From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA Date: Sunday 17FEB08 4 p.m. EST Congress needs to hear from you this week -- Stop the increases in foreign workers & amnesty DEAR FRIENDS, Just when you think the Big Business Lobbyists can't be any more callous ... At the same time as reports that we may be in an economic recession and that the job market is getting more and more difficult for Americans, the magazines, newspapers and airwaves are filled with op-eds, editorials and articles quoting the business leaders and lobbyists saying we must import more foreign workers! Both the Democratic and Republican leadership of U.S. House and Senate are right now conspiring to bring legislation to the floor to greatly expand the pool of foreign labor in this country -- even as they talk about the need for taxpayers to provide more unemployment compensation for all the Americans who are losing their jobs. This kind of insanity is nothing new. And it will never slow down unless we as a Lobby of the People mobilize in massive fashion to put an end to it. Please go to your NumbersUSA Action Buffet corkboard and make sure you have taken all the actions we have provided you to stand up against this latest effort of the Big Business Lobby to depress wages and foist major new subsidies upon the taxpayers. I have been working full-time on these immigration issues since 1991. The Big Business Lobby and its well-compensated friends in Congress always use every upturn in the economy to cry for more foreign labor because of perceived shortages. But they never change their tune when the economy turns down. In every period of rising unemployment, the Big Business Lobby continues to cry about terrible worker shortages and always brings in hundreds of thousands of foreign workers during recessions. Your NumbersUSA Capitol Hill Team has talked to a number of people who have been in high level Hill meetings where leaders of both Parties have expressed a desire during this time of economic turmoil to sneak through giant increases of H-1B visas for foreign tech workers, H-2B visas for foreign laborers, greencards for permanent foreign nurses and a five-year visa for 12-20 million illegal foreign workers and their dependents. Friends, I know that all of this may seem too crazy to be true. But please believe me that that the worse our country's economic situation, the more your congressional leaders see a chance to give their corporate sponsors the huge foreign labor increases that the People's Lobby has been blocking the last several years. Send your faxes immediately. Remember that Monday is a federal holiday. Wait to make your phone calls until Tuesday. Congressional leaders hope you will be so busy worrying about your own jobs that you won't notice them giving away millions more through immigration increases. THANKS,
More H-1b, imagine that Five-year Amnesty Bill Under Discussion Some House Democrats are having behind-the-scenes discussions about creating a special visa for illegal aliens they believe will enjoy considerable Republican support. Under the plan, illegal aliens who can prove they have jobs and pass a criminal background check will receive the gift of legal status for 5 years. The plan is designed to attract pro-business Republicans and those who backed the McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill by also increasing the number of visas issued for technical, temporary and agricultural workers. Their plan appears to be to create a bi-partisan alternative to the bi-partisan SAVE Act (Secure America with Verification Enforcement), which focuses on reducing illegal immigration instead of rewarding it. Rep. Heath Shulerâs (D-N.C.) SAVE Act now has 144 bipartisan signers in the House and Senate. The SAVE Act will require all employers to use the electronic verification system to keep illegal aliens out of U.S. jobs. The number of jobless Americans without a high school degree increased by 2 million between 2000 and 2005. During that same time, Congress imported 1.5 million immigrants without high school degrees. Not surprisingly, wages for 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. NumbersUSA believes that this legislation is just the vehicle to give us a chance to actually pass immigration legislation through a Democratic-controlled Congress that could significantly improve the lives of most Americans. "It's the one [immigration] bill that will pass this Congress," said Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus Chairman Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) in an interview with The Hill. "We have to make this about illegal employment and crack down on employers." http://www.numbersusa.com/index
Why is NumbersUSA backing a plan to give illegals a 5 year amnesty? You know damn well that 5 years will turn into permanent and becoming citizens. What happens when they leave their job? Do they get deported? Can they use that 5 year visa to get another job? Frankly, I don't trust any plan that any of our leaders will back. If Tom Tancredo says it is ok, then I'm ok with it. Otherwise, no.
I'm beginning to think local solutions are working better. A number of cities have enacted laws that put pressure on employers or landlords to get rid of illegals.
it's a poorly worded article Numbersusa is for the save act, which is enforcement only, but they are concerned that others are putting forth an alternative to the save act that is an amnesty, which they are against