Enforcement-Only Measures Will Make a Bad Situation Worse! 

Representatives Heath Shuler and Tom Tancredo, as well as Senators Mark Pryor and Mary Landrieu, have introduced enforcement-only bills in Congress. Everyone recognizes that our immigration system is broken. Unfortunately, these bills offer a false solution to a real problem. Our leaders should focus on making our immigration system more efficient, effective, and fair rather than grasping for false promises. Click on the links below to write a letter opposing these measures to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - you may email her as a constituent of the 8th district or in her role as Speaker of the House

Constituent of the 8th district of California

Not a constituent of the 8th district of California

*If you are not a constituent of the 8th district you must use this link

Senate majority Leader Harry Reid - you may contact him using the same link regardless if you are a constituent or not

Contact Senator Harry Reid

Sample Letter Below (copy and paste this letter or a portion of the letter in the comment section for both the House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader) :

Dear Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid:

I write to express my strong opposition to H.R. 4088/S. 2368.  The Secure America through Verification and Enforcement Act, introduced by Representatives Heath Shuler and Tom Tancredo, as well as Senators Mark Pryor and Mary Landrieu, offers a false promise to the American people and will not solve the issue of undocumented immigration. 

I demand more from our leaders in Congress than harsh rhetoric and ineffective solutions.  Congress needs to fix our immigration system in a smart way, not just throw more money at the problem.  For the past twenty years, the Federal government has dramatically increased immigration enforcement and yet, enforcement-alone has not worked to stem undocumented immigration.  There are now more than 12 million undocumented immigrants living and working in this country.  They are here because our economy is beckoning them and because we do not have a channel for hard-working people to come here legally.  Yet, the Shuler-Tancredo bill and the Pryor-Landrieu bill do nothing to address that, nor the devastation that this broken system creates: exploited workers, thousands of deaths in the desert, and over three million U.S. citizen children living in constant fear that their parents will be deported.

These problems exist because Congress has failed to update our immigration laws.  Unfortunately, H.R. 4088/S. 2368 is not a solution or even a stop-gap measure.  If enacted, these bills would simply make a bad situation worse, providing a windfall to bad employers by making workers more exploitable, pushing them deeper underground and off the tax rolls.  It would harm U.S. workers displaced by the flawed employment verification program, and divert more U.S. tax dollars away from apprehending terrorists in order to detain and deport undocumented workers such as landscapers or dishwashers.

H.R. 4088/S. 2368 is a misguided political response to a policy problem where voters have already spoken.  The vast majority of Americans think that rounding up and deporting 12 million undocumented immigrants is a fantasy and a waste of federal dollars.  Furthermore, Americans do not want to wait an estimated 91 years and spend the projected $200 billion it would take, to roundup undocumented immigrants who are mostly hard-working people.  We want real solutions.  H.R. 4088/S. 2368 is not only about preserving the failed status quo on immigration, but about intensifying its negative effects.  I urge Congressional leaders from both parties to get to work and pass the type of immigration reform legislation that addresses the issue at its root, not ineffective laws that waste resources and offer false promises to the American people.

Respectfully,

[Your Name Here]