...... against reckless immigration-expansion attempts. The open-border provisions you fought this last week were kept out of federal virus rescue package.

Dear Friends,

Yesterday afternoon, the House passed the 2-Trillion-Dollar Virus Rescue Bill that the Senate passed Wednesday night.

Here is our victory for being fully staffed and fully engaged despite the challenges of operating during a pandemic: The gigantic bill does NOT include any of the bad immigration provisions that so many pro-illegal-immigration and pro-immigration-expansion advocates sought and that the Speaker of the House proposed.

What a relief!

Chris, in his weekly newsletter yesterday, gave you a list of the bad immigration provisions that were knocked out of the final bill. He also explained how the immigration-related money that remains in the bill is all restricted to virus-connected expenses.

Thank you for paying attention, reading your emails and taking action over this past couple of weeks as part of NumbersUSA's multi-front effort to keep the cheap-labor lobbies from using the pandemic to increase foreign-worker competition in the U.S. -- and to turn a blind-eye to illegal immigration.

OUR OFFICES ARE EMPTY -- BUT OUR STAFF IS FULLY EMPLOYED & ENGAGED

Among the good news is that we have been able to run the mobilization and all of our normal programs without being in our offices the last two weeks. Without missing a beat.

For those of you who are investors in NumbersUSA through your on-line donations, I want to assure you about your contributions that help pay the salaries of the three dozen professionals on our team. No money is being inefficiently used.

Not a person on our team is without a full plate of tasks to do from their homes. Everybody is able to work on the top priorities on their lists.

• We continue to post and update our unique Candidate Comparison pages for every House and Senate Primary that is scheduled in the next two months.


• We continue to update our signature Immigration-Reduction Grade Cards that assess the net effect of every action taken by a Member of Congress that could increase or reduce the numerical level of immigration.


• We continue to handle your questions and concerns by phone and Help Desk 16 hours a day on weekdays, and some of each day of the weekend.


• We continue to post on our Home Page the latest immigration news, commentary and analysis.


• We continue to monitor Capitol Hill and post on your Action Board the things you can/should do to influence your Members of Congress to take immigration actions to tighten the labor market, reward American workers, reduce immigration-driven population growth, and protect against negative effects on the natural world and on the quality of life in local communities.


• We continue to educate the public through our appearances on radio shows, interviews with print and electronic media, and our ads on TV and social media. And through our posts to our more than 8 million Facebook fans (the largest of any single-issue advocacy group in America).


• We continue to work with local and regional grassroots leaders in supporting their immigration-reform efforts with state legislatures and local councils.


• We continue our work as the country's premier researcher and publisher on the effects of immigration-driven population growth on sprawl, including our latest report on the state of Oregon.

YEARS OF DEEP NETWORKING ON HILL MAKE THIS WEEK'S (remote) BATTLES MUCH EASIER

We couldn't -- and wouldn't want to -- operate remotely and physically separated from each other on a regular basis. But what another relief to see how well we can operate under crisis conditions.

We largely abandoned our headquarters office in Arlington two weeks ago. In separate buildings that share a plaza (and two buffet cafes) with our building, two individuals have been diagnosed with Covid-19. Sadly, one has died.

Partly related to that and mostly anticipating the need for radical social distancing as a contribution to the public good, we switched to remote work.

Spur-of-the-moment video conferencing, constant texting and other internet wonders keep us in continuous contact with each other -- and with you.

One or two persons a day rotate into the offices to handle mail, checks and a few other matters. Your phone calls are forwarded to our remote staff. WE ARE ON THE JOB. And what a difference that has made the last couple of weeks.

Our Capitol Hill Team operates out of offices just a block or two from congressional offices. But in a time like this, many meetings with Members of Congress and their staffs not only are inadvisable but illegal under emergency orders.

Fortunately, our Team has had 20 years of personal contact with the movers and shakers on the Hill. So being confined to phone and internet right now is no big problem for finding out what is going on at the highest levels -- and relaying back to Congress (and our members) what open-border provisions have been hidden in gigantic bills.

WE HAVE TO BE VIGILANT 24/7 TO IDENTIFY AND DEFY OPEN-BORDER EXTREMISM

Even the shutdown of much of the economy, the skyrocketing unemployment rate, and the government's fixation on the Covid-19 pandemic has not slowed down the cheap-labor fanatics.

To the immigration expansionists, EVERY new situation is a rationale for giving more work permits and taxpayer benefits to illegal migrants and for increasing the legal flow of foreign workers.

Unfortunately, even as we are able to celebrate our defensive victory in Congress today, Chris had to report in the newsletter that the Trump Administration has bowed to corporate lobbyists and is loosening requirements for many H-2B and H-2A workers to enter the country.

That and the shenanigans behind the scenes in trying to stuff the virus rescue bill full of benefits for cheap-labor employers and illegal aliens should erase any doubt about the necessity for NumbersUSA to be on full-alert and ever-vigilant in our responsibility to ring the bells of warning.

Please know of our best wishes for you to remain healthy during this global pandemic so that you may enjoy many more years in an America that will be far more just, sustainable and livable than it otherwise would be without the actions of people like you.

roy beck, numbersusa FOUNDER & president