they check with their databases on criminals.
So neither the error rate (far larger in the present system) nor the checking of the identity are anything new.
If you want to convince me that the replacement of an error prone identity check technique by a less error prone technique is something to fight against you need some more arguments.