This Issue: House tees up immigration expansion bill for after Thanksgiving

Fri, Nov. 18^th

The House of Representatives will vote on H.R. 3648, the Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment Act (EAGLE Act) after Congress returns from its Thanksgiving recess. The legislation would effectively expand the number of permanent employment-based green cards each year, taking thousands of good-paying, high-skilled job opportunities away from American STEM workers.

We're also continuing to monitor any potential amnesty legislation that may come up during the lame duck. It was reported earlier this week that Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is shopping around a proposal that would grant amnesty to more than 2 million illegal aliens who are eligible for the unlawful DACA executive amnesty program. Surprisingly, Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) said that there would be no talk of amnesty until after Congress addresses the ongoing border crisis, but his statements can also be considered as a form of public negotiation.

EAGLE Act

The EAGLE Act was introduced by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) but has bipartisan support, including from Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) who was just elected by his colleagues as the House Majority Whip for the next Congress, making him the third highest ranking Republican in the House.

While the EAGLE Act has a few positive reforms for the guest worker visa programs, it would allow almost any alien who has been on the visa waiting list for at least two years with an approved petition for an employment-based green card to apply for adjustment of status and not count towards the annual numerical limits.

In other words, employers can sponsor a temporary foreign worker for an H-1B visa and make that worker a permanent worker by simply sponsoring them for a green card.

The bill also eliminates the per-country caps for employment-based visas, which means that in a decade or so Indian and Chinese nationals will receive virtually all such visas, excluding other countries from the process.

In addition, the bill contains the preemptive amnesty for the children of temporary workers who will lose legal status once they reach the age of 21. This provision was included in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act that was passed a few months ago. It would affect approximately 190,000 aliens.

The fact that House Leaders have scheduled the EAGLE Act for a vote after Thanksgiving signals that they believe they have enough votes to pass the legislation.

But we still have time to change that!

We've posted action alerts on your Action Board so you can urge your U.S. Representative to oppose the legislation.

You'll also find actions on your Action Board, urging your Members of Congress to oppose any amnesties during the lame duck session.

Chris Chmielenski
NumbersUSA Deputy Director

Washington Times: NumbersUSA Vice President of Operations Jim Robb wrote an op-ed for the Washington Times highlighting the immigration views of Hispanics who voted during the midterm elections.

When asked if the government is doing "too much" or "too little" to "reduce illegal border crossings and visitor overstays," Hispanic midterm voters were very clear. Fifty-seven percent said "too little," while only 16% said "too much," with 17% saying "about right." For the all-important middle-aged voters 40-64, 67% said too little, with only 9% allowing it was too much. But how about Democratic Hispanic voters? They, too, gave a plurality to "too little," with 49% answering that way, and only 15% thing too much was being done to stop illegal immigration.

There are several million illegal aliens in the U.S. working illegally. What did Hispanic midterm voters think about requiring all employers to use the government's E-Verify system to "help ensure that they hire only legal workers?" Hispanic voters favor mandatory E-Verify by an astounding 64%-25%! Virtually every subgroup of Hispanics strongly agrees that E-Verify should be used to squeeze out illegal workers, including Hispanic Democrats, liberals and even young voters.

Breitbart: NumbersUSA Director of Government Relations Rosemary Jenks commented on a recent op-ed by Sen. Mitt Romney calling for more foreign workers.

"He is completely out of touch, as out-of-touch as all of the elite Democrats in Hollywood," responded Rosemary Jenks, the government relations director for NumbersUSA...

Romney's op-ed also declared: "We need new legal immigrants--at least a million a year to keep the population from declining."

"The population is still growing -- where does he want to put all these [extra] people?" Jenks responded.

Maintaining the status quo on immigration is tantamount to ignoring your cars check engine light and continuing to drive it as hard as you want.

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