Indeed. This is kind of a re-announcement though - sanctions were revealed some time ago (February):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/feb/26/idcards.humanrights
Foreign nationals living in Britain who boycott the introduction of the biometric identity card later this year could face losing their right to stay, under proposals published yesterday.
A Home Office consultation paper also reveals that those who refuse to make or turn up to an appointment to scan their fingerprints and facial image will face a £250 fine, rising to £1,000 for persistent refusal. Those who fail to tell police if they lose their ID card will face a fine of £125.
The sanctions regime proposed for the compulsory ID card for foreign nationals, which comes into effect from November, is expected to be a pilot for the UK residents' ID cards to be introduced from next year.
The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, said: "This shows the kind of punitive measures that every British citizen can expect when ID cards are eventually rolled out nationally."
I believe the big 'mistake' of mainstream anti-ID campaigning has been a refusal to take the issue of immigration/border control and ID together as a integrated campaign (but not really a surprise as most right-wingers who won't want ID cards for themselves won't mind foreigners having them - although no doubt some of these would even prefer foreigners weren't here at all - no need for ID foreigner cards in that case!) . The government are introducing cards for non-British nationals under a different Act of parliament, the UK Borders Act (2007), but the main lobby group is concentrating on repeal of ID Cards Act (2006) and considers campaigning against immigration control as outside the remit of its single issue. On the otherhand, few anarchists and liberatarian communists have taken the ID issue seriously, aside from AF and those involved in the Defy-ID network which is essentially defunct, and some in the increasingly active No Borders network.
This quote from No2ID press release of 4 days ago illustrates the problem:
http://www.no2id.net/news/pressRelease/release.php?name=Jacqui_Smith_bullying
The Home Secretary will round off the Labour Party conference by re-announcing "ID cards for foreigners". A system of biometric visas is being introduced for some foreign residents from November, but it is not really part of the National Identity Scheme, which has not been built yet.[1] This fact does not stop the government using the words "ID cards" together with a sly appeal to xenophobia, to buttress support for its unpopular [2] scheme.
Rather than saying that ID cards for foreigner are "not really part" of the scheme, it would be much better (and now essential) to be saying this is just the first step in giving ID cards for everyone and be campaigning activity to support non-British-born residents in opposing ID, if at all possible.
The joint border control/ID cards route the government is pursuing is explained here:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/managingourborders/astrongnewforceattheborder/strongnewforce.pdf
In particular, see diagram on p6 with ID cards at the centre & timeline on p20 showing that Border control and ID cards are inextricably linked in the plans. So there is no excuse for No2ID to continue to say that immigration control is a seperate issue from ID cards/databases, but because they want to continue to be 'non-partisan' and appeal to little-englanders this is unlikely to change.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/politics/7634111.stm