RSS1 more SAVE signer
Carolyn Hileman - The Voice | May 5, 2008
From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA
Date: Sunday 4MAY08 11:30 p.m. EDT
One more Congressman signed SAVE petition — only 31 to go to victory in U.S. House
DEAR FRIENDS,
Send your congratulations to all of our NumbersUSA faxer/phoners in Idaho:
After all the phone calls and faxes in last week’s surge effort, the hold-out Rep. Bill Sali (R-Idaho) has signed the Discharge Petition to force a House floor vote on the SAVE Act (H.R. 4088).
(Look at the petition list as well as details about the Save Act.)
The freshman was one of only a few Republicans who still had not signed. The states of Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming and Delaware (with small delegations) now have no Representative who has NOT signed the Discharge Petition. Congrats to all of you from those states.
It will take 218 signatures to go around Speaker of the House Pelosi (D-Calif.) who thus far has refused to allow a vote unless an amnesty is attached to the bill.
The fact that we are up to 187 signatures is really quite phenomenal. Now, it is mop up time in which we have to fight for every new petition signer.
CONGRESSMEN SAY THEY AREN’T GETTING ENOUGH PRESSURE FROM VOTERS
There are well more than 31 U.S. Representatives who tell our NumbersUSA lobbyists that they would vote for SAVE if it comes to the floor — but they won’t sign the Discharge Petition that would force the vote.
The main reasons these Members of the House aren’t signing the petition?
Some Democratic Representatives indicate they really want to sign the petition but they are nervous about how the House’s Democratic leadership would respond to their going against the leadership’s opposition to passing SAVE and taking jobs away from illegal workers. These Members are asking for a lot more pressure from their constituents so they can tell Speaker Pelosi that they had no choice but sign the petition.
Quite a number of other Democrats say they likely will vote for SAVE if forced to vote but oppose the idea of going around Speaker Pelosi. They say they have no interest in signing the Discharge Petition because they are hearing from so few of their constituents that they want the petition signed.
Some of the remaining Republican Representatives not on the petition are getting much pressure from business lobbyists NOT to sign. They say the only way they would defy the business lobbyists by signing the petition is if they hear from a lot more constituents than they’ve been hearing from.
We will be sending most of you very specific instructions on what we desperately need you to do in your part of the country to keep the pressure on passing SAVE (led by Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., and Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif.).
But for Monday, please do this:
1. Take any actions shown on your Action Buffet corkboard.
2. Look on the list of Discharge Petition signatures to see if your own U.S. Representative is shown there. If not, phone his/her office and make a quick case for signing the petition.
If your Representative has signed but another Representative in your part of the state has not, consider phoning his/her office.
CONGRESSIONAL SWITCHBOARD: 202-224-3121
We cannot let up now. As you can see in the New York Times article below, I commented on last week’s pro-amnesty marchers as pushing for amnesty to reward illegal aliens so they can STAY, while most Americans want more enforcement that causes illegal aliens to LEAVE.
That is what the SAVE Act would do. That is the reason why Speaker Pelosi and her fellow House leaders do not want to risk a vote on it.
But large numbers of her Democratic Members would like to vote if they just get enough pressure from voters back home. Let’s give it to them.
THANKS FOR STARTING OFF THE WEEK WITH A PUSH FOR THE SAVE ACT,
NEW YORK TIMES
May 2, 2008
Crowds Are Smaller at Protests by Immigrants
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
LOS ANGELES Thousands of immigrants and their supporters marched in several cities on Thursday to demand civil rights at a time when crackdowns against illegal immigrants are rising.
The May Day demonstrations were significantly smaller than in previous years, and gone were calls for a nationwide boycott of businesses and work, as protest leaders had urged last year. The Spanish-language D.J.s who had heavily promoted previous marches stuck largely to their regular programming. And disagreements among advocates over the best approach to winning legal status for illegal immigrants had diminished organizing firepower, with many groups turning their attention to voter registration and citizenship drives.
In many cities, including New York, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles, crowds were a small fraction of those in previous years, with few people outside protest areas even aware that marches were under way.
Some supporters said they had lost a rallying cry in the stalled effort in Congress to revamp immigration law. At the same time, with the government stepping up border and immigration enforcement, a cloud of fear has settled over immigrants who were worried that the rallies would lead to more sweeps.
Milwaukee had one of the more robust turnouts, with thousands of people gathering, as they did last year. Protesters called on the presidential candidates, each of whom has supported Congressional efforts to allow a way for certain illegal immigrants to gain legal status, to make immigration issues a priority.
We want a commitment from the three presidential candidates to pass humane immigration reform in the first 100 days in office, said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, director of Voces de la Frontera, the main organization behind the Milwaukee march.
In Los Angeles, where riot police officers beat and shoved demonstrators and journalists last year, some marchers were concerned about trouble, though across the nation the marches were largely peaceful.
Today the police didnt bring their batons, Jorge Reyes called out in Spanish from a truck in downtown Los Angeles. Today they came in peace to help us legalize the 12 million immigrants in this country.
Messages on T-shirts and signs and protest leaders with bullhorns demanded an end to immigration raids that have led to an increasing number of deportations. The United States deported 280,000 people last year, a 44 percent increase over the previous year.
Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, who has called on the Department of Homeland Security to halt most workplace raids, joined business and labor leaders on Wednesday to announce the results of a study that found the raids harmful to the economy. The study said 50 percent or more of workers in some local industries were in the country illegally, and it projected great harm to the region if businesses closed or moved because of the immigration sweeps.
Supporters of tighter controls on immigration said the rallies had done little but energize their backers. Leaders of NumbersUSA, one of the larger groups advocating a clampdown on illegal immigration, urged its members to call members of Congress and use the rallies to help make their case.
The marchers say suspend the rule of law and reward illegality, said Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, which says its membership has swelled to more than 600,000 from 112,000 three years ago.
Our callers say what your constituents really want is enforcement, Mr. Beck added. We want to take away the jobs magnet and basically create an inhospitable environment for immigration law breakers so more and more will decide to go home or not come.
Counterdemonstrators appeared at some rallies, including in Boston, where the police had to separate demonstrators who became embroiled in profanity-laced exchanges.
Though meager, the crowds were often festive and melded a variety of causes. A rally in Union Square Park in Manhattan drew several hundred people invoking socialism, police violence and Sept. 11 conspiracy theories, in addition to immigrant rights.
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2 Responses to “1 more SAVE signer”
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Look at the quote below. He should be easy to persuade.
“The big news of the day, however, was the upset win of State Representative Don Cazayoux (D) in the CD-6 special election. Cazayoux defeated former State Representative and newspaper publisher Woody Jenkins (R) by a 49% to 46% vote, with three Independents capturing the remainder. The CD-6 seat had been in GOP hands for over 30 years. Cazayoux — a self-proclaimed centrist “Blue Dog Democrat” — won despite a heavy barrage of Republicans TV ads and mailings trying to equate Cazayoux with “liberal” Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama/Jeremiah Wright and House Speaker “Nancy Pelosi and her San Francisco values.” The same NRCC message also failed to sway conservative voters in the Mississippi special election primary last month.”
One more thing. You can email the Blue Dog Caucus and ask them as a group to sign the discharge petition: BlueDog@mail.house.gov