A large coalition of common sense immigration reform organizations and former administration officials have signed a letter to congressional leaders warning them of an "immediate [amnesty] danger posed by the lame-duck session of Congress that is now underway" and urging them to "take all actions necessary" to block it.
Groups including NumbersUSA, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the Heritage Foundation, Texas Public Policy Foundation and the America First Policy Institute have all signed onto the letter sounding the alarm about a Democratic push to get an amnesty for illegal immigrants passed in the final days of the current Congress.
"Even though power is about to change hands in one chamber, various media outlets report there will be attempts to push damaging immigration legislation such as a mass amnesty and increased immigration through Congress over the next few weeks," they say.
Included in the letter's signers were several former executive administration officials like former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Christopher Landau, former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, former acting ICE Director Tom Homan, former Customs and Border Protection Chief Mark Morgan, include former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought, and former deputy DHS Secretary Ken Cuccinelli.
The letter is in response to both the White House's and Congressional Democrats' last-ditch effort to pass a massive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, something many Democrats promised during the 2020 election but have failed to follow through with due to a lack of votes and reasonable opposition. Efforts have increased since Republicans clinched the midterm elections to retake the House of Representatives in the 118th Congress.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), one of the most prominent supporters of amnesties for illegal aliens, stated at a press conference that time was running out to 'protect' aliens covered by the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA. The Senator added:
We know that it's important in December, that we pass the DREAM Act — December of this year when we return from Thanksgiving — because if the House moves, as we think it might politically, it becomes increasingly difficult after the first of the year to take up this issue. We need to do it now and to do it we need bipartisan support in the Senate.
Sen. Durbin claimed that there were four or five Republicans who would support the disastrous lame-duck amnesty but admitted that Democrats need "10 Republicans who will step up and join us in this effort" to overcome an almost inevitable filibuster.
Durbin's bipartisan hopes may have been hurt by a recent statement by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who called the dream act a "short-term goal," adding that "the ultimate goal is much broader, but that could wait for the next Senate," reports Fox News. In addition, Schumer gave the following sinister statement:
We have a population that is not reproducing on its own with the same level that it used to. The only way we're going to have a great future in America is if we welcome and embrace immigrants, the dreamers and all of them, because our ultimate goal is to help the dreamers, but get a path to citizenship for all 11 million or however many undocumented there are here. And we will be pursuing that in the next Senate.
The immigration reduction organizations' letter cited recent polling that showed over 60% of midterm voters "wanted Congress to focus on securing the border and enforcing immigration law, while less than 10% believe a pathway to citizenship should be at the top of the agenda."
The signers of the letter concluded:
We therefore ask that you take all actions necessary to stop these efforts.
We urge you to show the American people that you stand with them by rejecting special interest legislation and instead taking immediate steps to reverse this crisis and restore law and order to our immigration system.
You can read the complete letter below.
12.1 Immigration Hawks Writ... by Fox News
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), head of the Republican Study Committee, agreed with the signers' sentiment, stating the GOP must "do everything we can to block amnesty."
The House Minority Leader and Possible Speaker of the 218th House, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), appeared to agree in a recent series of interviews with Fox News where he called for the impeachment of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, called amnesty for illegal aliens a "non-starter," and reiterated the premise with the simple declaration - "No Amnesty."
You can read the complete story here.