Posted on 11/19/2003 8:45:07 PM PST by Klickitat
We won!!!!!
S.1685 just passed the U.S. House of Representatives. (The Senate passed it last week.)
The expansion of the workplace verification program from 5 to 50 states is a wonderful step forward in the battle against illegal immigration and for the protection of American workers, their jobs and their wages.
The bill now goes to President Bush for his signature. He has yet to veto a single bill; we can't imagine that this could be his first.
Those of you who are registered in the NumbersUSA Action Network for "Total Activism" have gotten alert after alert on this bill for the last two months. All of you probably remember that in the beginning passage of this bill was an extreme longshot. Only the incredible efforts of all you citizen volunteers made this possible, I can assure you.
[Read more about this bill and the issues it addresses at: http://www.numbersusa.com/hottopic/workplaceverification.htm]
====================================================== WHAT WILL CHANGE?
======================================================
Nothing moves fast. But by December of 2004 (a year from now), every business in America will have a nearly sure-fire way to verify if a new employee is an illegal alien or has the right to work in America.
Most importantly, no business in America will have an excuse for hiring illegals.
As of today, the job of trying to figure out if the ID shown by a new employee is a counterfeit or not is just daunting. That is sometimes a legitimate excuse and sometimes a smokescreen for why so many businesses have illegal aliens working for them. But with the new system, businesses merely have to phone or type through the name, Social Security number or alien ID (for legal alien workers) of the person just hired. The feds then report back within a few days if there is something that doesn't match. This catches invented SS numbers, mismatches between SS number and name, etc. If the new employee can't clear up the discepancy, he/she is to be fired.
But the program is voluntary. The rotten, exploitative, unpatriotic businesses will still tend to keep the illegals or just not participate in the verification system. But polls show -- and our experience indicates -- that most business owners and managers don't really want to hire illegals, especially if they think their competitors aren't hiring them.
Basically, we believe every patriotic, community-loving, legitimate business in America will start using this system. Not using the system will be proof that an enterprise is a shady business.
Once this system is in place, we will be working with others to help citizens find out which businesses in their community are the shady ones not using the verification system so they can shine the public spotlight of shame on them. There is a lot of pressure that folks can put on businesses once everyone has a chance to participate in the system. I can imagine coming up with posters and stickers to attach to business windows, doors, signs, etc. that identify them as an "illegal-alien-friendly business" etc.
Furthermore, once legitimate businesses with half-way decent jobs no longer are available for illegal aliens, there simply won't be enough work to keep 10 million illegal aliens and their families in operation. There is a good chance that the institution of this nationwide system a year from now will lead to at least a slow attrition of illegal aliens voluntarily returning home. However, the effect will be much broader if combined with the full implementation of the visa-tracking bill passed last year and with passage of the CLEAR Act next year.
No one action will resolve the illegal immigration problem. We have to take strong steps forward in incremental fashion. The victory today is one of those very important steps.
====================================================== WHAT HAPPENED TODAY
======================================================
The U.S. House considered S. 1685 on the Suspension Calendar (which allows for expedited handling without amendments when time is short and agendas are crowded). This requires not a simple majority to pass but a two-thirds super majority.
When our allies tried to pass the House version (H.R. 2359)the end of October, it got a strong majority (231-170) but not two-thirds.
Today, however, that same House passed the bill on voice vote. That is, there wasn't enough opposition to even call for a roll-call vote!
In October, the House Democratic leadership sent letters around warning of terrible civil rights violations against American workers and of setting up a national ID card system. They were able to persuade all but 24 Democrats to vote against the verification expansion.
Yet, today, there was Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) as the ranking Democrat on the House immigration panel speaking on the floor and supporting the bill!!
What changed? Well, all of you have been pounding all the Democrats who voted against the bill last month, accusing them of siding with illegal workers and against American workers. You let them know that you are watching. You all also pounded Senate Judiciary Members, urging that the bill move through that committee. That laid important background pressure for our Capitol Hill team to work with Senate staffers to encourage and support work between the parties. In the end, Sen. Kennedy, the ranking Democrat on the Senate immigration panel, backed the bill in exchange for a couple of changes. We still can't quite figure out why he did this except that he has a history of being protective of American workers when direct threats are involved.
The changes that Kennedy requested are minor. One simply requires a government study of the 50-state system as it is being put in place next year. The other keeps state and federal government agencies out of the verification system and requires them to continue using a separate system that already is in place. Although it would have been tidier to have had all the verification in one place, our Capitol Hill team doesn't believe this will result in any more illegal aliens being hired by governments since they already have to verify.
====================================================== WHY TODAY IS SUCH A MILESTONE
======================================================
After the passage of several improvements in tackling illegal immigration in 1996, not one single positive piece of legislation that would reduce overall legal/illegal immigration numbers was passed 1997-2001.
Our side and our allies defeated a lot of bad legislation, but we couldn't get any improvements through.
Then in 2002, we won big with passage of the visa-tracking bill that primarily will reduce the number of legal tourists and students who overstay their visas and become illegal aliens.
Now in 2003, we have won again by providing the means to remove the majority of America's jobs (after next year) from the reach of all illegal alien workers.
Two important steps in two years. We wish they were much larger steps and that there were more steps, but this is the right direction.
Congress may stay in session another two or three weeks, so we are still in danger of bad things getting through. At this point, though, we have won the two steps forward while totally blocking all amnesties since 2000.
These turning-point victories were possible only because of a constant barrage of citizen pressure on all kinds of immigration issues. And to our movement's highly skilled professionals working on Capitol Hill to "make the sale."
For 8 years, the giant Washington business lobbies fought to prevent a national workplace verification program. There is no indication that the majority of their business members actually opposed the verification. This is just the way that high-priced Washington lobbyists justify their existence. In addition, the Washington leaders of most trade groups tend to be of a much more extreme ideologically1 than their members across the country.
Nonetheless, all of you in all of the citizen action networks have this fall finally beaten the Washington business lobby. That is a spectacular accomplishment. Congratulations. You've also beaten the almost as gigantic leftist-illegal-alien lobby of myriad groups sponsored by the Ford Foundation. You have made this a sad day indeed for these unceasing advocates of illegal immigration. Enjoy and savor.
-- ROY
WOW. That means Democrats will have no excuse not to work! Imagine the social programs we could get rid of then!
Sign it Bush. Let's move this baby.
Some people beg to be yoked by government.
Your pessimism notwithstanding, those of us who have responded to all of USA Numbers alerts are delighted with the outcome and realize we as citizens have some weapons if we'll exercise them.I, for example, am housed next door to two families of Mexicans who recently moved into the neighborhood (where I've lived for 12 years). Each family has multiple vehicles in the driveway--some brand-new trucks; the wives stay home instead of working out of the home; sometimes as many as twenty other Mexicans sit on the lawn drinking beer and throwing beer caps and cigarette butts all over the cul de sac they spill over onto.
I have written letters to my congressman and, more importantly, to the Criminal Investigation Unit in Austin, Texas, asking whether the families AND the employers (names on two of the trucks) pay income taxes. My ZIP code alone should indicate to the IRS that the occupants are at least making a hefty salary to afford the houses they live in--and it can go after the employment records of the plumbing company that hired them.
Long shot? Sure, but worth my time. It's worth the time of people in the majority of the states, too, to pay attention to the increased density of living in general when illegal occupants move into America in large numbers--to increased strain on all resources, from roads to schools to hospitals.
If you or anyone on this forum suspect an employer of hiring illegals, it is your public duty to report the suspicious activity.
Best wishes,
Penny
It's even worse than that. Some people insist on forging their own chains, and then wrapping themselves in those chains and hammering the links into place.
It's pretty pathetic to watch people "voluntarily" surrendering their liberty to intrusive government edicts.
Best to you,
Penny
"It's even worse than that. Some people insist on forging their own chains, and then wrapping themselves in those chains and hammering the links into place."
"It's pretty pathetic to watch people "voluntarily" surrendering their liberty to intrusive government edicts."
I don't see what you are both talking about. We already have a system in place in this country that requires employers to check ID. I don't know how long it's been since either of you got a new job, but I know that for at least the last 15 years, every new job I was required to show a social security card and valid identification before being hired, and that this was government mandated.
This program merely provides a database that employers can reference, not new laws about requiring identification. Far as I can tell that's it. The only people who would not benefit from this would be those who are trying to hide their identity, or people who've stolen someone elses identity, both categories could include illegal aliens or other criminals.
Also if you read the article it is the people who would come up with a way to let others know which businesses weren't in compliance. Not the government. And it would be the people, not the government, who boycotted those businesses.
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