Call your State Rep !!!!

Please make time to call your state rep before the 14th. It is very important to ask to oppose support for the SAVE Act. Read below
________________________________

From: Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles
[mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Fri 3/7/2008 3:42 PM
To: Perez, Ignacio
Subject: Oppose the SAVE Act and Other Enforcement Only Immigration
Bills


Official CHIRLA Action Alert!

ACTION ALERT: OPPOSE MYOPIC SOLUTIONS TO IMMIGRATION ISSUES, OPPOSE THE
SAVE ACT AND OTHER ENFORCEMENT ONLY IMMIGRATION BILLS!


Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-225-3121 from March 10-14

to reach your Representative.

We, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA)
would like to express our strong opposition to the package of
immigration bill proposals that mandate among other things, the implementation of
and universal participation in an electronic employment verification
system and enforcement only bills.

On March 5, the Republicans unveiled a package of enforcement only
immigration bills. These bills are an aggressive way to put pressure on
both Democratic and Presidential candidates to take a tougher stance on
immigration. It also indicates a trend towards a harsher immigration
rhetoric which takes advantage of the absence of comprehensive immigration
reform at the national level. Democrats contend that most of the bills
have little chance of being debated in the Democratic-controlled
Congress, but the support of about 48 Democrats to HR 4088 or the SAVE Act,
plus a number of Democratic legislators' affirmation that the SAVE Act
has some of the principles that the Democrats support, is an indication
that these types of bills are in danger of being mainstreamed in the
legislature.

Eight lawmakers have sponsored around 11 bills, some with companion
bills in either the House or the Senate. The following is a list of the
bills that are in the package:

1) HR 4088 or The Secure America Through Verification and
Enforcement Act (SAVE Act) is an enforcement and employee verification bill
that seeks to strengthen border security and require around 6 million
employers within four years, to use a government database to verify that
workers are in the US legally. The chief co-sponsors of the SAVE Act are
Rep. Heath Shuler (D-North Carolina) and Rep. Brian Bilbray
(R-California). Rep. Bilbray leads the House Immigration Reform Caucus and is a
former lobbyist of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an
anti-immigration organization recognized as a hate group by mainstream
civil rights and research organizations like the Southern Poverty Law
Center.

2) H.R. 5515 -The New Employment Verification Act or NEVA is
sponsored by Rep. Sam Johnson, a Republican from Texas, and is touted as an
alternative to the SAVE Act. The bill calls on some of the
verification work to be undertaken by contractors - a new cottage industry of
people that would check the identity of workers to prevent identity
theft.[1]
<http://mail.dom.edu/exchange/pereigna/Drafts/FW:%20Oppose%20the%20SAVE%20Act%20and%20Other%20Enforcement%20Only%20Immigration%20Bills.EML/1_text.htm#_ftn1>
The goal seems to be to protect employers from liability. This bill is
also endorsed by the Society for Human Resource Initiative -- a group
of employer and human resource-related groups.

3) Senate Resolution 239- Senator Jeff Session, who is leading the
charge on the Republican side, sponsored a bill imposing a maximum of
two year prison sentences to someone caught illegally crossing the
border a second time.

4) Other bills in the package would:

a) Discourage states from issuing driver's licenses to
undocumented immigrants by docking 10% of highway funding from states that
continue to issue drivers licenses

b) Extend the presence of the National Guard on the border

c) End language assistance at federal agencies and voting booths
for people with limited English ability

d) Block Federal funding to cities that bar their police from
asking about immigration status

e) Give DHS authority to use information from the Social Security
Administration to target undocumented immigrants

f) Require the construction of 700 miles of fencing along the
Southern border, excepting vehicle barriers

g) Impose sanctions on countries that refuse to repatriate their
citizens

h) Deport any immigrant for one drunk-driving conviction

i) Enable local and state police to enforce federal immigration
laws[2]
<http://mail.dom.edu/exchange/pereigna/Drafts/FW:%20Oppose%20the%20SAVE%20Act%20and%20Other%20Enforcement%20Only%20Immigration%20Bills.EML/1_text.htm#_ftn2>


Republicans are taking advantage of the split on the issue among
Democrats and had a meeting Tuesday night to discuss a potential discharge
petition aimed a forcing Speaker Nancy Pelosi to allow a floor vote on
the SAVE Act. After that, there will be an attempt to collect signatures
making sure that the issue is at the forefront before the spring recess
on March 14.


Please call/ contact your legislators and ask them to withdraw their
sponsorship of the SAVE Act and refuse to participate in myopic
legislative proposals that are highly counterproductive and looks only at
short-term solutions rather than long-term and sustainable responses to this
country's immigration problems. Included in this action alert is a list
of Democratic sponsors to the SAVE Act.



For more information, please contact Cynthia Buiza, Director of Policy
and Advocacy, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles at
[email protected]

List of Democratic co-sponsors of the SAVE Act

Congressional Representative

State

District

Cramer, Robert

AL

5

Davis, Artur

AL

7

Berry, Marion

AR

1

Ross, Mike

AR

4

McNerney, Jerry

CA

11

Perlmutter, Ed

CO

7

Boyd, Allen

FL

2

Barrow, John

GA

12

Marshall, Jim

GA

8

Boswell, Leonard

IA

3

Bean, Melissa

IL

8

Donnelly, Joe

IN

2

Ellsworth, Brad

IN

8

Hill, Baron

IN

9

Visclosky, Peter

IN

1

Boyda, Nancy

KS

2

Melancon, Charlie

LA

3

Stupak, Bart

MI

1

Taylor, Gene

MS

4

Mike, McIntyre

NC

7

Hodes, Paul

NH

2

Arcuri, Michael

NY

24

Gillibrand, Kirsten

NY

20

Higgins, Brian

NY

27

Ryan, Tim

OH

17

Space, Zachary

OH

18

Boren, Dan

OK

2

Altmire, Jason

PA

4

Carney, Christopher

PA

10

Holden, Tim

PA

17

Kanjorski, Paul

PA

11

Murphy, Patrick

PA

8

Murtha, John

PA

12

Sestak, Joe

PA

7

Cooper, Jim

TN

5

Davis, Lincoln

TN

4

Gordon, Bart

TN

6

Tanner, John

TN

8

Lampson, Nick

TX

22

Rodriguez, Ciro

TX

23

Matheson, Jim

UT

2

Boucher, Rick

VA

9

Baird, Brian

WA

3

Kagen, Steve

WI

8


________________________________

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www.chirla.org

Thanks for posting this! Do you, or does anyone else, still have the list of all of the numbers lying around somewhere?

you must be kidding.. all the REPs above are DEMS?.. = O

I don't know why there has not been more coverage for this, but I decided to ask my classmates to call and demand their reps to withdraw any support from this bill (H.R.408. I googled it and found this site
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h4088/show
where I found some strong opinions about supporting this bill.
See, the problem is that as someone else posted it here, in Kentucky I believe, more states are passing their own measures regarding immigration and they are really racist and discriminatory in their approach, as was the case in Oklahoma.

If the Dream Act is not up for a vote, the least we can do is prevent these type of harmful measures to pass in congress.

Keep an eye on the news tomorrow for any develoments...

This is not passing...Even if it comes to the floor it could benefit us because surely it will be filled with amendments that could benefit the undocumented.

Jeff Flake signed it today...weird

http://clerk.house.gov/110/lrc/pd/petitions/Dis5.htm