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Reid moves Amnesty vote from WED to next MON night
All of your calls and faxes are helping to block the amnesty deal.
Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-Nev.) had insisted that he would force an amnesty vote Wednesday morning in an attempt to push everybody to come to an agreement.
But the negotiations broke down again tonight and it was clear that the amnesty vote would have lost tomorrow.
Reid says there is a lot of progress and he hopes the White House, Sen. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. Kyl (R-AZ) will agree to the details of the amnesty by next Monday night.
And Senate Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY) is saying tonight that negotiations continue tomorrow and that he is very hopeful the amnesty will come together by Monday.
So, we have our work cut out for us.
For now, we at NumbersUSA are going to get a good night's sleep.
We will get back to you tomorrow on next steps that need to be taken.
I understand from the GOP debate tonight on TV that Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) again reminded us all why this country is in such a mess on immigration -- the ability of major political figures to do a combination of massive lying and self-deception. McCain was the author of last year's bill that would have given permanent residence to nearly all illegal aliens, but he said tonight that he has never supported amnesty! As Rosemary testified, the bill that McCain has pushed has the same basic outline as the bill in 1986 that everybody agrees WAS an amnesty!
-- ROY BECK NumbersUSA
------------------------------------------------------------------------
You had the momentum all weekend -- Fri-Sun had amnesty crowd on the run
DEAR AMNESTY-KILLERS,
What a weekend! Let's carry the political explosions right on through today.
I hope the report below inspires you to more action. We can beat this amnesty. Maybe tonight. If not tonight, at one of four or five other chokepoints.
Our Action Buffet Team on Sunday was sending you Alerts about new fax and phone opportunities -- and will be adding more to your action corkboards throughout today. Please don't stop the pressure. It truly is having an effect. We need both faxing and phone calls.
I told you Thursday night that we had only a remote possibility of beating the amnesty in the Senate but a good shot in the House if we all worked hard. Now, the Washington Times comes out early this morning with a headcount that finds 17 Senators announcing their support for the amnesty and 17 Senators announcing their opposition and the rest not willing to publicly commit. YOUR OPPOSITION SO FAR IS CREATING AN OPPORTUNITY FOR A POLITICAL MIRACLE. Read at bottom of this email for more details from the Times survey of all 100 Senators.
Georgia media reported that the state's two U.S. Senators were greeted at a Republican convention over the weekend by hundreds of lime-green NumbersUSA flyers declaring that “Sen. Isakson and Sen. Chambliss stand with Kennedy for largest amnesty in history.” The Republican Senators were booed, hissed and challenged as they tried to explain why they stood with Sen. Kennedy (D-Mass.) last week in announcing the comprehensive amnesty compromise bill.
NumbersUSA actually had nothing to do with the flyers but we lift up the ingenuity of whomever did have responsibility for making good use of one of our Action Alerts and increasing its influence. We encourage similar actions in other states if you have a Senator with the slightest inclination to vote for this amnesty.
Presidential hopeful Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) and his acolyte, Sen. Graham (R-S.C.), were booed in South Carolina Saturday because of their leadership in creating the giant Kennedy/Bush amnesty bill announced on Thursday. They made the mistake of trying to defend their amnesty support.
The same Carolina Republican convention cheered when another Presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney (R-Mass.), stated without equivocation that the grand immigration compromise up for a vote tonight is an amnesty because it allows illegal aliens to remain in the U.S. indefinitely -- and that: "One simple rule: No amnesty."
South Carolina analysts already say that perhaps the most significant shift in the state has been Romney overtaking McCain in the polls. Romney has announced TV ads to focus voters even further on his opposition to McCain's amnesty efforts. Major newpapers are reporting more signs of other potential candidates like Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and Newt Gingrich (R-GA) trying to catch up with the successful no-amnesty campaigning of Romney and of the three Congressmen with a long anti-amnesty record, Ron Paul (R-Texas), Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.).
Sen. Kyl (R-Ariz.) was under seige from Arizona's Republican leaders and citizens outraged by his leadership on the amnesty so that he wrote a highly defensive op-ed that gave some hope that he might jump off the amnesty if it turns out to be much softer on future illegal immigration than he had thought.
I would like to see some stories or reports of examples of more in-person encounters with other Senators from other states. You know that after encountering a booing, most politicians find ways to be a little less aggressive on that issue.
Thus far this weekend, 9,948 Americans have joined NumbersUSA as brand new activists against the new amnesty bill. And 22,802 have joined our faxing/phoning brigade since the first of this month. Since Jan. 1 of this year, 99,706 Americans have become part of our mobilized network of citizens attempting to counter the power of the special elite interests over Congress.
Our total activist membership is now above 325,000 and our total email list now exceeds 1.4 million. (BTW, we never share, rent or sell any email addresses. We use them solely to spread immigration education among the public, with hopes that they will take citizen actions either through our tools or on their own.)
A much wider coalition of grassroots groups is making defeat of the Kennedy/Bush amnesty a top priority this week. In the past, immigration groups like our own had to fight these battles alone (sometimes with the assistance of talk radio). But we are getting great assistance from large politically conservative organizations, especially aggressive actions from the Heritage Foundation. And later today, there will be a beginning daily meeting of the conservative coalition that forced the withdrawal of the Supreme Court nomination of Pres. Bush's lawyer and friend Harriet Meyers. This is a coalition that has experienced a grassroots rebellion that caused a political miracle in defeating a pet project of the White House.
All of you who move in more liberal, centrist or Democratic circles, please look for ways to emulate the conservative backlash to this amnesty. We are seeing some good help from individual liberals and environmentalist who are using blogs and email lists to spread the message of how this amnesty would harm the U.S. environment and the most vulnerable of American workers and their families. But we could use more institutional help. Let us know.
The pro-amnesty Washington Post ran a weekend story indicating that the White House has been met with a firestorm of resistance throughout the country to its immigration plan. And the Washington Times ran a story Sunday with the headline: "Illegals bill sinks Bush job approval." A new Rasmussen poll found Pres. Bush's approval rating dropped to an all-time low for that poll, at 34 percent. "The president's ratings have tumbled each time immigration reform dominates the news," Scott Rasmussen said. His polling last year, after Mr. Bush gave an Oval Office address laying out his plans for more border enforcement and giving illegal aliens a path to citizenship, found only 39 percent supported the president's position.
KEY PROCEDURAL VOTE ON AMNESTY SCHEDULED FOR MONDAY NIGHT
Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-Nev.) currently has scheduled a cloture vote after 5:30 this afternoon.
Because he is trying to rush an amnesty bill through the Senate without having it debated, amended or passed by a committe, Reid needs 60 of the 100 Senate votes tonight to allow him to bring the amnesty bill to the floor for debate the rest of the week.
It is so very important that you take all actions related to Senators as soon as possible today. Do it in time to influence this vote.
We are giving you special talking points to try to get Democrats to decide that rushing a giant bill like this violates promises the Democrats made in winning the majority. They indicated they weren't going to be involved in secret deals, or forcing bills through without proper time to study them, or passing bills without knowing their fiscal costs and how those costs would be covered.
By being the handmaiden of the Bush Administration on this bill, the Democratic leaders are missing the mark on all those promises. The bill hasn't even been "scored" by the Congressional Budget Office as to how many billions of dollars it will cost the government each year. And the language of the bill was made available to Senators only late Saturday night.
We will be adding the votes tonight to our Immigration Grade Cards as soon as possible. We regard a vote for cloture tonight as a vote for amnesty.
WHERE DO THE SENATORS STAND?
Stephen Dinana of the Washington Times "whipped" the Senate offices and came up with the following conclusion:
Fewer than 20 senators are publicly committed to supporting the immigration deal that hits the Senate floor today while nearly 40 are already opposed or have serious concerns, underscoring how difficult it will be for President Bush and his allies to craft a coalition that can pass the bill.
A Washington Times survey of Senate offices and public comments after the deal was announced Thursday found an additional 32 senators who said they cannot even take a position yet -- a result of the fact that the deal was written in secret by a dozen senators and the Bush administration, wasn't even finalized until yesterday and still hasn't reached many Senate offices.
"I did not agree to any immigration deal and was not part of the negotiations," said Sen. Jim Bunning, Kentucky Republican and a likely opponent. "From what I have heard about the bill, it gives amnesty to the estimated 12.5 million illegal immigrants in this country."
Senators will be asked to make their first vote on the measure today, on whether to begin debating the bill. It will require 60 votes to pass, and leaders of both parties are urging their members to vote for it, so the debate can at least begin.
Opposition comes from the left and the right -- and both sides are vowing to offer amendments to try to move the bill. What is not clear is whether the two sides will be willing to team up to scuttle the bill.
The Times survey found 17 senators supporting the current bill and another two who lean toward supporting it; 17 who oppose it; 22 who have concerns; and 32 senators who are still reviewing it. Nine senators' positions couldn't be determined, and Sen. Tim Johnson, South Dakota Democrat, has been absent all year because of a medical situation.
We need 41 votes tonight to put this amnesty proposal to rest.
It will be difficult to kill it on this vote because many opponents of the bill still think it ought to have the opportunity to be debated.
The Times did not share its actual list, so we don't know which Senators have given strong agreement with one side or another.
TAKE INTEREST SURVEY
http://numbersusa.com/survey?action=longlist
Make sure you don't miss out on some of the activism because you haven't registered your interests.
Please go to our Interest Survey page and fill out some of your interests -- especially on political identification -- so you can be in on some of our more specialized action opportunities.
THANKS FOR ALL YOU CAN DO,
-- ROY
All of your calls and faxes are helping to block the amnesty deal.
Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-Nev.) had insisted that he would force an amnesty vote Wednesday morning in an attempt to push everybody to come to an agreement.
But the negotiations broke down again tonight and it was clear that the amnesty vote would have lost tomorrow.
Reid says there is a lot of progress and he hopes the White House, Sen. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. Kyl (R-AZ) will agree to the details of the amnesty by next Monday night.
And Senate Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY) is saying tonight that negotiations continue tomorrow and that he is very hopeful the amnesty will come together by Monday.
So, we have our work cut out for us.
For now, we at NumbersUSA are going to get a good night's sleep.
We will get back to you tomorrow on next steps that need to be taken.
I understand from the GOP debate tonight on TV that Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) again reminded us all why this country is in such a mess on immigration -- the ability of major political figures to do a combination of massive lying and self-deception. McCain was the author of last year's bill that would have given permanent residence to nearly all illegal aliens, but he said tonight that he has never supported amnesty! As Rosemary testified, the bill that McCain has pushed has the same basic outline as the bill in 1986 that everybody agrees WAS an amnesty!
-- ROY BECK NumbersUSA
------------------------------------------------------------------------
You had the momentum all weekend -- Fri-Sun had amnesty crowd on the run
DEAR AMNESTY-KILLERS,
What a weekend! Let's carry the political explosions right on through today.
I hope the report below inspires you to more action. We can beat this amnesty. Maybe tonight. If not tonight, at one of four or five other chokepoints.
Our Action Buffet Team on Sunday was sending you Alerts about new fax and phone opportunities -- and will be adding more to your action corkboards throughout today. Please don't stop the pressure. It truly is having an effect. We need both faxing and phone calls.
I told you Thursday night that we had only a remote possibility of beating the amnesty in the Senate but a good shot in the House if we all worked hard. Now, the Washington Times comes out early this morning with a headcount that finds 17 Senators announcing their support for the amnesty and 17 Senators announcing their opposition and the rest not willing to publicly commit. YOUR OPPOSITION SO FAR IS CREATING AN OPPORTUNITY FOR A POLITICAL MIRACLE. Read at bottom of this email for more details from the Times survey of all 100 Senators.
Georgia media reported that the state's two U.S. Senators were greeted at a Republican convention over the weekend by hundreds of lime-green NumbersUSA flyers declaring that “Sen. Isakson and Sen. Chambliss stand with Kennedy for largest amnesty in history.” The Republican Senators were booed, hissed and challenged as they tried to explain why they stood with Sen. Kennedy (D-Mass.) last week in announcing the comprehensive amnesty compromise bill.
NumbersUSA actually had nothing to do with the flyers but we lift up the ingenuity of whomever did have responsibility for making good use of one of our Action Alerts and increasing its influence. We encourage similar actions in other states if you have a Senator with the slightest inclination to vote for this amnesty.
Presidential hopeful Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) and his acolyte, Sen. Graham (R-S.C.), were booed in South Carolina Saturday because of their leadership in creating the giant Kennedy/Bush amnesty bill announced on Thursday. They made the mistake of trying to defend their amnesty support.
The same Carolina Republican convention cheered when another Presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney (R-Mass.), stated without equivocation that the grand immigration compromise up for a vote tonight is an amnesty because it allows illegal aliens to remain in the U.S. indefinitely -- and that: "One simple rule: No amnesty."
South Carolina analysts already say that perhaps the most significant shift in the state has been Romney overtaking McCain in the polls. Romney has announced TV ads to focus voters even further on his opposition to McCain's amnesty efforts. Major newpapers are reporting more signs of other potential candidates like Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and Newt Gingrich (R-GA) trying to catch up with the successful no-amnesty campaigning of Romney and of the three Congressmen with a long anti-amnesty record, Ron Paul (R-Texas), Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.).
Sen. Kyl (R-Ariz.) was under seige from Arizona's Republican leaders and citizens outraged by his leadership on the amnesty so that he wrote a highly defensive op-ed that gave some hope that he might jump off the amnesty if it turns out to be much softer on future illegal immigration than he had thought.
I would like to see some stories or reports of examples of more in-person encounters with other Senators from other states. You know that after encountering a booing, most politicians find ways to be a little less aggressive on that issue.
Thus far this weekend, 9,948 Americans have joined NumbersUSA as brand new activists against the new amnesty bill. And 22,802 have joined our faxing/phoning brigade since the first of this month. Since Jan. 1 of this year, 99,706 Americans have become part of our mobilized network of citizens attempting to counter the power of the special elite interests over Congress.
Our total activist membership is now above 325,000 and our total email list now exceeds 1.4 million. (BTW, we never share, rent or sell any email addresses. We use them solely to spread immigration education among the public, with hopes that they will take citizen actions either through our tools or on their own.)
A much wider coalition of grassroots groups is making defeat of the Kennedy/Bush amnesty a top priority this week. In the past, immigration groups like our own had to fight these battles alone (sometimes with the assistance of talk radio). But we are getting great assistance from large politically conservative organizations, especially aggressive actions from the Heritage Foundation. And later today, there will be a beginning daily meeting of the conservative coalition that forced the withdrawal of the Supreme Court nomination of Pres. Bush's lawyer and friend Harriet Meyers. This is a coalition that has experienced a grassroots rebellion that caused a political miracle in defeating a pet project of the White House.
All of you who move in more liberal, centrist or Democratic circles, please look for ways to emulate the conservative backlash to this amnesty. We are seeing some good help from individual liberals and environmentalist who are using blogs and email lists to spread the message of how this amnesty would harm the U.S. environment and the most vulnerable of American workers and their families. But we could use more institutional help. Let us know.
The pro-amnesty Washington Post ran a weekend story indicating that the White House has been met with a firestorm of resistance throughout the country to its immigration plan. And the Washington Times ran a story Sunday with the headline: "Illegals bill sinks Bush job approval." A new Rasmussen poll found Pres. Bush's approval rating dropped to an all-time low for that poll, at 34 percent. "The president's ratings have tumbled each time immigration reform dominates the news," Scott Rasmussen said. His polling last year, after Mr. Bush gave an Oval Office address laying out his plans for more border enforcement and giving illegal aliens a path to citizenship, found only 39 percent supported the president's position.
KEY PROCEDURAL VOTE ON AMNESTY SCHEDULED FOR MONDAY NIGHT
Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-Nev.) currently has scheduled a cloture vote after 5:30 this afternoon.
Because he is trying to rush an amnesty bill through the Senate without having it debated, amended or passed by a committe, Reid needs 60 of the 100 Senate votes tonight to allow him to bring the amnesty bill to the floor for debate the rest of the week.
It is so very important that you take all actions related to Senators as soon as possible today. Do it in time to influence this vote.
We are giving you special talking points to try to get Democrats to decide that rushing a giant bill like this violates promises the Democrats made in winning the majority. They indicated they weren't going to be involved in secret deals, or forcing bills through without proper time to study them, or passing bills without knowing their fiscal costs and how those costs would be covered.
By being the handmaiden of the Bush Administration on this bill, the Democratic leaders are missing the mark on all those promises. The bill hasn't even been "scored" by the Congressional Budget Office as to how many billions of dollars it will cost the government each year. And the language of the bill was made available to Senators only late Saturday night.
We will be adding the votes tonight to our Immigration Grade Cards as soon as possible. We regard a vote for cloture tonight as a vote for amnesty.
WHERE DO THE SENATORS STAND?
Stephen Dinana of the Washington Times "whipped" the Senate offices and came up with the following conclusion:
Fewer than 20 senators are publicly committed to supporting the immigration deal that hits the Senate floor today while nearly 40 are already opposed or have serious concerns, underscoring how difficult it will be for President Bush and his allies to craft a coalition that can pass the bill.
A Washington Times survey of Senate offices and public comments after the deal was announced Thursday found an additional 32 senators who said they cannot even take a position yet -- a result of the fact that the deal was written in secret by a dozen senators and the Bush administration, wasn't even finalized until yesterday and still hasn't reached many Senate offices.
"I did not agree to any immigration deal and was not part of the negotiations," said Sen. Jim Bunning, Kentucky Republican and a likely opponent. "From what I have heard about the bill, it gives amnesty to the estimated 12.5 million illegal immigrants in this country."
Senators will be asked to make their first vote on the measure today, on whether to begin debating the bill. It will require 60 votes to pass, and leaders of both parties are urging their members to vote for it, so the debate can at least begin.
Opposition comes from the left and the right -- and both sides are vowing to offer amendments to try to move the bill. What is not clear is whether the two sides will be willing to team up to scuttle the bill.
The Times survey found 17 senators supporting the current bill and another two who lean toward supporting it; 17 who oppose it; 22 who have concerns; and 32 senators who are still reviewing it. Nine senators' positions couldn't be determined, and Sen. Tim Johnson, South Dakota Democrat, has been absent all year because of a medical situation.
We need 41 votes tonight to put this amnesty proposal to rest.
It will be difficult to kill it on this vote because many opponents of the bill still think it ought to have the opportunity to be debated.
The Times did not share its actual list, so we don't know which Senators have given strong agreement with one side or another.
TAKE INTEREST SURVEY
http://numbersusa.com/survey?action=longlist
Make sure you don't miss out on some of the activism because you haven't registered your interests.
Please go to our Interest Survey page and fill out some of your interests -- especially on political identification -- so you can be in on some of our more specialized action opportunities.
THANKS FOR ALL YOU CAN DO,
-- ROY