Threat of Amnesty for Up to Two Million Illegal Aliens!

• The Clinton-Gore Administration, their pro-mass immigration supporters in Congress, and the AFL-CIO are all pushing massive amnesties. The bills they are pushing could result in legalization of up to two million illegal aliens! The AFL-CIO wants six million legalized! The continual granting of amnesties promotes additional legal and illegal immigration, accelerates population growth, and further stresses the carrying capacity of the United States. Right now we must TAKE ACTION! and urge our members of Congress to oppose any such amnesties.

• Several previous amnesties have allowed millions of illegal aliens and their relatives to gain permanent residence status in the U.S. in the past 15 years.

THE OPPOSITION’S DEVIOUS TACTIC

• The Administration and their Mass Immigration Supporters in Congress are attempting to attach massive amnesty amendments to H-1B visa increase legislation and other legislation pending in Congress. When these supporters of mass immigration realized the probability of passing an amnesty bill by itself was small, attempts were begun, and are continuing, to attach amnesty bills to other legislation.

• If successful, the "attached" amnesty legislation would result in granting permanent residence status to potentially millions of illegal aliens, thus dramatically increasing the chances of millions more of their relatives eventually being admitted to the USA. Such a measure would only encourage more illegal immigrants to come to the United States in hopes of gaining permanent residence through yet another amnesty. Among the beneficiaries of one proposal would be 500,000 to 1,500,000 (depending on the number of their dependents also admitted) illegal aliens from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Haiti.

• Yet another proposal would provide amnesty to an additional 400,000 to 1,000,000 aliens who have resided in the U.S. illegally since 1985! This would just be the most recent in a series of costly amnesty legislation. In California, one of the favorite immigration destinations, each native-headed household already pays an additional net $1178 a year in taxes to support mass immigration, according to the National Academy of Science, National Research Council report. Such a large-scale amnesty could result in an immigration crisis never before experienced in the United States.

Remember that in 1986 over 2.7 million illegal aliens were granted amnesty in what was supposedly the "first and last" amnesty. Unfortunately, it proved to be only the beginning as the opposition has pushed through several amnesties in the last 15 years:

• Amnesty of 1997: granted residence status to 150,000 Nicaraguans and 5,000 Cubans who illegally came to the U.S.;
• Amnesty of 1998: gave amnesty to 50,000 illegal aliens from Haiti. This legislation was attached to the omnibus appropriations bill signed by President Clinton;
• Hurricane Amnesty of 1998: 90,000 Hondurans and 60,000 Nicaraguans were allowed to stay in the U.S. at least another 18 months.

If the pending legislation proposals are enacted, they would result in the U.S. having given permanent residence to over 5 million illegal aliens since 1985! This repeated granting of amnesties has caused a further delay for those legally applying for U.S. citizenship and establishes a dangerous precedent. It encourages more illegal immigration, demoralizes our Border Patrol, rewards lawbreakers, depresses wages of American workers, increases costs to taxpayers, and further stresses the carrying capacity of the United States.

AMNESTIES ACCELERATE U.S. POPULATION GROWTH TOWARD HALF A BILLION BY 2050 OR SOONER

Amnesties such as those mentioned above would only serve to accelerate population growth. If current trends of over one million legal, and over 400,000 illegal, immigrants per year continue, those immigrants plus their offspring will be the main cause of the U.S. population doubling to over 500 million by 2050. Additional amnesties would cause the U.S. population to reach half a billion even sooner than 2050. The continued growth in population threatens the ability of the United States to support a population within its long-term carrying capacity. The environmental degradation caused by overpopulation is too great to ignore. We must protect our environment by halting amnesties and working toward population stabilization.

AFL-CIO PROPOSAL TO LEGALIZE 6 MILLION WOULD HURT AMERICAN WORKERS

Urgent action is needed because the Clinton-Gore Administration, the AFL-CIO, and other mass-immigration supporters are acting together as a potent force in pushing these amnesties. The AFL-CIO has recently begun to push for an amnesty that would grant permanent residence to over 6 million illegal aliens (or, as they euphemistically state it, "undocumented workers"). If these proposals are enacted, other prospective illegal immigrants would be encouraged to migrate in the hope of yet another amnesty. But the AFL-CIO refuses to acknowledge either that its pro-amnesty position would increase illegal immigration or that an amnesty would further depress wages of many low-income workers.

H-1B BILLS POSSIBLE VEHICLES FOR ADDITIONAL AMNESTIES

Unfortunately, legislation to increase H-1B visa is likely to pass this session. A majority of both parties want to respond to Silicon Valley’s demands for more cheap foreign high-tech workers.

• Increases in H-1B visas hurt American workers. Some lawmakers will have you believe that there is a shortage of high-skilled laborers in the United States which has precipitated the call for an increase in H-1B visas. If this is true, why did 21 American high-tech companies dismiss 121,000 workers from December of 1997 to June of 1998? The study documenting these dismissals was released by Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chairman of the House Immigration Sub-Committee of the Judiciary, and went relatively unreported. This un-reporting is yet another case of certain Big Media and Big Business interests working to acquire cheaper labor, regardless of the cost to the environment or its effect on American workers. The layoffs from recent downsizing of net.tech companies have not yet been counted. Why not wait to see NASDAQ results next year, before raising the number of foreign computer specialists this year?

• Still, it is likely that some H-1B bill will pass, making it all the more important that we ACT NOW to ensure Congress defeats any attached amnesty proposals. We must stop giving aliens incentives for coming to the U.S. illegally by making sure there are no amnesty attachments to H-1B or other bills.

TAKE ACTION:

• Contact your Senators and Representative and urge them to oppose any amnesties proposed for the year 2000. Let them know that more amnesties will increase levels of illegal immigration and displace American workers.

• Ask your Representative to cosponsor The Mass Immigration Reduction Act (HR41) sponsored by Representative Bob Stump (R-AZ) with amendments to include an all-inclusive, firm cap of 100,000 immigrants per year.

Contact Congress Today

• Support BALANCE’s Moratorium Now! Campaign. Your help is vital to the success of our campaign. Your donation will help us continue to educate our government officials about 1.) the need to stop rewarding illegal aliens by granting amnesties, and 2.) the need for an all-inclusive moratorium on immigration in excess of 100,000 per year.

• WE URGENTLY NEED YOU TO MAKE A DONATION TO BALANCE NOW IN SUPPORT OF OUR FIGHT AGAINST AMNESTIES. Your contribution is essential to furthering our grassroots activism in preventing more amnesties and in reducing immigration. With your help, we can continue our campaign of producing educational materials, pressuring Congress for a moratorium, and providing activists like you with the tools necessary to stabilize U.S. population, and thus protect our environment and preserve our quality of life. Please give as generously as you can. Consider giving a gift membership. It is a wonderful way to help BALANCE and to get friends involved.