| From: Anne Manetas, Deputy Director, NumbersUSA | |
| Date: 19MAY08 1 p.m. (EDT) | |
Friends,
The country is in great danger this week of a major amnesty for illegal aliens. The threat level is extremely high. We are on red alert. Defeating this amnesty will not be easy. The odds are against us. But we have overcome odds like this before and won. We can do it again with your help. Your country needs you.
I am not just cheerleading when I tell you that we can beat this amnesty ONLY if all of you send the faxes and make the phone calls we've posted on your Action Buffet corkboard . Please go there immediately.
And ONLY if you enlist as many of your friends, relatives, neighbors and colleagues as possible by forwarding this Alert to them.
Especially important is that you pick up the phone and make the calls to your two Senators that we've requested.
Phone Number
202-224-3121
DETAILS ON THE AMNESTY
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 17-12 to attach an amnesty to the Iraq supplemental spending bill. The amendment that passed provides a 5-year visa for up to 1.35 million illegal agricultural workers—but the cap of 1.35 million does not include spouses and children, who would bring the total amnesty to a total of about 3 million.
| in this email: |
|
1. Fax and Phone TODAY to stop amnesty 2. Amnesty Details 3. What Happened? What is Next? 4. Your faxing and phoning is getting noticed 5. Taking Message to the Airways 6. Thank you! |
| actions in brief: |
| Refer all friends to
the NumbersUSA.com website. Check for your latest free faxes to send to Congress & the Administration at: NumbersUSA.com/actionbuffet |
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- Could show by “a preponderance of the evidence” that he worked 863
hours or 150 work days (defined as 5.75 hours of work per “work
day”), or earned at least $7,000 in agricultural employment between
January1, 2004, and December 31, 2007;
NOTE FROM NUMBERSUSA: In other words, the illegal alien would have to show that he was illegally employed in agriculture for a grand total of less than 22 weeks during a four-year period! And he can prove his employment history “by producing sufficient evidence to show the extent of that employment as a matter of just and reasonable inference.”
- Filed an amnesty application with a “qualified designated
entity,” or with DHS directly if he is represented by an attorney or
a nonprofit organization, during an 18-month application period that
would begin six months after enactment of the amnesty;
NOTE FROM NUMBERSUSA: No illegal alien is permitted to file an application for the amnesty without assistance from an attorney or an advocacy group—a “qualified designated entity” is defined as a labor or employer association or “any such other person” with “substantial experience” in filing adjustment of status applications.
- Was not a known terrorist or convicted criminal; and
NOTE FROM NUMBERSUSA: Criminals would only be barred if they had been convicted of one or more felonies or three or more misdemeanors, so a couple of convictions for domestic violence or drunk and disorderly are fine, since those are generally misdemeanor offenses. And, of course, terrorists-in-waiting—those who have not yet committed a terrorist act or been caught with other known terrorists so they could be added to the watch list—likely would have no trouble qualifying for this amnesty, just as Mahmud Abouhalima, an illegal-alien cab driver in New York, qualified for the 1986 agricultural amnesty before going on to drive a bomb into the World Trade Center in 1993.
- Paid a “fine” of $250.
In short, the AgJOBS amendment would require the Department of Homeland Security to grant “emergency agricultural worker status” (i.e., amnesty) for up to five years to as many as 1.35 million illegal aliens, plus their spouses and children, if the illegal alien:
- Bring his spouse and children here to join him, or legalize their
status, if they are already here illegally;
- Official U.S. government identification documents, including a
valid social security number—with which he would be able to apply
for a driver’s license—and a work permit (spouses would be allowed
to apply for work permits, as well); and
- Immunity from prosecution for committing social security fraud
if he had been working illegally with a false or stolen social
security number.
WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT’S NEXT?
Last Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee added several immigration amendments to the version of the Iraq Supplemental they were marking up.
- First was the Feinstein AgJOBS-lite amendment, which passed by a
recorded vote of 17-12;
- Second was a Mikulski H-2B amendment--for the next three years,
it would exempt from the annual cap of 66,000 any H-2B workers who
were admitted during the previous three years. (The impact on the
numbers could be exponential--they could rise from 66,000 in FY 2008
to over 400,000 by FY2011.) This passed by a recorded vote of 23-6!
- Third was an amendment by Sens. Murray and Gregg to "recapture
unused" employment-based visas from the past couple of decades.
Since any employment-based visas that are not used in one year are
added to the number of available family-based visas for the
following year, there are no "unused" employment-based visas, and so
there are none to "recapture." However, Murray and Gregg's deceptive
manipulation of visa numbers would add an estimated 218,000 (total)
employment-based visas to the annual cap of 140,000, until they are
all used (again!). This amendment passed by voice vote.
- Finally, Sen. Leahy offered an amendment to reauthorize the
investor visa program. This, too, was approved by voice vote.
On the same day, the House voted down its version of the Iraq Supplemental. Since all appropriations bill must originate in the House, the Senate cannot move their bill to the floor until the House passes a version and sends it to the Senate. A new Iraq Supplemental has not yet been put on the House floor schedule, but our Capitol Hill team expects that they will move one soon after their return on Tuesday.
The Senate has to wait for a House version of the bill which means it could come to a vote in the Senate as early as Wednesday or Thursday. That means we have until at least Wednesday to saturate the Senate with faxes and phone calls opposing the amnesty.
That is why we are asking you right now and every day this week to go to your Action Buffet corkboard and take every AgJOBS-related action possible.
YOUR FAXING AND PHONING IS GETTING NOTICED
Since we first alerted you to this amnesty threat on Thursday of last week, the more than 625,000 of you in the NumbersUSA Action Network have sent over:
182,000 Faxes!
TAKING THE MESSAGE TO THE AIRWAYS
Last summer when we defeated the “comprehensive” Senate amnesty bill, talk radio was widely cited as one of the factors in that defeat. In order to get the message out to a larger audience about this outrageous amnesty attempt, NumbersUSA representatives have been on talk radio shows since Thursday telling people about the amnesty and answering questions about it. This is a great time to use Rosemary’s AgJOBS handout to contact talk radio stations in your area and tell them about the latest amnesty push.
THANK YOU
We have received a number of emails from some of you expressing major frustration with our elected officials as a result of this latest amnesty move. You have every right to be frustrated, but don’t let frustration cause you to throw your hands in the air and give up. We have beaten the odds and massive amnesties before and we can do it again with your help. The challenge is great, but not insurmountable.
Thank you for all you do for the country,
ANNE
P.S. We can triple our membership quickly if our members email their friends about us and they in turn email theirs. Polls show that most Americans agree with Numbersusa's positions but, despite our recent rapid growth, most of these folks still have never heard of us. You can help change that by forwarding this email. (Note: depending on your email provider, you may need to send this as an "attachment.")
