Year-end report;
illegal alien cost study available
Thursday, December 20, 2007
By Jim Boulet Jr.
Executive Director
English First
Now that Congress is unlikely to return to work until mid-January, 2008, I thought you would want to know where we stand at the close of 2007and what we might expect next year. Together, you and I accomplished some remarkable things. Another amnesty bill that was supported by both a majority of Congress and the Bush Administration died.
You worked day and night faxing, calling, e-mailing and writing to Congress letting them know of your displeasure. And it worked.
Congressional fear of your reaction also helped kill the DREAM Act (in-state tuition for illegal aliens) and SCHIP (free health care for illegal aliens and their children).
These votes took place in the light of day. Our defeats took place in back rooms in the dead of night just before Christmas.
Our amendment to protect the Salvation Army from a language rights lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was removed
from a spending bill. That same spending bill was filled with new obstacles to a needed fence on our border with Mexico.
21 beats 16
Our losses can be blamed upon simple political arithmetic.
At this moment, the U.S. House of Representatives has 232 Democrats, 201 Republicans and 2 vacancies. This means that just 16 Democrats
votes are needed by a united group of Republicans to defeat anything the Democrats wish to do.
There are 21 members of the Hispanic Caucus members who have threatened to vote against their fellow Democrats t if Caucus members
are unhappy.
These 21 votes seem critical to Democratic leaders whenever a close vote looms, such as the rule for the omnibus spending bill, which passed 214 to 189 on December 17th, with four Democrats joining 185 Republicans in voting "no."
Hispanic Caucus extremism will hurt other Democrats
The Hispanic Caucus is now in a position to dictate policy to their fellow Democrats. The Hispanic Caucus positions as of now
appear to be to replace a border fence with a welcome mat; to keep Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean in jail forever on the word
of a drug dealer and to ensure that no Hispanic immigrant or his children ever learns a word of English.
These views are hardly those of most Americans or even most Hispanics. The 61 Democrats elected from districts President Bush carried
in 2004 or the 40 Democrats who represent districts Bush carried in both 2004 and 2000 are not going to be enthusiastic about running for reelection on platform based upon the demands of the Hispanic Caucus.
The Hispanic Caucus also vowed in December to continue to block a legal immigration increase until it included "comprehensive immigration
reform" (i.e. amnesty). This means yet another amnesty battle looms in 2008.
Summary of 2007
We began this year thinking that the Bush Administration and its handpicked choice to run the Republican National Committee, Senator Mel Martinez (R-Florida) would jam an amnesty bill through the newly Democratic Congress.
Remember that in 2006, amnesty advocates warned us that the amnesty bill written by Senate Republicans would only get worse in a Democratic Senate in 2007. They were mistaken.
Several Senate Democrats were elected precisely because they ran against the 2006 immigration bill, like Webb of Virginia. They were not eager to repudiate their campaign promises so early in their Senate career.
It is also not clear that any of the four Senate Democrats running for president (Biden, Clinton, Dodd and Obama) were eager to run on
a pro-amnesty platform. Hillary has been telling the people of Iowa that "immigrants ought to learn English," for months.
When you and your friends shut down the Senate telephone system and killed the Senate's e-mail servers, there was no eagerness to push amnesty
by anybody, save Senator Martinez. And Senator Martinez resigned from his RNC post after just 10 months.
I am informed that 12,444 e-mail messages were sent to Congress via the English First Legislative Action Center in 2007 and that these messages were about twice as effective as a regular e-mail. Well done.
CBO study on the cost of illegal immigration available
The Congressional Budget Office has released its study, The Impact of Unauthorized Immigrants on the Budgets of State and Local Governments
If you e-mail your postal mailing address to me ,
I will gladly send you a paper copy of this report, or you can download it.
In your e-mail, you can also request your free copy of either or both of our two 2007 English First Foundation issue briefs: There is No "Hispanic Vote" and Guest Worker Programs Strike Out on Assimilation: The Example of Professional Baseball.
And now a word from our sponsor
It is an honor and a joy for me to produce these alerts for you. It is essential to the work of English First that we constantly keep our friends updated upon developments in Washington, D.C.
May I ask you to consider a year-end donation to the work of English
First:
A donation is not required to continue to receive our legislative alerts. But your donation is a vote in favor of our work.
English First depends entirely upon the generous support of individual Americans. There are no government funds keeping our doors open.
There are two ways you can support our work.
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Because English First can legally spend every penny we receive on lobbying Congress, donations to English First are not tax-deductible. If an
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Please write: attention Jim Boulet Jr. on the front of the envelope to ensure your gift is properly credited.
Once again, thank you for the honor and privilege of working with you in 2007.
May 2008 be a happy and productive year
for you and yours.
Sincerely,
Jim Boulet, Jr.
Executive Director
English First
Forwarding of
these alerts is encouraged.
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