STOP ANTI-IMMIGRANT PROVISIONS FROM BECOMING PART OF THE INTELLIGENCE REFORM BILL

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From: Sivaprasad, Shoba [immigrationforum.org]

Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 11:37 AM

Subject: FW: Need your help on 9/11 recs bill

Importance: High

We really need your help making calls to these offices to keep the bad

immigration provisions out of the 9/11 bill. We are getting reports from

Democratic offices that calls are running 5 to 1 in favor of adding the

Sensenbrenner immigration provisions to the intelligence reform conference

report. FAIR reports a 30 to 1 margin of calls in to Sensenbrenner’s

office, but they are prone to exaggeration. Still, it’s clear that this

week is our last big push for the year as negotiations either will or will

not advance right now. PLEASE circulate this action alert to your networks

and make calls yourself. The call-in week starts today with the White House

and Speaker Hastert, and continues through Friday with your own members.

Thank you!

TAKE PART IN THE NATIONWIDE CALL-IN WEEK

NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 3

Congress is coming back on Dec. 6th to possibly vote on an intelligence

reform bill. We need to make sure that the final bill does not include the

bad immigration provisions we have been fighting against. Scroll to the

bottom for a short update on the bill.

TAKE ACTION TODAY!

In order to stop the anti-immigrant provisions from becoming law, your voice

is needed! Please make two to three calls a day for the next four days:

* Tuesday, Nov. 30: Call the White House at (202) 456-1111 and

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) at (202) 225-2976.

* Wednesday, Dec. 1: Call Rep. Hoekstra (R-MI) at (202) 225-4401 and

Rep. Harman (D-CA) at (202) 225-8220. Call the White House if you haven’t

yet done so at (202) 456-1111.

* Thursday, Dec. 2: Call Sen. Collins (R-ME) at (202) 224-2523 and

Sen. Lieberman (D-CT) at (202) 224-4041. Call the White House if you

haven’t yet done so at (202) 456-1111.

* Friday, Dec. 3: Call your own senators and representative. You can

find your representative’s information at: http://www.house.gov

and two senators’ information at:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

. Call

the White House if you haven’t yet done so at (202) 456-1111.

WHAT IS THE MESSAGE?

When you call, tell them:

I want you to keep the anti-immigrant provisions pushed by Rep.

Sensenbrenner out of the intelligence reform bill.

The Senate-led compromise already contains border security

measures; the additional provisions pushed by Rep. Sensenbrenner are extreme

and were not part of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations.

I want you to enact the real recommendations of the 9/11

Commission, not the agenda of House immigration restrictionists.

Finally, tell them that we need comprehensive immigration reform-not

non-solutions that will only drive people further underground and cause

panic in immigrant communities.

WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH THE 9/11 BILL?

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Senate members of the conference committee devised a compromise that excluded the worst of the anti-immigrant House provisions but kept several “border security” measures, such as an increase in the number of border patrol agents and a mandate for federal agencies to devise minimum standards for the issuance of driver’s licenses (in contrast to the more strident House ID language that would bar undocumented

immigrants from obtaining state-issued IDs or using consular IDs).

This was not enough for Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), who

insisted on the inclusion of the extraneous immigration provisions. He was

joined by Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA) who objected to shifting

intelligence authority and resources from the Pentagon to other agencies.

Due to their objections, the compromise was pulled.

Since then, the White House has said it will work to get a bill passed this

year. The conference committee leadership also wants a bill this year.

Pressure is mounting to finalize the deal, but Representative Sensenbrenner is not backing down.

Congress will come back to Washington, DC for a short session on December

6th to vote on an intelligence reform bill if the conference committee can

come to an agreement. We need to make sure that the White House, conference committee leadership, the majority of conferees, and your own senators and representatives (who will have to vote on the compromise measure) do not give in to Representative Sensenbrenner’s demands. The President is key in this debate; according to media reports he supports the Senate compromise, but he must hear from us in order to stay strong and bring members of his own party into line.

TO SEND AN EMAIL OR FAX:

If you cannot call Congress and the White House this week, you can also

communicate with them via email or fax. To do so go to:

Human Rights First

American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)

for Congress

for White

House

National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC)

YOUR VOICE IS IMPORTANT * TAKE ACTION TODAY