Questions to ask your Congressman/Senator at a Townhall

An interesting list of questions from www.fairus.org


ASK YOUR CONGRESSMAN AND SENATORS
WHERE THEY STAND ON IMMIGRATION

(1) Illegal Aliens Taking American Jobs.
Background: Right now, 14.7 million Americans are looking for work while 8.3 million illegal
aliens are in the U.S. workforce, many in jobs they never should have had. For every illegal alien that
is working, an American worker is not. E-Verify is the federal government program that can help
stop this and protect American jobs. E-Verify lets employers verify that a new employee’s name
matches their Social Security number and ensures that workers are legally authorized to work in the
United States. It is voluntary, it costs employers nothing, and this year alone it will be used to fill
12.3 million jobs with legal workers! Unfortunately, E-Verify is set to expire on September 30, 2009.
During consideration of the Fiscal Year 2010 Homeland Security (DHS) spending bill, the Senate
adopted two commonsense, E-Verify amendments. The first was offered by Sen. Jeff Sessions (RAlabama)
to: (1) make E-Verify permanent, so it won’t expire; and (2) require every contractor that
works with the federal government to use E-Verify. The second amendment, offered by Sen. Chuck
Grassley (R-Iowa), would expand E-Verify to allow employers to check whether current employees
are legal U.S. workers (currently, E-Verify can only be used to check new - but not existing - hires).
This would help free up American jobs for American workers and shut off the magnet that drives
illegal immigration. When Congress returns to Washington in September, a House-Senate conference
will decide whether the Sessions amendment and Grassley amendment will be included in the final
version of the Homeland Security bill. Do your Congressman and Senators support E-Verify? Do
they support American jobs?
Tell your Congressman and Senators: “I support E-Verify. It protects American workers! Will
you vote against the DHS spending bill if it does not: (1) include a permanent extension of E-Verify;
(2) require government contractors, who get paid with my tax-dollars, to use E-Verify; and (3) allow
employers to use E-Verify for both new and existing employees? What specifically are you doing to
protect American jobs? What are you doing to make sure these provisions are in the final version of
the Homeland Security bill?”

(2) Illegal Aliens & Health Care Reform.
Background: America’s Affordable Health Care Act (H.R.3200) is the House health care reform
bill. The bill creates a new “public” health insurance plan and “affordability credits” to help cover
the cost of private insurance. Section 246 says that illegal aliens won’t be eligible for these credits,
but nothing in the bill requires the government to verify eligibility, meaning that illegal aliens will be
able to receive the credits. Because two House committees have rejected amendments to require
eligibility verification, the bill does nothing to ensure that those who receive taxpayer-subsidized
health care are in fact eligible. Despite the fact that 80% of Americans oppose providing taxpayerfunded
health care for illegal aliens (Rasmussen Reports), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-
California) has indicated that the House of Representatives will vote on a health care reform bill as
soon as September – a bill that will give illegal aliens taxpayer-funded health benefits.
Tell your Congressman and Senators: “I am among the 80% of Americans who oppose taxpayerfunded
health care for illegal aliens. I don’t want you to take my hard-earned money and use it for
that. Don’t tell me Section 246 of the House bill prevents that. Section 246 is meaningless because it
does not require the government to verify eligibility using the SAVE system. This means the House
bill will give taxpayer-funded health care to illegal aliens. What are you doing to make sure the
health care bill, if passed, will include meaningful verification procedures to ensure that illegal aliens
are not provided taxpayer-funded health care benefits?”

(3) Illegal Aliens & Driver’s Licenses.
Background: The Senate Homeland Security Committee recently passed the PASS ID Act (S.
1261). The bill now awaits action on the Senate floor. This bill will gut many of the key immigration
and security provisions related to driver’s licenses that Congress enacted in 2005.
PASS ID will:
(1) Allow illegal aliens to fraudulently obtain “secure IDs” (Section 242(c)(3) eliminates the
requirements that states verify the validity of documents used to obtain a secure ID);
(2) Re-establish many of the security and immigration loopholes that allowed the 9/11
hijackers to carry out the attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center (PASS ID
opens the door for people without secure IDs to board commercial airplanes); and
(3) Allow someone like 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta to use any of his 17 known aliases to
obtain a driver’s license (Section 242(c)(2) repeals the requirement that secure IDs be
issued only to someone based on their “full legal name”).
The full Senate could consider PASS ID when Congress returns to Washington in September.
Tell your Congressman and Senators: “I oppose PASS ID and any effort to weaken security
requirements for driver’s licenses. I do not support driver’s licenses for illegal aliens. Do you
support or oppose PASS ID? Will you publicly encourage other Members of Congress to oppose this bill, as well?”

www.fairus.org