Political message

Immigration Issues are important to us all. Please visit
http://www.fairus.org/

The US government President, Congress, States are sponsoring bills
that will significantly affect all of us. Be aware of them or pay
later.

You can take action and send free faxes to the Government at
http://capwiz.com/fair/home/

Get the facts at http://www.fairus.org/Team/TeamList.cfm?c=40

Here are some of the issues shown at http://www.fairus.org/

Employment Document Verification: Key to a Legal Workforce
NEW! An effective program to let employers verify the legal work
status of new employees is now available in all 50 states. Making it
mandatory would deter illegal immigration, ease pressure at the
border, and ensure a legal workforce.

What's Wrong With Illegal Immigration?
By draining public funds, lowering wages and working conditions,
displacing legal workers, and overwhelming communities, illegal
immigration causes substantial harm to American citizens and legal
immigrants.

Illegal Immigration is a Crime
Illegal immigration--whether by crossing the border illegally or by
overstaying a visa--violates U.S. law and is punishable under the
Immigration and Nationality Act.

How Many Illegal Aliens?
Most estimates indicate that there are nine to eleven million illegal
aliens in the U.S.

Why Amnesty Isn't the Solution
Amnesty for illegal aliens encourages future illegal immigration,
rewards law-breaking, costs the taxpayers money, and is
overwhelmingly opposed by the majority of Americans.

How to Stop Illegal Immigration
FAIR's key recommendations for regaining control over our immigration
system and stopping illegal immigration.

Employer Sanctions
Penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens are on the
books but rarely enforced--yet they could be the key to stopping
illegal immigration.

Immigration Law Enforcement by Local Agencies
State and local law enforcement officials have the power to
investigate and arrest violators of federal immigration law.

Preventing Visa Overstays
Forty percent of illegal aliens entered the country legally but did
not leave when their entry permits required them to.

Border Patrol Operations
Even after 9-11, our borders remain porous and millions of people
enter the country illegally each year.

Section 245(i): "Adjustment of Status" Mini-Amnesty
Section 245(i) is a mini-amnesty that has allowed hundreds of
thousands of illegal aliens to gain legal permanent residence without
thorough background checks.

Anchor Babies: The Children of Illegal Aliens
Each year, thousands of women enter the United States illegally to
give birth, knowing that their child will automatically have U.S.
citizenship--and thus immediately qualify for a slew of federal,
state, and local benefit programs.

Non-Cooperation Policies: "Sanctuary" for Illegal Immigration
Despite heightened security concerns, some localities still
maintain "sanctuary policies," which bar local police from asking
suspects about their immigration status or reporting them to
immigration authorities.

Taxpayers Should Not Subsidize College for Illegal Aliens
Offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens means fewer
opportunities and less aid for U.S. citizens and legal immigrants.

Matricula Consular ID Cards
The acceptance of consulate-issued identification cards used by
illegal aliens poses serious legal and national security issues.

How Day Laborer Hiring Sites Promote Illegal Immigration
Day labor centers promote illegal immigration and drive down work
conditions for legal workers. Hiring illegal aliens at these sites is
a crime.

Social Security Funds for Illegal Aliens?
With Social Security facing possible insolvency, an Administration
plan would send hundreds of millions of dollars in Social Security
payments to Mexican citizens living in Mexico—including former
illegal aliens.

Distribution of the Illegal Alien Population
A look at the size, distribution, and characteristics of the illegal
alien population, including numerical estimates by state.

The Law Against Hiring or Harboring Illegal Aliens
An overview of federal law on hiring and harboring illegal aliens.

How to Report Illegal Immigration
Regional immigration investigations offices can help you report
illegal immigration.


Legal Immigration Reform View All
Why America Needs an Immigration Time-Out
A time-out would allow us to regain control of our borders, protect
the nation against terrorism, ease the pressure on the environment,
repair overburdened institutions, and allow the millions of recent
immigrants space to pursue the American dream.

U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform Recommendations
The bipartisan congressional Commission on Immigration Reform (the
Jordan Commission) advocated immigration reforms in line with FAIR's
recommendations.

Chain Migration
Chain migration--where one immigrant sponsors several other
immigrants for admission, who then sponsor several others themselves,
and so on--results in ever-larger numbers of people coming to the
U.S. and has consigned additional millions to visa waiting lists.

The Nuclear Family: A Matter of Fairness
Eliminating immigration entitlements for extended relatives (adult
siblings, adult children, and parents) and giving priority to the
nuclear family would reduce backlogs, lessen incentives for illegal
immigration, and help regain control over ever-increasing immigration
levels.

The Truth About Employment-Based Immigration
Although big business likes to claim that high immigration is
necessary for a robust economy, we could easily end our dependence on
foreign labor and find plenty of ingenuity and hard workers right
here at home.

How Guestworker Programs Harm America
Foreign guestworker programs displace American workers, lower wages,
levy massive hidden costs on taxpayers, and overburden an already
overwhelmed immigration system.

Visa Waiver Program
The visa waiver program allows visitors from 27 countries to enter
the U.S. without a visa, bypassing the background checks intended to
protect national security.

What to Do About Refugees?
Refugee policy should provide assistance to people truly fleeing
persecution, not serve as a back door through which to immigrate.

Asylum Reform
Asylum applications are now rife with fraud and abuse, with a
majority being filed by deportable aliens attempting to avoid
deportation. The program's abuse is unfair to people trying to
immigrate legally to the U.S. and to those who truly merit asylum.

H-1B Visas: Harming American Workers
The H-1B visa program is displacing American workers and lowering
wages.

Visa Lottery System
The visa lottery awards 55,000 visas each year based on the luck of
the draw, instead of skills or family reunification.

Million Dollar Visas
The investor visa program, which "sells" visas and the opportunity
for American citizenship to wealthy foreign investors, is one of
dozens of special programs pushed by a small political constituency.

Immigration and Trade Agreements
Free trade agreements with immigration-related provisions are opening
up American jobs to foreign competition.



Immigration Issue Centers : National Security

National Security View All
Immigration and National Security
Many of the serious problems in our immigration system exposed on 9-
11--systematic overload, bureaucratic negligence, and dangerous
loopholes--still have not been addressed.

Immigration Reforms to Combat Terrorism
Specific immigration policy recommendations to help protect the
nation against terrorism.

Automated Entry-Exit System: Key to National Security
Without entry-exit controls, the U.S. has no way of noticing whether
visitors illegally overstay their entry permits.

Driver's License Security
Access to driver's licenses by people in the country illegally poses
serious risks and undermines U.S. immigration law.

The Need for Secure Identification
In today's world, the question is not whether there will be systems
of identification, but whether they will be secure enough to protect
honest, law-abiding citizens and to keep aliens illegally in the
country from easily assuming false identities and passing themselves
off as legal residents.

Guiding Principles for Driver's License Reforms
Principles to guide state legislation to tighten access and
strengthen verifiability of driver's licenses and identification
cards.

What Makes Identification Documents Secure?
Verification, compatibility, uniformity, and enforcement are
necessary for an identification system to be reliable and secure.

FAIR's Comprehensive Document Security Proposal
Specific recommendations for secure, verifiable identity documents.

Abolish the Visa Waiver Program
The visa waiver program allows visitors from 27 countries to enter
the U.S. without a visa, bypassing the background checks intended to
protect national security.

Identity and Immigration Status of 9/11 Terrorists
Immigration data on each of the 9/11 terrorists.

Chronology of Terror
A timeline of international terrorist acts committed in the United
States.

Labor & Economics View All
Immigration and the Economy
Mass immigration is a drain on the economy; even studies claiming an
overall gain for the economy from immigration have found that it is
outweighed by the fiscal cost to taxpayers.

The Cost of Immigration
Mass immigration creates an enormous fiscal burden on American
taxpayers.

Immigration and Job Displacement
Mass immigration is displacing American workers by importing a
constant flow or immigrants willing to work for substandard wages.

Lower Wages for American Workers
Large-scale immigration is flooding the labor market and driving down
wages for everyone, immigrants and native-born workers alike.

The Truth About Employment-Based Immigration
Although big business likes to claim that high immigration is
necessary for a robust economy, we could easily end our dependence on
foreign labor and find plenty of ingenuity and hard workers right
here at home.

Immigration and Welfare
Immigrant use of welfare programs is 43 percent higher than non-
immigrants' use.

How Guestworker Programs Harm American Workers
Foreign guestworker programs displace American workers, lower wages,
levy massive hidden costs on taxpayers, and overburden an already
overwhelmed immigration system.

What's Wrong With the Proposals for a New Guestworker Program?
Myths and facts about proposals for a massive new guestworker amnesty
program.

Perpetual Poverty in Agricultural Labor
Current immigration policies are fueling poverty in among
agricultural workers.

H-1B Visas: Harming American Workers
The H-1B visa program is displacing American workers and lowering
wages.

Why the IT Industry Doesn't Need More H-1B Workers
The high tech industry should be able to fill its jobs without
resorting to importing foreign workers.

Lack of Employment Visas Shows Myth of High-Tech Labor Shortage
Although high tech companies have claimed they need additional visa
workers to fill labor needs, no worker shortage exists; to the
contrary, the market is filled with laid off American high tech
workers.

L Visas: Big Business's New Loophole for Displacing American Workers
The L-1 visa is being touted to high tech companies as the way to get
around the miniscule protections built in to the H-1B program.

National Research Council Report on Tech Workers
Findings of an October 2000 National Research Council report to
assess labor market needs for workers with high tech skills over the
next decade.

National Academy of Sciences Immigration Study
A look at a National Academy of Sciences study of the fiscal costs of
immigration.


Questions And Answers on Immigration and the Environment
How does large-scale immigration impact population growth, water and
energy supplies, urban sprawl, and other environmental issues?

The Population-Environment Connection
America's environmental priorities cannot be reconciled with the new
infrastructure and resource consumption that continued population
growth, driven by mass immigration, will require.

Immigration & U.S. Water Supply
U.S. water supply is straining under the constantly increasing
demands generated by immigration-driven population growth.

Immigration and Urban Sprawl
The rate at which farmland, forests, and other open space is being
developed doubled in the 1990s, from 1.4 million acres a year to 3.2
million acres a year.

Traffic Congestion
As immigration adds more than one million new residents to the United
States each year, more traffic crowds our already congested roadways.

How Immigration Hastens Destruction of the Environment
We won't be able to meet today's environmental priorities if our
population continues to grow at the staggering rates created by mass
immigration.

Immigration and Population Growth
Census data shows that immigration accounts for more than half of the
United States' annual population increase--at a time when communities
are struggling to provide services to existing residents.

More is Not Necessarily Better
As an area becomes more populated, its infrastructure starts
straining under the weight of all the new people who must be served.
Police forces, roads, and schools no longer satisfy the demands of a
growing population, and farmland and forests are sacrificed to strip
malls and housing developments.

Why Environmentalists Support Immigration Reform
The key to controlling environmental damage is to stabilize our
population a size sustainable by our environment and natural
resources--but high immigration is working at odds with efforts to
keep overpopulation under control.

How do Enivronmental Groups Rank Regarding Immigration?
Environmentalists agree that population growth is a serious issue.
But how do they respond when Census Bureau data shows that two-thirds
of U.S. population growth is due to immigration?

Immigration & Society View All
Immigration and School Overcrowding
The overcrowding crisis in American classrooms is directly
attributable to high immigration, show figures from the U.S. Census
Bureau. If immigration continues at current rates, efforts to reduce
class size and ease overcrowding will be doomed to failure.

Immigration and Poverty
Because U.S. immigration policy slants toward admitting relatives
rather than immigrants with needed workplace skills, our immigration
system is importing poverty--a time when America is still working to
meet the challenge of assisting our own poor and disadvantaged.

Immigration and Income Inequality
The number of undereducated immigrants in our society is rising, as
is their share of the poor population.

Immigration and Welfare
Immigrant use of welfare programs is 43 percent higher than non-
immigrants' use.

How Mass Immigration Affects American Minorities
Job competition by waves of new immigrants depresses the wages and
salaries of American workers and hits hardest at minority workers and
those without high school degrees.

Brain Drain
Brain drain tends to pull the best and the brightest from their home
countries, the very people most equipped to help improve living
conditions at home.

Criminal Aliens
Non-citizens who commit crimes are a growing threat to public safety
and national security, as well as a drain on our scarce criminal
justice resources.

Immigration and Crowded Housing
As competition for housing in cities with large immigrant populations
increases the cost of housing, overcrowded and unaffordable housing
is increasingly common.

How Mass Immigration Impedes Assimilation
Today's large-scale immigration has led to the growth of ethnic
enclaves where assimilation is less necessary than in years past.

Non-Citizen Voting in Federal Elections
Although it is a federal crime for non-citizens to vote in federal
elections, there are many documented reports of non-citizens voting,
creating a potential for elections to be affected.