Thread: NumbersUSA: Stop Pelosi's Amnesty

NumbersUSA: Stop Pelosi's Amnesty

More pressure needed to stop Speaker Pelosi's attempt to undercut enforcement

DEAR FRIENDS,

The leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives continues to believe that the American people are worn out fighting illegal immigration and will allow her to, at the least, gut new enforcement against illegal immigration and, at the worst, pass an amnesty this year.

Please check your Action Buffet corkboard to make sure you have sent all your latest faxes and made your phone calls to encourage more enforcement and to block all amnesties.

Today's editorial in the Washington Times (see below) describes our situation in the U.S. House well.

In a nutshell, your efforts to push the SAVE Act (H.R. 408 of Rep. Shuler (D-N.C.) and Rep. Bilbray (R-Calif.) are increasingly successful. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi fears that the current 136 co-sponsors will succeed in forcing a House floor vote on the bill to take jobs away from millions of illegal aliens. She desperately wants to keep the 12-20 million illegal aliens in this country. So, she is maneuvering to attach a 5-year amnesty proposal of the Hispanic Caucus. Her hope is that she will either win with the amnesty or just make the bill so bad that we will help her kill the enforcement.

LESS-EDUCATED AMERICAN WORKERS DISPLACED BY FOREIGNERS

Our researcher, Joe Jenkins, has just reconfirmed for me these horrifying figures:

2 million -- The increase in the number of Americans without a high school degree who became jobless between 2000 and 2005.

1.5 million -- The number of immigrants without a high school degree who were imported by Congress between 2000 and 2005 to take American jobs.

Not surprisingly during that same period, the wages for both these immigrants and native-born workers without a high school degree have plummeted. The cheap labor lobbies may want to do away with immigration law, but they can never rescind the law of supply and demand.

Later today, we will put on your Action Buffet corkboard a new fax concerning these figures for you to send to your Members of Congress.

ADMINISTRATION ROLLING OUT TOUGHER ENFORCEMENT

Even as we may be fighting to a stand-still in Congress over better enforcement laws, the battle to curb illegal immigration is actually turning in our favor because of efforts on the state and local level ...

... and also because of efforts by the Bush Administration (believe it or not).

Ever since Pres. Bush was beaten yet again on his attempts for amnesty last year, he has allowed the Department of Homeland Security to actually begin doing its job to combat illegal immigration.

Look at these great developments reported in Congress Daily this weekend:

Officials Plan To Raise Fines For Hiring Illegal Immigrants

by Chris Strohm

The Bush administration is rolling out new rules in the coming weeks that will impose requirements and fines on companies that knowingly hire undocumented workers, Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff and Attorney General Mukasey announced today.

One of the rules will increase civil fines by as much as $5,000, or 25 percent, for employers who hire illegal immigrants, Chertoff and Mukasey said during a news conference. The rule will take effect March 27. The minimum penalty for knowingly employing an undocumented worker will increase from $275 to $375, according to the Justice Department. The maximum penalty for a first violation will jump from $2,200 to $3,200. And the biggest increase raises the maximum civil penalty for multiple violations from $11,000 to $16,000, the department said. Mukasey said the rule will mark the first time since 1999 that fines on employers have been increased.

Another rule will require federal contractors to use the E-verify program, which to this point has been a voluntary program that employers can use to check the immigration status of new hires. Chertoff said it would be particularly bad if federal contractors working to erect fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border were using undocumented workers. He said 53,000 employers use the E-verify program, and 1.7 million newly hired employees have been checked this fiscal year. A third rule is aimed at encouraging companies to scrutinize workers more if there are discrepancies with the Social Security numbers they use, the officials said.

Chertoff announced that the Homeland Security Department has accepted the first 28 miles of virtual fencing along the border near Nogales, Ariz. The P28 project uses technology, such as ground-based radars and cameras, to detect illegal activity along the border. The $20 million project was supposed to be completed in the summer, but became snarled with technical glitches. Chertoff said the project contractor, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, sent in a new team to complete the effort and the glitches have either been fixed or minimized to irrelevancy. Chertoff said the project will not be duplicated in other sections of the border.

He said the department will use technology, such as mobile ground-based sensors and unmanned aerial vehicles, in other border areas, but not in the exact configuration as the P28 project. "We're going to be guided by the operational requirements and strategy of the Border Patrol" along the border, Chertoff said.

Mukasey said the Justice Department is requesting $100 million in new funding in its FY09 budget request to conduct security operations along the border and prosecute offenders. Chertoff and Mukasey said violent activity, such as assaults on Border Patrol agents, is increasing along the U.S.-Mexico border as the government cracks down.

EDITORIAL IN WASHINGTON TIMES ON
'PELOSI'S AMNESTY SCHEME'

February 25, 2008

For months, leading Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chief Rahm Emanuel have tried to talk tough on illegal immigration. Mr. Emanuel told The Washington Post last year that immigration is "the third rail of American politics," adding that "anyone who doesn't realize that isn't with the American people," earning himself angry denunciations from the far-left fringe. Last month, Mrs. Pelosi joined House Minority Leader John Boehner in announcing that the House-passed economic stimulus bill would "not allow any taxpayer funds to be distributed to illegals." The Democratic leadership's efforts to sound tough on illegal immigration have created serious friction with some members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which believes the Democratic leadership is too timid about pushing for amnesty legislation.

If senior Democrats were really serious about a get-tough approach toward illegal immigration, we would be urging the Republican minority to reach across the aisle and work with the Democratic leadership to come up with a genuine bipartisan solution. But unfortunately, the Democrats are putting together an elaborate con job: using tough-sounding rhetoric while working behind the scenes with open-borders advocates in the business community to win support from from firms that have become very dependent on cheap foreign labor. The goal of these Democrats — and possibly the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as well — is to defeat a bipartisan bill that takes a no-amnesty, enforcement-oriented approach to illegal immigration. Specifically, they are very worried about the fact that a growing number of moderate and conservative Republicans and Democrats (and even a few liberals) are cosponsoring the Secure America through Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act, H.R. 4088, introduced by Rep. Heath Shuler, North Carolina Democrat.

The SAVE Act is an omnibus bill that would strengthen border security and require that employers verify that their workers are legally present in the United States. Forty-seven Democrats and 89 Republicans are cosponsoring the Shuler bill, which is currently bottled up in the House Judiciary Committee, where liberals like Rep. Zoe Lofgren, California Democrat and chairwoman of the Immigration Subcommittee, will work to ensure that it stays there. Cosponsors range from conservative Republicans like Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colorado); Rep. Brian Bilbray (California), chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus; and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (California) to moderate and liberal Democrats like Rep. Mark Udall of Colorado, Reps. Sanford Bishop of Georgia and Artur Davis of Alabama (both members of the Congressional Black Caucus); and Rep. Ciro Rodriguez of Texas, a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Right now, Republican supporters of H.R. 4088 are circulating a discharge petition in an effort to bring the bill to the House floor for a vote. They need 218 members' signatures, meaning that at least 20 Democrats would have to take the supreme act of rebellion: directly defying Mrs. Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and the rest of the party leadership to bring to a vote legislation that the leadership wants no part of. Senior Democrats, worried that they may not be able to keep the bill tied up in committee, have come up with a Plan B — muddling the issue by attaching a killer amendment to the Shuler bill, which would come in the form of an amendment proposed by Rep. Joe Baca, California Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

The Baca Amendment would give illegal aliens who pass a background check a "five-year temporary worker permit" that expires on Dec. 31, 2012. It would also provide employers who hired illegal aliens "safe harbor" (apparently some measure of immunity from prosecution) for past hiring of illegal aliens. If Mr. Shuler gets enough signatures to force his bill to the floor to be debated, Democrats hope to neuter it by attaching the Baca Amendment. If Mr. Baca's proposal were to become law, open-borders advocates could come back later and pass legislation putting these illegals on a path to citizenship. While not endorsing the Baca Amendment, a senior official with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce told Congressional Quarterly that he believed there was "some kind of deal in the works."

Fortunately, not everyone in the business community is pushing for amnesty. The National Federation of Independent Business, a leading group representing small businesses, has endorsed Mr. Shuler's bill as drafted. "I can't believe the leadership would be able to get any benefit from that," Mr. Bilbray says of Mrs. Pelosi's efforts to derail the SAVE Act with amnesty legislation. "What happened last summer," with the defeat of the Senate amnesty bill, "should be a warning," he told The Washington Times.
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... c&t=105360

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbc ... L/11760649


THANKS FOR TAKING ACTIONS TODAY ON YOUR 'ACTION BUFFET CORKBOARD',

Roy Beck
Numbers USA

Thanks Z. I just rec'd this alert from Numbers as well.

Looks like time to fire up the phones again...!

Start calling:

NO to Joe Baca's 5-year visa amnestys scheme and

YES to Heath Shuler's SAVE Act.

Sent in my fax.

Sent my faxes now I'm calling.


CALL Pelosi, Baca, Loefgren, and your own Congressman's office.

Pelosi's office won't even listen to you they put you messages.

Called Baca's, Lofgren's, my congressmember and Pelosi's office.

Baca's office said the information is incorrect. WELL we'll see. I gave them (politely) my opinion and told them I'm tired of it as an American citizen.

I just spoke with Myrna Campbell in Congressman Shuler's Asheville, NC office about the article. She responded that they were aware that Pelosi and others were scheming to stop the bill but did not have any details as to exactly how they might attempt this. She asked me to email the article to her and she would forward it to the Washington office to make sure Congressman Shuler sees it since he is currently on his way back to Washington.

Thanks everyone; let's keep those phone calls, faxes and e-mails rolling in!

The American people demand that existing laws are finally enforced and NO more amnesty schemes.

I got this action alert too! I faxed and called my Rep Schiff and told him to co-sponsor the SAVE ACT and to not allow any amendments to attach to this bill. The American citizens of this country do not want any AMNESTIES!!