From September 7, 2007

Amnesty Alert on Labor Day

Numbers USA has sent out an email notice about renewed efforts in Congress to pass an amnesty bill for at least some of the millions of illegals in the country. If you're not a member of Numbers USA, read the article, join up and start faxing (for free!) your Congressional representatives.

The open-borders assault on American workers and taxpayers will resume this week when Congress returns.

Since your victory over the Comprehensive Amnesty in the Senate in June, the pro-amnesty forces have been planning and mounting their new assault.

Their own communications with their members and their comments to the media outline their plan. They will forego attempting an amnesty for the minimum of 12 million total illegal aliens. Instead, they will seek an amnesty for 1.5 million illegal farmworkers (which will also result in a few more millions of their close relatives being allowed to be amnestied or invited right away).

House Amnesty Bill to Head to Sub-Committee

Congressman Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and his STRIVE Bill are set to head to committee for discussion. This bill, not easy to synthesize into a paragraph or two, weighs in at over six hundred pages. You can download it HERE but the bill has been described as "worse" than the Senate version. It's time to take action. Call your House Representatives and tell them to vote NO on HR 1645.

Judge Halts Illegal Immigrant Notices

According to the Associated Press, a federal judge has put a hold on the Social Security Administration's sending notices to employers about the potential penalties for hiring illegals:

The Social Security Administration has sent out "no-match" letters for more than two decades warning employers of discrepancies in the information the government has on their workers. Employers often brushed aside the letters, and the small fines that sometimes were incurred, as a cost of doing business.

But this year, those letters will be accompanied by notices from the Department of Homeland Security outlining strict new requirements for employers to resolve those discrepancies within 90 days or face fines or criminal prosecution, if they're deemed to have knowingly hired illegal immigrants.

The judge's ruling Friday temporarily prohibits the government from enforcing the new rules, which were scheduled to take effect Sept. 14.

Laura Keehner, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said the agency was disappointed but expects to prevail once the court hears its full arguments.

"We'll continue to uphold the law," Keehner said late Friday. "We'll continue our enforcement efforts, and we'll continue to discourage employers who flagrantly disregard immigration laws. There are consequences for those actions."

U.S. government lawyers argued that the Social Security Administration needed to start sending the letters next week because postponing the staggered mailings would overwhelm staffers with a flood of responses if they finally do go out all at once.

The GOP and Latino Evangelicals

The Dallas News has posted an opinion piece telling GOP leaders to, in essence, abandon the quest to end illegal immigration in the United States:

A note here for Mitt, Fred, Rudy and the gang:

You guys gunning for the GOP nomination really should pay attention to the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez and the many other Latino evangelicals who think like the California pastor. They are natural Republicans, but if your party keeps up its anti-immigrant rhetoric, you can forget them coming your way.

The same thing appears true for Republicans like Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who's up for re-election. Based on what I'm hearing, Latino evangelicals will sit out next year's election or go Democratic.

Mr. Rodriguez presides over the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, which is the sister of the prominent National Association of Evangelicals. He is plugged in enough to participate in weekly White House conference calls.