an abridged version of an e-mail from Roy Beck of NumbersUSA that was sent out last week. (BTW, do you believe that our Congress proposes laws with infantile names like “Dream Act”?)
OPEN-BORDERS SENATORS PLAN END-RUN DREAM ACT AMNESTY
Friends, this is not a do-it-if-you-have-time request.
This is the most urgent kind of request for your action Friday—and again Monday.
In the middle of actions on Defense next week, the open-borders Senators [here is Senate web page with contact information] are going to attempt to attach three proposals that would give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens and dramatically increase the importation of additional foreign labor for American jobs.
Many of the Senators who helped us kill the Comprehensive Amnesty in June are indicating they are in favor of these preferences for illegal foreign workers and new foreign workers over American workers.
We must keep them from attaching the Dream Act Amnesty to the Department of Defense authorization bill.
And we also must keep them from taking hundreds of thousands of our high tech jobs from American students and middle-age American workers and giving them to foreign workers.
THE OPPOSITION PLANS TO BEAT US ON PHONE AND FAX THIS TIME
All summer since the media gave you credit for moving the Senate with your faxes and phone calls to kill the Comprehensive Amnesty bill, we have seen open borders groups telling their members that they would beat NumbersUSA at our own game this fall.
Some open borders groups said that they would be studying our NumbersUSA grassroots mobilization system carefully and would imitate it to generate more faxes and more phone calls FOR amnesty than we can AGAINST amnesty.
There have been reports of open-border billionaires so angry at the NumbersUSA success in June that they have pledged to provide enough money to the open-borders groups for them to generate more faxes and phone calls than our side.
Just one problem with all the bravura of the open-borders crowd: There are a whole lot more of us than them.
Thanks to the generosity of about 10% of you, we have the funds to pay for an avalanche of faxes over the next several days.
Please take the actions and forward this email to as many Americans as you know.
The opposition hopes that these three measures will seem so much smaller than the Comprehensive Amnesty that the American people will largely sit this one out.
Talking Points to Stop the DREAM ACT AMNESTY
The DREAM Act (Amendment 2237 to the Defense Authorization bill) is a nightmare. It is a massive amnesty that extends to the millions of illegal aliens who entered the United States before the age of 16.
There is no upper age limit. Any illegal alien can walk into a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office and declare that he is eligible. For example, a 45 year old can claim that he illegally entered the United States 30 years ago at the age of 15. There is no requirement that the alien prove that he entered the United States at the claimed time by providing particular documents. The DREAM Act’s Section 4(a) merely requires him to “demonstrate” that he is eligible-which in practice could mean simply making a sworn statement to that effect. Thus, it is an invitation for just about every illegal alien to fraudulently claim the amnesty.
The alien then has six years to adjust his status from a conditional green card holder to a non-conditional one. To do so, he need only complete two years of study at an institution of higher education, including any vocational school. If the alien has already completed two years of study, he can convert to non-conditional status immediately (and use his green card as a platform to sponsor parents and other family members). As an alternative to two years of study, he can enlist in the U.S. military for two years. This provision allows Senator Durbin to claim that the DREAM Act is somehow germane to the defense authorization bill.
An illegal alien who applies for the DREAM Act amnesty gets to count his years under “conditional” green card status toward the five years needed for citizenship. On top of that, the illegal alien could claim “retroactive benefits” and start the clock running the day that the DREAM Act is enacted. In combination, these two provisions put illegal aliens on a high-speed track to U.S. citizenship-moving from illegal alien to U.S. citizen in as little as five years. Lawfully present aliens, meanwhile, must follow a slower path to citizenship.
It would be absurdly easy for just about any illegal alien-even one who does not qualify for the amnesty-to evade the law. According to Section 4(f) of the DREAM Act, once an alien files an application-any application, no matter how ridiculous-the federal government is prohibited from deporting him. Moreover, with few exceptions, federal officers are prohibited from either using information from the application to deport the alien or sharing that information with another federal agency, under threat of up to $10,000 fine. Thus, an alien’s admission that he has violated federal immigration law cannot be used against him-even if he never had any chance of qualifying for the DREAM Act amnesty in the first place.
The DREAM Act also allows illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition rates at public universities, discriminating against U.S. citizens from out of state and law-abiding foreign students.
The DREAM Act also makes the illegal aliens eligible for federal student loans and federal work-study programs-another benefit that law-abiding foreign students cannot receive-all at taxpayer expense.
A consistent theme emerges: Illegal aliens are treated much more favorably than aliens who follow the law. There is no penalty for illegal behavior.
Talking Points to Prevent Attaching Provisions of the SKIL Act
Increase the annual cap for “temporary” nonimmigrant visas from 65,000 to 115,000. But that’s just the first year (after that, if the cap is met in any year, it can be further increased by 20 percent for the next year with a ceiling of 180,000 per year)
Establishes more exemptions from the cap, thus rendering the cap virtually meaningless (as it is, approximately two-thirds of all current H-1Bs have been exempted)
Instead of capturing “unused” EB visas (as claimed by proponents) from previous years, adds new EB visas by an amount coinciding with the number not issued in those years
As with the H-1B provisions described above, establishes additional exemptions to the annual EB visa cap that do nothing but make it easier for U.S. employers to import cheap labor rather than hiring American workers.
“Expedites” and “streamlines” the processing of millions of new applications (and requisite background checks) for “temporary” workers and for LPR status, which, to an agency (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services [USCIS) that has shown itself to be unable to adequately implement current immigration laws, is both untenable and reckless
Authorizes employers to propose a prevailing wage of their own choosing if the Labor Department is too swamped with labor certification applications to respond within 20 calendar days, thus allowing existing wage stagnation in high-tech fields to become further entrenched
Allows greater abuse of the L-1 “intracompany transferee/specialized knowledge” visa, which, unlike the H-1B, may be issued without numerical limitation and without the employer being required to pay the alien employee the prevailing wage, or meet other labor condition requirements, and they are valid for longer periods of time
Puts L-1 nonimmigrants in line for lawful permanent resident (LPR) status, which, for all intents and purposes, would make their employment permanent and would take yet more jobs away from U.S. workers
Expands eligibility for F student visas—shown to be an effective method for terrorist elements to lawfully enter, and then remain in, the United States—to aliens wanting to study in high-tech fields and, in concert with other high-tech-related provisions, affords them the opportunity to be “fast-tracked” toward LPR status and permanent placement in the job market as more cheap, foreign labor
Talking Points to Stop Expansion of Visas for Seasonal Workers
H-2B visas are for temporary or seasonal non-agricultural, unskilled workers. Employers who want to hire H-2B workers must obtain a labor certification from the Department of Labor (DoL) stating that qualified American workers are not available to fill the jobs. Unfortunately, the “certification” process is less certification and more rubber stamp, since DoL is not permitted even to verify the truthfulness of the information on petitions. If the employer filled in all the blanks, DoL approves the petition.
H-2B visas were created so that employers could fill temporary labor shortages until U.S. workers can be found. Employers of H-2Bs are required to look for American workers first, but the requirements for advertising job openings are minimal. At the least, employers should be required to post job openings on an internet-based system like DoL’s “America’s Job Bank.”
Since H-2B visas are renewable for up to three years and family members are allowed to accompany the workers, these visas often end up providing semi-permanent residency. After three years, the foreign worker and his family must go home for six months before returning for up to three more years.
The United States economy is not facing a shortage of unskilled workers; in fact, it has an oversupply
14 million Americans are unable to find full-time jobs in the current economy (Bureau of Labor Statistics—BLS);
The unemployment rate among the 12 million American adults who do not have a high school diploma is almost 9 percent (BLS);
An astonishing 40 percent of working-age African-American men are unemployed (BLS);
The percentage of 16- to 19-year-olds holding jobs in the United States is the lowest it has been since the government began tracking statistics in 1948 (Prof. Andrew Sum, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University).
At least 40 percent of the illegal-alien population came to the United States on a temporary visa, like the H-2B, and then overstayed after the visa expired. Congress should not even consider increasing the numbers of temporary visas until DHS has fully implemented an entry-exit system, based on biometric identifiers, to ensure that visa holders leave the United States when their visa expires. Otherwise, Congress will simply be facilitating illegal immigration.
Friends, the business lobbies have bought off most of the Democratic leadership that is in control of the Senate in order to radically increase the importation of foreign workers and keep American wages from rising.
Because Republican party leaders have traditionally been helpful to business lobbyists, we face incredible odds in trying to stop this triple threat next week.
We stopped an amnesty for all illegal aliens in June. But these actions next week not only will provide amnesty to several million of them but is designed to soften up the politics to pass other amnesties later this fall. We must overwhelm the Senate with our opposition starting Friday.