Thread: Pending Disaster......Giant immig. jump in final budget bill

U.S. House negotiators are accepting Specter's 350,000-a-year immigration increase in budget bill

Make phone calls the minute you see this.

U.S. House on verge of biggest immigration disaster for American communities and workers since 1990 Act.

The surprise vote could occur as early as Tuesday.

The only thing that can possibly avert this disaster is if all 124,000 NumbersUSA members take some kind of action today and Tuesday.

Click the link below to get instructions on making your phone call. We still have a chance to turn this thing around if congressional offices have their switchboards jammed by angry constituents about something that most of the staff will know nothing about. Your job is to let them know that this is VERY, VERY important.

www.numbersusa.com/phones?ID=4343

Our staff is putting up new faxes for you to send right now. Click the link below to check on new faxes on your Action Buffet corkboard. If you see this immediately, not everything may be up yet. Just keep coming back to the board for instructions. We will be updating it regularly -- as well as our Hot Topics section on the Home page.

www.NumbersUSA.com/actionbuffet

Your NumbersUSA Capitol Hill Team has been working on rumors all day about this extreme new development and sadly has confirmed it with a Congressman.

At the moment, House Republican negotiators are allowing Specter's radical Senate immigration provisions to stay in this budget bill. This would be the greatest immigration blow to American communities and workers since the 1990 Immigration Act increased annual immigration by a similar amount. Only the 1965 Immigration Act had more disastrous consequences than would the Budget REconciliation bill which easily could come up for a vote this week.

Yes, we came to you when this was going through the Senate and you tried to stop it there. But we always had some strong hope that House leaders would stop the insanity and strip Specter from the Budget bill. We were given many assurances by House Republican leaders that they would not bring the Budget bill back from Conference Committee if it had Specter's 350,000 a year increase.

We think many of these leaders may not even know what is happening because the Budget bill is gigantic and the immigration provisions look like small stuff and are easily overlooked.

Please do not sit on the sidelines on this one!

Your NumbersUSA Capitol Hill Team says that the Specter/Kennedy plan inside the Budget Reconciliation bill would do the following:

1. It would raise the annual cap on permanent employment-based immigration by changing the formula as follows: employment-based visas = 140,000 + any unused family-based visas from the previous year + (the lesser of 90,000 or unused employment-based visas from any prior year).

2. It exempts the spouses and children of employment-based immigrants from counting against the numerical cap, beginning in 2004. (In 2003, workers got 36,210 visas, and their spouses and children got 45,927 visas. Total visas could have more than doubled under this bill.)

3. It adds a fee of $500 per petition for most employment-based visa petitions. (The publicly-stated rationale for all these new greencards is as a money-making scheme to decrease the federal budget deficit.)

4. It allows alien spouses and children of citizens to adjust to Legal Permanent Resident status if the citizen abused them, died, or lost or renounced their citizenship; and it allows alien spouses and children of LPRs to adjust to LPR status if the LPR abused them or died.

5. Anytime the H-1B cap is reached, the lesser of 60,000 or any unused visas in any prior years are added to the cap.


I'll type to you later today,

-- ROY

I have just contacted Coble, Dole and Burr. I went to my Action buffet and nothing has been posted YET but will keep going back today.

I contacted Elizabeth Dole and Patrick McHenry's offices yesterday. I sent a fax this morning to Richard Burr. I will keep watching the board.

It's ALMOST a joke to contact Dole's office, isn't it?? They ACT like they agree with everything you say and then she SLITS YOUR THROAT ON THE FLOOR OF THE SENATE!

So true, Bootsie! The lady on the phone with me kept telling me, "Yes, Mrs. Dole is already aware of that" to everything I had to say. So, I made HER aware of the fact that American citizens want action!

I swear, rebel--they must have a RECORDING that actually answers you back. I wonder how many times a day they say those exact same words??!!! NO LIE!!! At least, my OTHERS SOMETIMES actually ask a QUESTION! NOT Dole's office. NO MAAM!!! The woman HAS IT UNDER CONTROL!!! I am SO LYING!

You know what, i am coming to the point were what ever we do they don’t care and we need to start moving into suing the government. It seems like the only way to do things.

Also the only person that i have heard back from was rather positive is from Senate Frist, i know you are going to laugh but i received an written letter which someone went though my 4 pages and answered back and answered my illegal immigration questions. I never in my life had received any letter back that was that long and they took the time to answer my questions.

P

He REALLY wants to run for President. I got one from him too but it wasn't that long!!

Update on pending immigration disaster

Your calls and faxes since late yesterday are starting to stall 350,000-a-year immigration boost

UPDATE ON MY ALERT FROM YESTERDAY AFTERNOON

U.S. House on verge of biggest immigration disaster for American communities and workers since 1990 Act.

While there was potential for the Budget Reconciliation bill to be rushed to the floor of the House today from the joint Conference Committee with the Senate, that thankfully has not happened.

The Budget bill remains in negotiations among Senate and House committee staffers.

We are getting reports that your massive response starting around 4 p.m. Monday on phone and fax -- as well as our Capitol Hill team's relentless contacting of top staff and Members -- has definitely stalled for the moment the move to sneak through the giant 350,000 increase in annual immigration.

Thanks. Congratulations. You all are wonderful.

But this is just a temporary stall and victory. The move to include Sen. Specter's 350,000 increase is not dead. There may be an attempt to just reduce the numbers some.

Your and our stance must be absolutely clear: We oppose any increase of immigration of any kind being included in this Budget Reconciliation bill. AMERICA DOES NOT NEED MORE IMMIGRATION. IT NEEDS FAR LESS.

Click the link below to get instructions on making your phone call. We have been constantly updating that phone action page as the situation has changed on the ground.

www.numbersusa.com/phones?ID=4343

If you get a staffer who acts like you are off your rocker, remember that most of the time we know far more about what is happening concerning immigration bills in the Congress than do 90% of the Members. They don't specialize in these issues the way we do and they don't talk to the Members and staffers who most know what is going on like we do.

To recap from yesterday: We got confirmations yesterday from Members of Congress that staff negotiations between House and Senate were keeping in the final bill Specter's radical Senate immigration provisions. This would be the greatest immigration blow to American communities and workers since the 1990 Immigration Act increased annual immigration by a similar amount. Only the 1965 Immigration Act had more disastrous consequences than would the Budget REconciliation bill which easily could come up for a vote this week.

Yes, we came to you when this was going through the Senate and you tried to stop it there. But we always had some strong hope that House leaders would stop the insanity and strip Specter from the Budget bill. We were given many assurances by House Republican leaders that they would not bring the Budget bill back from Conference Committee if it had Specter's 350,000 a year increase.

We think many of these leaders may not even have known what was happening because the Budget bill is gigantic and the immigration provisions look like small stuff and are easily overlooked. That is where you have such power. If we talk to Congress with our professionals, we can have some effect. But when we talk to them while you are ringing their phones off the hook, Members and staffers in Congress REALLY pay attention.

Please do not sit on the sidelines on this one!

Your NumbersUSA Capitol Hill Team says that the Specter/Kennedy plan inside the Budget Reconciliation bill would do the following:

1. It would raise the annual cap on permanent employment-based immigration by changing the formula as follows: employment-based visas = 140,000 + any unused family-based visas from the previous year + (the lesser of 90,000 or unused employment-based visas from any prior year).

2. It exempts the spouses and children of employment-based immigrants from counting against the numerical cap, beginning in 2004. (In 2003, workers got 36,210 visas, and their spouses and children got 45,927 visas. Total visas could have more than doubled under this bill.)

3. It adds a fee of $500 per petition for most employment-based visa petitions. (The publicly-stated rationale for all these new greencards is as a money-making scheme to decrease the federal budget deficit.)

4. It allows alien spouses and children of citizens to adjust to Legal Permanent Resident status if the citizen abused them, died, or lost or renounced their citizenship; and it allows alien spouses and children of LPRs to adjust to LPR status if the LPR abused them or died.

5. Anytime the H-1B cap is reached, the lesser of 60,000 or any unused visas in any prior years are added to the cap.


Keep looking at your Action Buffet corkboard and our home page for updates at www.NumbersUSA.com and at www.NumbersUSA.com/actionbuffet.

And I'll be sending you more updates and alerts.

Thanks,

-- ROY