From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA
Date: Wednesday 7JAN09 5:30 p.m. EST


Start the new Congress with deluge of faxes -- Why continue 138,000 foreign workers per month?

HAPPY NEW YEAR,

Let's get to work, friends.

The new Congress was sworn in yesterday. Senate Majority Leader Reid immediately filed a placeholder amnesty bill. YOUR immigration wishes need to be physically piling up so nobody has any doubt where popular sentiment lies.

About 5 dozen new House Members need to find out what a NumbersUSA fax blitz looks like.

So do a dozen new Senators.

Go to your customized Action Buffet corkboard to find faxes if you have new Members of Congress -- and other faxes to your returning Members (as well as to the new President).

ECONOMIC CRISIS REQUIRES
BOLD IMMIGRATION ACTION

Friends, every politician will tell you we are in a national jobs crisis.

We must make sure all politicians and members of the news media understand that the crisis requires bold immigration action.

NumbersUSA today urged President-Elect Obama to immediately suspend most importation of foreign workers to give relief to the American workers who will be left without a job if the importation continues.

Unlike all other emergency recommendations, our call to action would not cost hundreds of billions of dollars. In fact, it would cost almost nothing.

You can read my entire Obama letter at the bottom of my blog today (click here)

I am very clear with Mr. Obama that I am not calling for a total end to immigration. I continue to advocate immigration for nuclear family (spouses and minor children), for our fair share of special-needs refugees and for a few thousand truly international-class brains. But I can find no excuse for much else.

ONLY A MASS PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN
CAN REDUCE 138,000 MONTHLY FOREIGN WORKERS

Here is the question our activism must try to force every politician and journalist to answer:

At a time of giant job losses, does it make any sense to issue around 138,000 new work permits and green cards to foreign workers each month?

Politicians and media personalities will do everything possible to avoid confronting that question.

But if we can force them to answer the question, do you believe they can possibly provide an excuse for continuing this insanity?

The people of this country will have to hammer politicians and the media relentlessly before we can hope to get an answer to the question. Once they have to answer it, we can begin to move them toward the solutions I outline in my letter to Mr. Obama.

NumbersUSA's Capitol Hill Team is talking up the key 138,000 number all over the Hill.

They are telling me that most Hill staffers are shocked at the figure. The number is so high that we have to walk them through the numbers for them to be convinced that we know what we are talking about.

You will find many people who will try to deny the 138,000 figure. You must be resolute in insisting on its veracity.

Here is the source for the 138,000 figure.

The Department of Homeland Security's most-recent-year data show that the U.S. granted:


744,531 permanent green cards to working-age adults ages 20-64, and


912,735 new employment authorization documents to temporary foreign workers.

That adds up to an annual rate of 1,657,266 new foreign workers (not counting illegal workers) added to our economy. There are no indications that the pace has slackened.

If the DHS continues to issue work permits and green cards at the same pace, we will see 138,000 new foreign workers arriving every month this year.

Friends, many of you may not yet be ready to call for a suspension of most immigration. But I implore you to read my letter to Mr. Obama and then decide whether I am wrong. Instead, I think you will find that this move is entirely logical, practical and even-handed.

THANKS,