Amnesty Lobby is Ready to do Battle in 2010, Are You?

By Ira Mehlman, FAIR National Media Director

On Wednesday evening I listened-in to the opposition's nationwide conference call aimed at gearing up and rallying the troops for an amnesty push in 2010. They are mobilizing and ready for action. They believe that 2010 is their best shot for a mass amnesty and they are not about to let it pass without an all-out effort.

The featured speakers were Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), Nydia Velasquez (D-N.Y.), and Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.). The organizers claim there were 16,000 calls on the line for the English language conference call, and that many included house parties and church events at which hundreds of people were in attendance. There was a second telephonic pep rally scheduled later in the evening for Spanish speakers.

Here are some of the key points covered:

1. They concede that our side is "tough and strong" and will put up a fight. (At least they're right about one thing!)
2. They acknowledge that they were out-organized in 2007 and vow not to allow that to happen again. They concede that during the 2007 amnesty battle, calls to Congress opposing amnesty outnumbered their side by a margin of 20-1.
3. They pledge that they will be better organized. They have scheduled a national kick-off to their amnesty campaign for the week of Jan. 12, culminating in a list of demands to be presented to Obama on Jan. 20, his first anniversary in office. Their goal is to have a bill passed by May 1.

Recurring themes:

1. Family, family, family, family. It's all about family values, keeping families together, reuniting families that are separated, telling the stories of families torn apart by our broken immigration policies.
2. President Obama needs to keep his promise to them. Obama and the Democrats owe them because Hispanics came out and voted for them.
3. This time they're not asking for amnesty; they're demanding it.
4. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is united and determined and will not give the administration or the congressional leadership a pass.
5. They are undertaking a full-scale effort to grow their movement and keep up the pressure starting now.

All three members of Congress urged the alleged 16,000+ people on the call to begin flooding congressional offices and the White House switchboard tonight (fill up their voice mailboxes) and to keep calling.

Here's what supporters of true immigration reform that serves the interests of the American people need to do:

We must take this effort seriously. We cannot and must not allow them to out-organize us. Supporters of true immigration reform must begin filling up voice mailboxes on Capitol Hill with messages of our own. (This time let's shoot for 50-1!)

1. Immigration reform is about American families. American families are struggling. Unemployment has topped 10 percent and millions of families are hurting. The federal government is running deficits in excess of a trillion dollars, and state and local budgets are strained to the breaking point. Honest, law-abiding, hard-working Americans cannot afford to reward millions of illegal aliens with amnesty.
2. The people who break our laws are responsible for the impact that it has on their families, not society for enforcing its laws.
3. President Obama and Congress must keep promises made to the American people. They must fix our economy, get Americans back to work, and enforce the immigration laws they have already passed.
4. The American people are united and we will hold our elected representatives accountable.

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