ALERT: NumbersUSA.com

From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA Date: Tuesday 24JUN08 1:45 a.m. EDT

Chairman Price today will try to greatly reduce most-effective enforcement efforts

DEAR SUPPORTERS OF LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, The House Appropriations Committee today (Tues) will be deciding how the federal government enforces immigration laws. See the story below on how Chairman Price hopes to largely stop ICE and local governments from bothering illegal aliens who haven't committed felonies. PLEASE PHONE THE MEMBERS OF THE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE LISTED BELOW. Please phone them at: 202-224-3121 We don't have a minute to spare. Start calling them now and leaving messages on their machines. Keep calling until staffers arrive and start answering phones. Continue to call all day. A firestorm of calls is apparently necessary to shake them from Rep. Price's insistence that illegal aliens who don't commit felonies should be allowed to keep their U.S. jobs in peace. We believe we have both Democratic and Republican allies who will offer amendments to protect the 287(g) program for local enforcement. It is still possible to protect local enforcement and to continue workplace raids. As you can see in the story below, Chairman Price does not believe there is any harm in foreign workers illegally taking jobs. Please read my blog that is on the NumbersUSA home page. It contains my comments from here on the Mexico/Arizona border and how Chairman Price and his kind are responsible for some pretty awful things happening down here. Please phone at least one committee Member on the list below. Call at: 202-224-3121 Tell the person who answers some or all of the following: You are calling about the DHS Appropriations bill (Department of Homeland Security. You know the Congressman/woman is on the committee that will be marking up the bill ("marking up" means amending and putting into final form to send to the full House of Representatives). It is most important the he/she expand funding for the 287(g) program that trains local agencies to enforce immigration law. You want ICE to continue to conduct workplace raids on companies with huge illegal workforces. You might want to pick up some of the themes from my border blog. www.NumbersUSA.com Slam everything from Chairman Price's comments below to which you object. HERE ARE MEMBERS OF HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE Please phone a Representative from your state. If your state is not listed here, please phone a Representative in your region of the country. One phone call will be a wonderful help. If you have time and want to be a hero today, please call as many from your region as possible. ALABAMA Robert B.Aderholt Jo Bonner Robert E. "Bud" Cramer, Jr. ARIZONA Ed Pastor ARKANSAS Marion Berry CALIFORNIA Ken Calvert Sam Farr Michael Honda Barbara Lee Jerry Lewis Lucille Roybal-Allard Adam Schiff CONNECTICUT Rosa L. DeLauro FLORIDA Allen Boyd Ander Crenshaw Debbie Wasserman Schultz Dave Weldon C.W. Bill Young GEORGIA Sanford Bishop Jack Kingston IDAHO Michael K. Simpson ILLINOIS Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. Ray LaHood Mark Steven Kirk INDIANA Peter J. Visclosky IOWA Tom Latham KANSAS Todd Tiahrt KENTUCKY Ben Chandler Harold Rogers LOUISIANA Rodney Alexander MARYLAND C.A "Dutch" Ruppersberger MASSACHUSETTS John W. Olver MICHIGAN Carolyn C. Kilpatrick Joe Knollenberg MINNESOTA Betty McCollum MISSOURI Jo Ann Emerson MONTANA Dennis R. Rehberg NEW JERSEY Rodney P. Frelinghuysen Steven R. Rothman NEW MEXICO Tom Udall NEW YORK Maurice D. Hinchey Steve Israel Nita M. Lowey José E. Serrano James T. Walsh NORTH CAROLINA David E. Price OHIO David L. Hobson Marcy Kaptur Ralph Regula Tim Ryan PENNSYVANIA Chaka Fattah John P. Murtha John E. Peterson RHODE ISLAND Patrick J. Kennedy TENNESSEE Zach Wamp TEXAS John Carter John Abney Culberson Chet Edwards Kay Granger Ciro Rodriguez VIRGINIA Virgil H. Goode, Jr. James P. Moran Frank R. Wolf WASHINGTON Norman D. Dicks WEST VIRGINIA Alan B. Mollohan WISCONSIN David R. Obey ICE Priorities Key Flashpoint Of Department Spending Bill Tue. Jun. 24, 2008 by Chris Strohm (from Congress Daily) House appropriators today are expected to approve a bill that would make a major shift in U.S. immigration policy by focusing law enforcement resources on tracking down and deporting criminal illegal immigrants over raiding worksites. The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up the FY09 Homeland Security spending bill, which would provide the Homeland Security Department $39.9 billion in discretionary spending. In a move that could put appropriators on a collision course with the White House, the bill would target $800 million for the bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a way that differs from the Bush administration's request. ICE enforces U.S. immigration laws inside the United States and has conducted several high-profile and controversial worksite raids. Advocates of the raids say they are needed to prove the government is serious about cracking down on illegal immigrants. Critics say they ensnarl migrant workers who are not threatening and cause major disruptions to families. Under the direction of Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Price, D-N.C., the bill would direct ICE to spend the $800 million to identify and deport illegal immigrants in U.S. communities or jails who have committed serious crimes. "We're serving notice that this is to be ICE's priority," Price said Monday during a speech at the Center for American Progress. "In other words, while we have been using scarce resources to detain and deport laborers at meatpacking plants, we have allowed tens of thousands of dangerous criminal aliens to be released back into our communities after serving their sentences, with no awareness on our part of their immigration status," he said. Overall, the bill would give ICE $4.8 billion. That is only $60 million above the administration's request for ICE, meaning the additional funding to identify and deport illegal immigrants comes out of other areas of the budget. "No matter what one's opinion about the broader illegal immigration problem and how to address it, we should all be able to agree that ICE's highest priority should be to identify and deport unlawfully present aliens who have already shown themselves to be a danger to our communities and have been convicted of serious crimes," Price said. An aide to Price said the funding shift would not prevent ICE from conducting operations unrelated to deporting criminal illegal immigrants, but the bill would make clear doing so should be the top priority. A spokeswoman for ICE said the agency gave Congress a plan earlier in the year with detailed estimates on the anticipated costs to identify and remove criminal illegal immigrants in U.S. jails. But she said the spending bill "places restrictions on existing funds used to support broader ICE enforcement efforts like those that target immigration fugitives and criminal aliens in our communities as well as those that allow ICE to partner with state and local law enforcement agencies to reduce crime." She added: "We are hopeful that the House will fund the plan without restricting these other important immigration enforcement programs." Several amendments to the spending bill could be offered during today's markup. Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Harold Rogers, R-Ky., said he is concerned that the bill places too many restrictions on the department when it comes to spending money to build fencing along the southwest border. Appropriations ranking member Jerry Lewis has said he opposed a provision that would require the department to pay prevailing wages on contracts. Rogers expressed concern that the bill does not cap how many airport screeners the Transportation Security Administration can hire. THANKS, YOUR HELP IS URGENTLY NEEDED,