Last Year the Public Forced Congress to Drop Amnesty:  Let’s Get Congress to Fix Illegal Immigration This Year

The Situation

Public opinion polls show that the American public has reached a tipping point over the illegal immigration crisis. The overwhelming majority of Americans believes that the present extent of illegal immigration into the United States is unacceptable and that our government must fix it.

Under our Constitution, Congress is the key to fixing illegal immigration. Nevertheless, Congress is keeping a low profile on immigration in this election year. One anti-illegal immigration bill was introduced late in 2007, H.R. 4088, the SAVE Act, which has managed to garner 134 co-sponsors in the House.

The problem with H.R. 4088 is that it is only a partial solution. It focuses on employer verification of the immigration status of prospective employees, but ignores other aspects of the problem that must be addressed.

Since the federal government has allowed the illegal immigration problem to grow for several decades now, it’s going to take more than a partial solution like H.R. 4088 to regain the trust of U.S. voters.

What we need is broad-based legislation in accordance with the Constitution that addresses several important aspects of the illegal immigration problem.

 What Congress Must Do

We need Congress to honor its oath of office to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" by passing the necessary and appropriate legislation to fix the illegal immigration crisis by:

1. securing our national borders,
2. stopping illegal immigration, including ending the economic incentives for illegal immigration,
3. strictly enforcing all existing immigration laws,
4. ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants,
5. rejecting any form of amnesty for illegal immigrants,
6. placing a moratorium on temporary worker and guest worker legislation until illegal immigration has been brought under control, and
7. defunding, dismantling, or repealing any government program or agreement, such as the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), that would lead to the creation of an open borders North American Union (NAU).

Our Strategy

We have a two-pronged strategy for creating sufficient pressure on Congress to fix illegal immigration by adopting legislation based on the above seven provisions:

• Getting a model anti-illegal immigration resolution ('A Petition to Congress to Fix the Illegal Immigration Crisis") based on the above provisions introduced and passed by a large number of state legislatures;
• Getting large numbers of Americans to contact their senators and representatives in Congress in support of legislation based on the above provisions.

What You Can Do

Help Get Congress to Fix Illegal Immigration Now by:

• Working with state legislators to get our model anti-illegal immigration resolution ("A Petition to Congress to Fix the Illegal Immigration Crisis") introduced and passed in your state legislature (See http://www.JBS.org/freedom for tools to do this; our members and allies got our model anti-NAU resolution introduced in twenty states in 2007 with passage by both houses in three states and by one house in two states.);
• Contacting your senators and representative in Congress in support of anti-illegal immigration legislation based on the above seven provisions;
• Joining or organizing a JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup Group to work more effectively with others in your local area and state on creating sufficient pressure on Congress to fix illegal immigration (Go to http://www.meetupalliance.com/jbs and take a look at our progress in organizing our national JBS.org Freedom Campaign Meetup Alliance.); and
• Working with other citizens to make the responsibility of Congress to fix illegal immigration along the lines discussed above a campaign issue in 2008 for senators and representatives in Congress as well as state legislators.

Now More Than Ever, Congress Must Fix the Illegal Immigration Crisis

In his last State of the Union address on January 28, President Bush appeared still to be promoting amnesty and guest worker programs, as if blissfully unaware of the firestorm of opposition from the American public that doomed the Bush-Kennedy amnesty bill in 2007. In the speech, the President said:

Yet we also need to acknowledge that we will never fully secure our border until we create a lawful way for foreign workers to come here and support our economy.

Nonetheless, American public opinion is overwhelmingly against illegal immigration and amnesty and for a government solution to illegal immigration. In this case, both majority opinion and constitutional principles require that Congress must fix the illegal immigration crisis.

The problems of illegal immigration, amnesty, and open borders schemes are not going to go away by themselves. To ensure that Congress does fix illegal immigration and related border problems, we need to make the responsibility of Congress to fix illegal immigration in accordance with the Constitution a top priority issue in state legislatures in 2008 (if too late for action in the 2008 session, start preparing for 2009) and a top campaign issue this election year for senators and representatives in the U.S. Congress as well as state legislators.