Border Fence Amendment in Jeopardy*ACTION ALERT*

An Action Alert from www.fairus.org


Border Fence Amendment in JeopardyHelp FAIR Ensure that Congress Works to Secure Our Border!
Late yesterday, FAIR received word that Members of the House Appropriations Committee are considering stripping the Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending bill of an important border fence amendment.

As FAIR reported in July, the Senate adopted four common-sense enforcement measures as part of the FY2010 DHS spending bill. One of these amendments was a Border Fence Amendment (#1399), offered by Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC). This amendment requires DHS to complete almost 700 miles of double-layered, reinforced fencing along the southwest border by the end of 2010. This amendment is crucial to true immigration reformers because it would direct DHS to complete the border fence as Congress originally intended when it passed the Secure Fence Act of 2006. DHS has been constructing fencing that would prevent vehicular border crossings, but the DeMint Amendment will ensure that the border fence will also reduce illegal alien foot traffic. The Senate ultimately passed the DHS spending (or appropriations) bill with the DeMint language — a solid victory for true immigration reformers across the country.

However, the fight to ensure that the DeMint Amendment becomes law is not over. After nearly three months, it appears that members of both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are finally ready to “conference” the DHS spending bill to resolve the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. The House version of the bill does not contain the DeMint amendment, and FAIR has learned that key members of the conference committee are considering dropping this language from the final version of the bill.

You can help FAIR ensure that the DeMint Border Fence Amendment survives conference committee! We need you to call the Members of Congress who will be on the DHS spending bill Conference Committee and tell them:

You support the DeMint border fence amendment that was adopted in the Senate as part of the FY2010 DHS Appropriations bill.
You expect them to do everything in their power to ensure that this amendment will be included in the final version of the bill.
You won’t accept any effort to strip this important border security measure from the bill during backroom, closed-door negotiations.

(Likely) House Conferees:
David Obey (D-Wisconsin): 202-225-3365
David Price (D-North Carolina): 202-225-1784
José E. Serrano (D-NY): 202-225-4361
Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX): 202-225-4511
C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger (D-MD): 202-225-3061
Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV): 202-225-4172
Nita M. Lowey (D-NY): 202-225-6506
Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA): 202-225-1766
Sam Farr (D-CA): 202-225-2861
Steven R. Rothman (D-NJ): 202-225-5061
Jerry Lewis (R-California): 202-225-5861
Hal Rogers (R-Kentucky): 202-225-4601
John R. Carter (R-TX): 202-225-3864
John Abney Culberson (R-TX): 202-225-2571
Mark Steven Kirk (R-IL): 202-225-4835
Ken Calvert (R-CA): 202-225-1986

Senate Conferees:
Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia): 202-224-3954
Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii): 202-224-3934
Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont): 202-224-4242
Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland): 202-224-4654
Patty Murray (D-Washington): 202-224-2621
Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana): 202-224-5824
Frank Lautenberg (D-New Jersey): 202-224-3224
Jon Tester (D-Montana): 202-224-2644
Arlen Specter (D-Pennsylvania): 202-224-4254
George Voinovich (R-Ohio): 202-224-3353
Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi): 202-224-5054
Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire): 202-224-3324
Richard Shelby (R-Alabama): 202-224-5744
Sam Brownback (R-Kansas): 202-224-6521
Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska): 202-224-6665

Contact your Representatives click here.