The Department of Homeland Security set a new record for illegal alien deportations in fiscal year 2010, removing nearly 400,000 illegal aliens. About half, 195,000, were convicted criminals, which amounts to a 70 percent increase from 2008, but the Administration continues to ignore the millions of illegal aliens who hold jobs in the United States.
Immigration has taken center stage in the California governor’s race with fuzzy facts regarding Meg Whitman and an illegal alien former maid, Nicandra Santillan a.k.a. Nicandra Diaz (Nicky), depending on which of her falsified documents you look at.
Mexico, which often criticizes the American government for putting up barriers which restrict the flow of illegal immigrants across the U.S. - Mexico border is building a fence of its own along its southern border with Guatemala.
A new organization, The Texas Alliance for America Legal Defense & Education Fund has been formed to educate Texans on large-scale immigration.
Your NumbersUSA team has gone to great effort to produce an updated video that matches the professionalism, the integrity and the persuasiveness of the original. We're trying to push the views up quickly enough to land the video on some most-watched lists to greatly expand and broaden the audience which desperately needs to see this perspective about international humanitarianism and immigration.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) has introduced a mass amnesty bill in the Senate just before the chamber adjourns for its pre-election recess. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2010 (S.3932) contains just one original cosponsor, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).
Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) is offering a new border security bill that would send 10,000 National Guard troops to the border. The bill would require the President to send the troops if a border governor requests them instead of leaving the decision to the President's discretion.
With control of Congress in jeopardy, Senate Democratic Leaders are preparing to push 20 pieces of legislation to the floor for a vote during the lame-duck session that would start after the November elections. The DREAM Act, authored by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, has been identified by The Hill, a Capitol Hill publication, as one of the 20 pieces of legislation.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) is hitting the campaign trail for Majority Leader Harry Reid this week, and the House's leading Amnesty supporter is hoping Reid brings the DREAM Act to the Senate floor for a vote before the end of the year.
Comedy Central Comedian Stephen Colbert testified before the House Immigration Subcommittee on Friday morning on behalf of illegal migrant workers. While Colbert and two other pro-Amnesty panelists presented a sympathetic case for legalization of illegal migrant workers, their testimony also exposed the major flaws with the AgJOBS Amnesty proposal.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said that he will bring the DREAM Act to the Senate floor so it will be ready for a vote as a stand alone bill or as an amendment to another bill. Majority Leader Harry Reid was prepared to add the Amnesty for illegal aliens who serve in the military or attend college to the Defense Authorization bill, but a filibuster stalled the bill on Tuesday.
A cloture motion to begin debate of the Defense Authorization bill (S.3454) was defeated in the Senate today, 43-to-56. Majority Leader Harry Reid planned to attach the Dream Act Amnesty to the bill as an amendment. The vote went along party lines with three Democrats voting against cloture, including Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) who is the lead sponsor of the SAVE Act.
Sen. George Voinovoich (R-Ohio) said he'll oppose Tuesday's vote to proceed with the Defense Authorization bill if the Dream Act is offered as an amendment to the bill. Sen. Voinovoich opposed Dream in 2007, but did vote in favor of the mass amnesty bill.
Sen. George LeMieux (R-Fla.) said on the Senate floor that he would oppose the Dream Act without measures to secure the border. During floor debate leading to Tuesday's vote on whether or not to proceed with the Defense Authorization bill, Sen. LeMieux said he would oppose the motion to proceed unless the Senate Leadership agreed to allow amendments.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said on Tuesday morning that she will oppose a cloture motion that would begin debate on the Defense Authorization bill unless Majority Leader Harry Reid is willing to open up the debate of the bill. Reid has said he will only allow votes on three amendments, including the Dream Act Amnesty, should a motion to begin debate obtain the 60 needed votes Tuesday afternoon.
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said in a released statement that she will likely oppose cloture of the Defense Authorization bill when it comes to the Senate floor on Tuesday afternoon under its current form. Sen. Snowe has crossed party lines a number of times during the 111th Congress, and she's been a fence-sitter when it comes to Dream and the Defense bill, but she said that she can't support the bill if Majority Leader Reid only allows three amendments.
SENATE SWITCHBOARD -- 202-224-3121
Friends, we don't yet have the 41 sure NO votes that we must have to stop the DREAM Act amnesty in the Senate next week.
Scroll down to see the lists of the top phoning targets today. And don't put off your calls. They are desperately needed today.
Pro-amnesty forces claim that their super-expensive, special toll-free telephone system processed 5,000 pro-amnesty phone calls to Senators yesterday.
Senator David Vitter criticized the details of the DREAM Act on the floor of the United States Senate after Majority Leader's Reid announcement to try and hold a vote on the bill.
Several Senators have come out and expressed their opposition to Harry Reid's decision to amend the Dept. of Defense Authorization bill with the DREAM Act Amnesty. Sen. Reid is hoping to bring the Amnesty bill up for a floor vote early next week, but he'll need at least 60 votes for passage.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who cosponsored the 2007 mass amnesty bill, says he will block the Defense Authorization bill if the DREAM Act is attached to it. McCain says Sen. Reid's announcement that he'll try and bring the amnesty bill up for a vote is nothing more than a political move by a candidate in a tough re-election race.
A vote that would begin debate on the Defense Authorization bill will be at 2:30 p.m. today. The Dream Act Amnesty will either be part of this bill or included as an amendment. CALL YOUR SENATORS NOW and urge them to oppose the DREAM Act! The number for the Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121. Just ask for your Senator's office and tell them to VOTE NO on any vote that includes the DREAM Act. So far, Sens. Snowe (R-Maine), Collins (R-Maine), and LeMieux (R-Fla.) have said they won't vote for cloture unless the floor debate will be open to all amendments. Read Roy's blog for further analysis on the DREAM Act, and check your Action Board for a new fax to send to your two Senators.
There are a number of reports indicating that Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) will offer a mass amnesty bill in the Senate before the end of the month. The reports come just a day after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he will try to add the DREAM Act Amnesty to the Dept. of Defense Authorization bill expected to reach the Senate floor in the next few weeks.
Currently we are being beat by anti-immigrants 10 calls to 1. That means for every 1 call you make in support 10 people are calling against the DREAM Act.
-- Pro-Amnesty Group's Alert From Last Night
HERE ARE TOP SENATE TARGETS
Friends, we need your phone calls and faxes immediately to counter a gigantic nationwide amnesty push that began a few hours ago.
The Senate is being bombarded with demands today that it pass the DREAM Act amnesty during the next three weeks before Congress adjourns for final campaigning.
It now is possible that there could be an amnesty vote as early as next week!
ACTION 1: Send free faxes to your 3 Members of Congress. They are posted on your Action Board at www.numbersusa.com/actionbuffet.
It's now official, Sen. Harry Reid will try to add the DREAM Act to the Department of Defense Authorization bill when it comes to the Senate floor over the next few weeks. Sen. Reid acknowledges that "comprehensive immigration reform" with a mass amnesty is impossible, but he believes he can garner enough bi-partisan support to pass an amnesty for illegal alien high school students and graduates.
A new poll from Quinnipiac University reveals that the overwhelming majority of Americans believe immigration reform should focus on stricter enforcement over amnesty, while a plurality of Americans support ending the practice of birthright citizenship.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked an illegal immigration enforcement law passed by Hazleton, Pa. that would have prevented companies that hire illegal aliens from obtaining a business license and fined landlords who rent to illegal aliens. The ordinance was passed four years ago and inspired similar legislation across the country.
Rep. Bobby Bright (D-Ala.) detailed the need for passing the bi-partisan SAVE Act at a Town Hall Meeting over Labor Day weekend. Rep. Bright is one of the 117 total sponsors of the pro-Attrition through Enforcement legislation offered by Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) that would mandate E-Verify nationwide and increase resources for border and interior security.
According to a new report issued by the Pew Hispanic Center, the annual number of illegal aliens entering the United States has dropped from 850,000 at the beginning for the decade to 300,000 at the end of the decade. The drop proves that the federal government does not need to rely on mass deportations, but simply remove the magnets that lure illegal aliens to the country.
In a major policy shift, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has issued new guidelines regarding the prosecution of deportation cases: if an illegal alien is not a convicted criminal or terrorist threat, the case should be dropped.
The Border Patrol's increased efforts along the U.S. - Mexico land border are forcing more and more would-be illegal aliens to sea in their efforts to come to the United States
Illegal alien visa overstayers in New Zealand are increasingly deciding to turn themselves in because they find life "unbearable"
Two Texas bridges, or "grade control structures" as the International Boundary and Water Commission likes to call them, that cross the Rio Grande are unguarded and allow for easy illegal immigration into the United States
I've been with NumbersUSA for all of our 14 years. One of my jobs is to send regular emails summarizing the latest on our political struggle, while also asking members to donate.
(Thanks for reading my letters and helping with the funding. This entire website, including our faxing capability and Congressional gradecards, is supported by small donations from you members.)
I write these letters to members, and thousands of you write me back. One thing I've noticed: Giving automatic U.S. citizenship to children of illegal immigrants and tourists, the so-called "birthright citizenship," seems to mortify members more than any other issue. It just seems unjust.
With the exception of a quick special session by both the House and Senate to approve a $600 million supplemental spending bill to be used for border security, the month of August is typically used by Members of Congress to return to their home districts and reconnect with their constituents through Town Hall meetings. This August, Democrats and Republicans are facing questions from citizens in their district on the issue of immigration.
Hundreds of supporters attend a rally this weekend supporting for an ordinance passed by the Farmers Branch City Council that prohibits landlords from renting to illegal aliens. The ordinance passed in 2006, but the city has been battling the legality of the ordinance in federal courts ever since.
Over the past two weeks, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have called their respective chambers back to Washington from the summer recess to pass a $600 million border-spending bill. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano decreed the border secure with the supplemental funding, but a new video released by the Center for Immigration Studies shows quite a different reality.
Federal officials routinely assure the public that they are gaining control over the Arizona border. Despite these assurances, "Gaming the Border: a Report from Cochise County, Arizona" and produced by the Center for Immigration Studies, shows why the border there remains porous, as illegal immigrants avoid the Border Patrol and walk around checkpoints on highways north of the border.
A new Gallup Poll reveals that only 29% of Americans approve of Pres. Obama's handling of the immigration issue. Sixty-two percent of Americans disapprove of the President's handling of the issue.
