How many of your friends will benefit if an amnisty bill passes in the congress?
606615
Lordzander--we meet again :)\n\nI am surprised at the vehement hatred I see posted in answer to this question. \n\nI have family memebers that would benefit from the president's proposed guest worker program (no amnesty has been proposed), due to  a major screw up with immigration forms being mishandled and no opportunity being given to refile or correct. They are not from Mexico, however they are of latin origin. They are in limbo, waiting for a response. Been waiting two years. They were here on a religious workers' visa. I know of many people who would benefit from a guest worker program. It is a humane response to a very complicated problem.\n\nNow, those of you who don't hang with farmers--will you be willing to pick the crops?  If the food goes unpicked, how much will you be willing to pay for that very scarce head of lettuce?  $5.00 perhaps, if picked by legal American hands?  How could you afford to eat, let alone pay for gas?\n\nHave you considered that unemployment is 4%, which is about 9-10 million Americans. There are about 15-20 million undocumented workers here.  If we subtract that number we still have anywhere from 4~10 million jobs unfilled.  What will happen if we don't have our illegals willing to work for so little?  Competition for workers, jobs that just don't get filled, inflation, a shrinking economy and a falling dollar. None of these are very good things--they all lead to a downward economic spiral.\n\nBut, I can see that most of you who have answered are inspired by hatred rather than facts. Learn to love your illegals and be glad they are here; they allow so many of us to live a very comfortable life.
507720
In general, the best effort to be made to stop a bill is to write your representative / Senator and tell him/her that you are against the proposition. If he/she notices that a large majority of his/her constituents is against it, then he/she will probably vote against it. This is of course in a perfect world.\nIn the real world, it is very difficult to really imagine what is happening on the hill. More often than not, a representative will vote on a particular bill against his/her beliefs or desires of the constituents in order to gain a vote from another rep. on another bill. \nFor instance: \nYou (and your constituents) want a law saying all cars must be red. I want them all to be blue. \nYou want free ice cream on Thursdays. I want free soda pop on Thursdays.\nSo we make a deal, you vote for blue cars and in turn I vote for ice cream.\n\nAs for the particular bill in question, both partisan groups see big (personal) advantages in passing this bill. The Democrats see a LOT of new voters, while the Republicans see LOTS of cheap labor for their pals in Big Industry (who get them voted into office.)\n\nSo I think we Americans are going to see the probably biggest sell-out of our society in a long time. I have already stated my opinion on this immigration issue in an earlier post, so I wont go into it again here, except to say this: The immigrants showed ZERO respect for our laws by their actions, why reward them with citizenship?
648917
Influencing legislation requires two things, or a combination of the two:\n\n1. A billion dollars to bribe politicians (the polite term is "campaign contribution");\n\nor,\n\n2. The support of millions of people who agree with you and are willing to be active in the matter.\n\nMaybe you could find an establihed organization that is working towards similar goals and try to get their support.
1163812
Which supplemental are you referring to?  All the other approps bills are making their way through the process now...most of them now in the Senate.
436053
I think it takes 3/4 of the states to ratify after the congress votes on it. I am not sure though.
923538
If you are in the U.S., get in touch with your local senators and representatives (state and federal) and government leaders. If you give them a really big campaign donation, that is even better.
527733
You go to your Congressman with 200,000 names supporting a petition. That is how. I worked with the Citizens Action Coalition in the 80's and that is how it is done.
482893
The USSenate passed a bill today that would allow illegal aliens--even if they committed a felony--to receive Social Security benefits and others--All but 5 Democrats voted for the passage. My only hope is that it will not pass the House!!!  THIS is ridiculous legislation--since Social Security is in trouble already!!!!
324205
Key provisions of the Senate's main immigration bill would create a "gold card" program for illegal immigrants who entered the United States before Jan. 4, 2004, and create a guest worker program to bring in more foreign laborers, according to Senate Judiciary Committee staff members.\n\nThe committee is to begin debating the measure Wednesday under a three-week timetable aimed at producing a final version for the full Senate by March 27.\n\nSponsored by the committee chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the legislation is designed to strike a middle course between a bill passed by the House that calls for tougher immigration enforcement and the wishes of pro-immigration advocates who call for permanent legal status -- and eventual citizenship -- for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.\n\nPresident Bush, defying objections from conservatives, has called for an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws and the creation of a temporary guest worker program to ensure a steady source of labor for U.S. businesses. Under Bush's plan, qualified workers, including residents now living here illegally, could stay in jobs for up to six years, then would be required to return home.In a move to build support for Bush's guest worker amnesty plan, administration officials talked about how they would actually implement the program. Jaws dropped as the administration reps explained the centerpiece of the program, a "Gold Card" that would enable illegal aliens to enter the U.S. at will, and work at any job with no labor market or other tests needed but would deny them citizenship. "Gold Card" would be valid forever, similar to current "Green Cards" but illegal aliens holding a "Gold Card" would not be able to adjust their status through naturalization.
884794
When congress passes the bill to raise it. It was defeated about 2 months ago. http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm
461612
YES YOU CAN WRITE THEM,CALL THEM AND EMAIL THEM!! YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO AND YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THAT THEY WORK FOR US!! http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/Surprisingly few people ever write to their United States senators or congressional representatives. Perhaps ninety percent of our citizens live and die without ever taking pen in hand and expressing a single opinion to the people who represent them in Congress. This reluctance to communicate results from the typical and understandable feeling that legislators have no time or inclination to read their mail, that a letter probably won't be answered or answered satisfactorily, that one letter won't make any difference anyway. Based on my own experience, and speaking for myself at least, I can state flatly that these notions are wrong.    *  Write your own views--not someone else's. A personal letter is far better than a form letter, or signature on a petition. Many people will sign petition without reading it just to avoid offending the circulator; form letters are readily recognizable--they usually arrive in batches and usually register the sentiments of the person or lobbying group preparing the form. Form letters often receive form replies. Anyway, I usually know what the major lobbying groups are saying, but I don't often know of your experiences and observations, or what the proposed bill will do to you and for you. A sincere, well-thought-out letter from you can help fill this gap;\n\n    * Give your reasons for taking a stand. Statements such as "Vote against H.R. 100; I'm bitterly opposed" don't help much, but a letter which says, for example, "I'm a small hardware dealer, and H.R. 100 will put me out of business for the following reasons . . ." tells me a lot more.  Maybe I didn't know all the effects of the bill, and your letter will help me understand what it means to an important segment of my constituency.
753540
But that won't happen, or you might get the half-hearted endorsement\n\nCountry first; party much later
23080
You'd be surprised.  Members of Congress spend lots of time in their district.  All of them maintain homes there, and (unlike Senators who run for reelection every six years) members of Congress are continually involved in permanent fundraising and community outreach in their districts.
463944
Look here:\n\nhttp://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&gl=us&oi=newst\nA tough immigration bill passed by the House is now before the Senate. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls, co-sponsored the House bill, which would make it a felony to immigrate illegally or help someone ...
722499
Any bill touted by McCain, Martinez, or Kennedy is a rotten deal for law abiding citizens who are in this country legally. It rewards illegal behavior, and tells people trying to sneak into this country that that type of activity is ok. Anything less than what the House proposed, HR 4437 goes against what 81% of Americans polled wants: Secure borders, no amnesty.
763316
In order to be elected to a seat in the House or Senate, you MUST be able to finance the election yourself or be able to raise the millions of dollars required. A teacher, for example, is unlikely to be able to do either of those things.\n\nIn order to get a bill passed through Congress, it requires millions of dollars in lobbying funds, advertisements, and other "tricks". Only large corporations or individual billionaires (like that jerk, George Soros who single-handedly funded Moveon.org in the last presidential election) are able to make any significant impact on legislation.
566641
I believe it has currently passed the House of Representatives, where it was introduced, and sent onto the Senate for passage there, where a different version was passed.\n\nThe House must now reconsider and hold another vote since U.S. law requires an identical version of the law to be passed in both houses of Congress before being submitted to the President for official approval.\n\nChances are it will pass into law, though, since there is widespread support for tougher measures to prevent illegal immigration both in Congress, and in the American public in general.  If you are interested in learning more about this bill, you can always check with the Justice for Immigrants website, which has a detailed summary of the bill, as well as the complete time-table of its progress through Congress, the roll call of who voted for and against it, etc... and you can always contact your local Representative or Senator to express concern.  The HR and Senate websites contain complete contact information for all members of Congress, who usually do respond to the concerns of their constituents since the very nature of their job requires members of Congress to be accountable to the public they were elected to represent.