Thread: NumbersUSA Action Alert

From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA
Date: Thursday 3NOV05 11:45 p.m. EST


Dark day for American workers ... Now we know how big our task is to truly reform immigration

We got rolled in the Senate today -- Saddle back up and fight another day

The Byrd Amendment lost 14-85. It would have stripped a giant budget bill of provisions to increase importation of permanent foreign workers and family by 350,000 a year.

Please, let's get back on our horses and ride right back into battle Friday. Some of the most important phone calls you can make and faxes you can send will be those you do Friday.

We've still got a good shot at keeping the immigration increases from passing into law.


1. The 14 Heroes who Stood with Us and the American Worker Today


With the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and every other major corporate lobby holding a campaign-funding gun to the heads of 100 U.S. Senators, only 14 Senators took the risk to stand beside and for American workers.

DEMOCRATS WHO VOTED AGAINST GIVING U.S. JOBS PERMANENTLY TO AN EXTRA 350,000 FOREIGN WORKERS A YEAR
Akaka of Hawaii
Byrd of West Virginia
Dayton of Minnesota
Dodd of Connecticut
Dorgan of North Dakota
Durbin of Illinois
Feingold of Wisconsin
Landrieu of Louisiana
Rockefeller of West Virginia
Stabenow of Michigan

INDEPENDENTS WHO VOTED AGAINST GIVING U.S. JOBS PERMANENTLY TO AN ADDITIONAL 350,000 FOREIGN WORKERS A YEAR
Jeffords of Vermont

REPUBLICANS WHO VOTED AGAINST GIVING U.S. JOBS PERMANENTLY TO AN ADDITIONAL 350,000 FOREIGN WORKERS A YEAR
Inhofe of Oklahoma
Sessions of Alabama
Vitter of Louisiana

Study this list carefully. You probably have never seen this grouping or anything like it in the past.

Frankly, we're quite surprised by some of the names on the list. But let's be sure that they all get lots of positive reinforcement.


2. Send "thank you" and "how dare you" faxes


We are in the process of putting up faxes that match six or seven groupings of Senators based on who they are and how they voted.

Please go to your Action Buffet corkboard to see if those faxes have been posted for you to send:
www.numbersusa.com/actionbuffet

If you don't see what you are looking for, be sure to click on the ALL MY ACTIONS link on the yellow scap paper in the upper right corner of our corkboard.

Take at least one action Friday to let your Senators know that you noticed how they voted and let them know what you think of it.

Senators are somewhat used to being hammered before a vote (although not usually as hard as you have hammered them this past week). But Senators are really used to getting a vote over with and hearing sudden silence from all the citizens who were clamoring up to that moment.

The message Senate staffers hear Friday can be quite influential on the next immigration decision their offices make.


3. Make a quick phone call to comment on your Senators' votes


I know that many of you are tired from phoning this week. But most of you haven't phoned at all. This would be a great time to call.

Say you are calling about "the Senator's vote yesterday on the Byrd amendment to the Budget Reconciliation bill" and how pleased or outraged you are by how the Senator voted.

Sen. Corzine (D-NJ) did not vote.

So, every Senator not listed among the heroes above deserves strong words from you about their vote against the Byrd amendment.

There are some people on this heroes list whom you have never been able to thank before for an immigration action. So, take this opportunity and try not to be too backhanded in your praise. Having some of these people vote with us for a change might reduce their resistance for the future.


4. What's next?


The U.S. House is preparing to approve its version of the big Budget Reconciliation bill. It does not have any of the immigration increases that the Senate passed.

And the House would raise money with higher visa fees, just like the Byrd Amendment would have.

We have been working regularly and intensely with several House leaders ever since the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the 350,000-a-year increase in imigration.

Several of our allies in the House have been using various means to make clear to the House leadership that they would not be able to vote for a budget bill that included immigration increases.

After the House passes its bill, leaders from House and Senate will meet in a conference committe to iron out differences between the two bills.

It is imperative that House leaders understand that if they allow any immigration increases to stay in the final joint bill that so many immigration-reductionists in the House will vote against the bill that it will die. Our allies have the ability to kill the bill because so many other Members of Congress plan to vote against the bill for other reasons.

Our ability to win will be enhanced if a growing number of Senators who voted against us and the Byrd Amendment today will privately tell their leaders that the giant immigration increase is not so important to them to kill the entire bill. Your faxes and phone calls can make a real difference.


5. Why did we lose so badly?


Since 1996, the Senate has been a vast wasteland when it comes to concern about immigration competition undermining American workers and overtaxing our communities' infrastructures.

All good immigration work has come out of the House of Representatives. While the House has gotten better and better each year for the last five years, the Senate has remained profoundly open borders oriented.

We knew we had our work cut out for us in the Senate. I don't think we knew it was quite as bad as the vote seemed to reveal today.

Nonetheless, it is good to start having some roll call votes so we can find out what side these Senators truly are on. It is also helpful to know that several factors contributed to such a lousy showing for our side. Here are some of them:

A. Petty partisanship. A lot more Republicans might have considered voting the way their constituents were pushing them but their partisanship is so strong that they couldn't bring themselves to vote for something advanced by Sen. Byrd, the Senate's senior Democrat. So, these Republicans were willing to sacrifice the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Americans rather than link up with a Democrat!

B. Feeling of obligation to an earlier compromise. Some of the Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who expressed serious reservations about the big expansion in immigration had fought to reduce the H-1B visa increase from 60,000 a year to 30,000. Because they won that fight, they claimed they felt obligated to support the bill that came out of their committee.

This appears to be the case for Sen. Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. Kyl (R-AZ) and Sen. Grassley (R-IA), for example. They need to learn that that kind of loyalty is misplaced. So what if they reduced 30,000 of the damage if they ignored the other 350,000 increase.

Fortunately, three Members of the Judiciary felt primary loyalty to victimized American workers. Sessions, Feingold and Inhofe voted against their Committee's handiwork and for the Byrd Amendment. They earned special thanks from all of us.

C. Corporate campaign money. Senators are far more beholden to corporate campaign contributions than are most House Members.

That is because it is difficult for most Senators to raise enough money without major bundlings of corporate money. This is almost as true for Democrats as for Republicans. When the Chamber of Commerce and Microsoft say an action is non-negotiable, that action usually happens.

Surprisingly, the AFL-CIO which was on our side today wasn't able to move many Democrats. That shows what a powerful hold corporate money has on Democrats but also how many Democrats are willing to let immigration harm American workers because they expect most new immigrants to vote Democratic.

D. The mystique of Bill Gates and Microsoft. Senators regard Microsoft as a kind of mystical golden goose. If Microsoft says it needs a lot more foreign workers, otherwise rationale Senators turn off their curiosity and do whatever they can to accommodate Gates, ignoring all the government and other studies showing that there is no conclusive evidence of any kind of shortage of American tech workers.

Is there any hope? You bet there is. And it starts with all of the calls and faxes you are going to deliver to those Senators today.

What choice do we have? Are we just going to give up our country?


6. Why we keep fighting


We know people who have been victimized by the Senate's past disastrous immigration decisions. We are victimized ourselves.

Larry of Atlanta has already fired off a note to his Sen. Chambliss. He copied it to me. Here's a part of it:

"I wish I could put into words that you could understand, how disappointed myself and many of my co-workers are with your actions to support this raping of the American High-Tech Worker.

"I think along with (the immigration increases that you spoke for on the floor), there should be a process in place to notify every American-born college student who is studying for a High-Tech field that they may as well change their degree program for one in which an American still has a fighting chance to work in it. That is, if there are any of those fields left.

"Up until now, I have been a staunch Chambliss supporter. I cannot in good concience continue to support someone who is willing to give my job away to a foreign worker. I am sorry, but this has become a personal issue for me as I am one of those "Displaced High-Tech Workers" born and raised here in the United States that has been forced to change my career direction after watching my profession be virtually taken over by foreign workers. I honestly feel that you are now part of the problem and not part of the solution. You are selling the United States to foreign interests."

Larry asked me if he had spoken too passionately. I said:

"Nope, not over the top at all. Powerfully stated. He is going to have to hear this kind of thing over and over again over the next few months. But if he does, I think he can begin to change his colors. I’ve seen it happen before. I've seen it happen before.

Dr. Perl wrote after contacting his Texas Sen. Cornyn, another one who spoke on the floor yesterday about our high need for more foreign workers -- and about how Americans aren't skilled enough to do the technical jobs of this country. Dr. Perl said:

"I have made several calls to Sen.. Cornyn on this issue and sent all the faxes, from the time the Specter/Kennedy amendment came before the Judiciary Committee and subsequently to the Byrd's Amendment. As you say, he is clearly not listening. I voted for him in the last election, but this is one vote he would not get again. I hope there are enough Texans like me to make sure he does not get elected again."

Whatever your feelings about your Senators' votes today -- and however raw (but still polite) -- those Senators need to hear from you so they can't ignore what they are doing to the American people and our American society.

We got hundreds of feedback response today about what you heard when you called Congress. I hope many more of you will follow in the steps of all the ones who were calling Congress for the first time.

We got a lot of responses like this one:

"We both called our Senators Warner and Allen (R-VA) yesterday. It was really easy, and we urge all Americans to call their Senators and Representatives when there is an important issue coming up for a vote. These elected officials
need to know how the taxpayers and voters stand on issues that will effect their lives."
................Tommie and Dawson

All of your phone calls, faxes and time this last week really DID accomplish something -- even if they didn't move many votes.

It is disappointing that your outpouring of opposition to the 350,000 increase did not move more votes our way today.

But don't think for a moment that your efforts were wasted. There would not even have been a vote if not for all of your pressure.

And you cannot know how many Senators -- because of your pressure -- had to sweat the tension between what their constituents want and what their corporate contributors wanted.

Keep the pressure up and someday -- as happened in the House -- you should see some big steps forward.

Thanks for all you work and attention.

-- ROY
in this email:
1. The 14 Heroes who Stood with Us and the American Worker Today
2. Send faxes of "thank you" and "how dare you" for the way your Senators voted
3. Quick phone call to comment on your Senators' votes
4. What's next? The House
5. Why did we lose so badly?
6. Why we keep fighting
actions in brief:
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Act Now to Build Support for the Most Important Immigration Enforcement Bill of 2005

TRUE Enforcement and Border Security Act

URGENT: Call your representatives today--right now--to tell them to support the ONLY comprehensive immigration enforcement solution before Congress - the TRUE Enforcement and Border Security Act of 2005.

This new legislation, introduced in the House by Congressmen Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and Virgil Goode (R-VA), takes a no-nonsense approach to reform that will make us more secure, serve our national interests, and remove incentives that drive illegal immigration.

TRUE Enforcement creates a comprehensive, effective enforcement process to end illegal immigration by securing the border, enhancing interior enforcement, expanding detention space and workplace enforcement, punishing those who employ illegal workers, as well as removing incentives that make illegal immigration so attractive.

Here's How YOU Can Help:

1) Call your House representative's DISTRICT office in support of the bill. Ask him/her to become a cosponsor. (Find your representative's district office number here on our web site.) Calling their district office will really get their attention!

During your phone call, ask for a written response to your request to cosponsor the bill.
House members interested in becoming cosponsors should contact Lorissa Bounds in Rep. Hunter's office at 202-225-5672.
Share your experience - let us know how your efforts to contact Congress are going.
2) Send a free fax to your representative in support of TRUE Enforcement from our web site.

3) Sign FAIR's on-line petition to President Bush and congressional leaders in support of the bill.

4) Support our efforts by making a contribution to FAIR. Your donation will help us continue fighting for TRUE enforcement of our immigration law!

5) Get the word out! Help build grassroots support for TRUE Enforcement by forwarding this alert to others.

LEGISLATIVE TOOLKIT:

How TRUE Enforcement Fixes Mistakes of the Past (PDF)

Bill Analysis, Section by Section with Talking Points (PDF)

Side by side comparison between McCain-Kennedy Amnesty and TRUE Enforcement (PDF)

The Hidden Dangers of McKennedy: Why the Kennedy-McCain Amnesty Bill Endangers America (PDF)

TAKE ACTION NOW and send a clear message to President Bush and Congress that TRUE Enforcement is what will protect our nation!