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(CNSNews.com) -- Dozens of U.S. House members who sponsored the nationwide instant background check system for gun buyers in 1993 or backed the expansion of that system in 2002, have shown no support for a similar database intended to identify illegal aliens trying to find work in the U.S.

At least one member who supported the gun control measure is challenging the proposal to crack down on illegal immigrants.

"A database this large is likely to contain many errors," said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) during a May 12 hearing on the Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act (H.R. 98). "Any one of [the errors] could render someone unemployable and possibly much worse until they can get their file straightened out."

But in 2002, Jackson Lee argued for the "Our Lady of Peace Act," (H.R. 4757), an expansion of the National Instant Check System (NICS) for handgun purchases.

"I strongly support this legislation," Jackson Lee said during the Oct. 15, 2002 consideration of the Our Lady of Peace Act. "A major problem with the instant check system has been the incomplete records of state and local governments."

The legislation to expand NICS would have provided "incentives for states to provide more complete records to the federal government. This will result in faster and smarter background checks," she argued.

Jackson Lee was not in Congress in 1993 when the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act - the law that eventually gave way to the NICS tracking system - was passed. But 83 of the 155 House members who did co-sponsor the Brady bill 12 years ago are still serving in the House, and only one - House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) - is a co-sponsor of the Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act.

Erich Pratt, communications director for Gun Owners of America (GOA), said opposition to the attempts to identify illegal immigrants, amounts to "hypocrisy," considering those same members' support for the gun control measure.

"Evidently for this gaggle of congressional gun-haters, the Constitution only applies to illegal aliens, not American citizens," Pratt said. "It seems that some people are 'more equal' than others."

GOA and many other pro-gun groups opposed the Brady bill, which established a mandatory waiting period for handgun purchases until the National Instant Check System (NICS) became operational on Nov. 30, 1998.

NICS allows gun dealers to electronically check the identities of gun buyers against a database containing information on convicted felons, the mentally ill and others legally prohibited from owning firearms.

A little more than a year after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., the House moved to expand the NICS database by taking up the Our Lady of Peace Act. The proposal would have added the names of foreign visitors and students, patients with serious mental illness and known illegal aliens to the list. It passed the House on a voice vote, but the Senate never considered it.

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