Carrying Capacity Network Action Alert Unique Opportunity for Immigration Reduction; If We Push in the Right Direction

November 2003

– CCN's Road Map for Success –

The political climate is becoming increasingly ripe for Congressional action on immigration reduction. We can get a good reduction bill passed before this Congressional session ends, but only if we push in the right direction.

The crucial question in our quest for immigration reduction is, ''Which strategy do we employ?''. The answer is clear and simple. We must push for a bill that will allow the United States to achieve population stabilization. If we push for anything less we will not be able to credibly advocate all the strong arguments for stabilization: environmental protection, resource conservation, sustainability, reduced unemployment, lower taxes, and all the rest.

There are several good bills in this session of Congress, but it is essential to make our first priority pushing for a bill that would make U.S. population stabilization possible. The highest number of legal immigrants per year that we could continue to admit and still achieve U.S. population stabilization is 100,000.One bill would make a giant leap in that direction by reducing legal immigration from 1.2 million per year to about 300,000 annually.

That bill is the Mass Immigration Reduction Act of 2003 (HR 946, Tancredo - R-CO). This bill would explicitly enact a moratorium on most categories of immigration and strictly limits others, substantially reducing the flow from its current 1.2 million plus annual level. We need only to push for an amendment to that bill to cap the numbers at 100,000 legal immigrants per year.

Flash: Stealth Amnesty Alert!

Just as this Alert was going to press, the open borders lobby began a major push for illegal alien amnesties. In particular, the Dream Act (S.1545), would allow illegal immigrants to gain in-state tuition rates and legal status. Call and fax your congressmen and tell them to cosponsor the Moratorium Bill (HR 946). Be sure to urge passage of the Moratorium Bill at the same time you voice your opposition to illegal alien amnesties and bogus guestworker programs.

CCN's Road Map for Success
– The "Linkage" Strategy –

Pushing a moratorium bill (HR 946) is the best choice because it sends a message loud and clear - the American people want an end to mass immigration. And even if we do not get a moratorium, the pressure generated by a unified push for moratorium creates tremendous pressure to pass other good bills.

Pushing only for a good bill or against a bad one alone is not the best strategy. Because bills on The Hill almost always get watered down, we must push for a bill that maximizes the pressure for Congress to move in the direction we want (i.e. a moratorium bill). Therefore the most
effective strategy for pushing any good bill or opposing a bad bill is to link the demand for a moratorium bill(HR 946 with an amendment to cap numbers at 100,000 per year) AND a request that members of Congress support or oppose the particular bill in question.

This strategy allows members of Congress to hear over and over again that the American people want a moratorium on mass immigration, thus increasing the chances of eventual passage of HR 946 as well as increasing the pressure to pass or oppose the good or bad bill in question. This way we maximize the pressure to reduce immigration numbers.

It Works.

CCN and its Alliance to Stabilize America's Population (ASAP!) Coalition allies have used the aforementioned approach to help stop amnesty bills for illegals (3 times in the last session of Congress!) and other bad bills. Now we can use our collective clout to get some reductions and good bills passed, provided we do it the right way.

MAJOR IMPEDIMENTS TO PASSAGE OF IMMIGRATION NUMBERS REDUCTION BILLS
– TWO REFORM LITE GROUPS

To get immigration numbers reduction bills passed it is essential that the two Washington D.C. area Reform Lite groups not continue their counterproductive strategies. These have resulted in achieving no reductions in the last twenty years. CCN's explanations (originally emailed) of how these Reform Lite groups' strategies continue to be counterproductive are enclosed. Activists have widely acclaimed these Alerts. If Dim Lite and Neo-Con lite groups hear from enough genuine immigration reduction activists like you, they may change their strategy to a more constructive one.

CCN has, thus far, chosen not to name them because we merely want them to change their counterproductive policies.
If those who claim to lead our movement do not take the lead on numbers reduction we can not expect politicians to stand firm in favor of strong numbers reduction bills. If they do not change their strategies which have proved to be failures for twenty years, what are we to conclude except that they are working contrary to the immigration reduction cause?

While these two groups' strategies have several serious flaws, perhaps the greatest flaw is that which they repeatedly push positions and bills which are less reductionist than the bills advocated by the strongest supporters of immigration reduction in Congress! This severely undercuts the efforts of these members of Congress and discourages them from introducing or cosponsoring good bills.

History of a Failed Strategy

The most egregious example is when the Neo-Con Lite group cut the legs out from under the heroic Representative Bob Stump and 80 members of Congress who in the mid 1990's cosponsored a ‘moratorium bill'. This Neo-Con Lite group refused to actively support the Stump bill and instead pushed a bill which would have capped numbers at 780,000--a reduction of 10% of the flow at that time. Predictably, it failed. As the attached emails demonstrate, both Reform Lite groups continue their counterproductive policies to this very day.

How many politicians supporting the reduction cause dare take a position which is more reductionist than the positions of these two groups who bill themselves as leaders of the "reform" movement? If those who claim to lead our movement do not take the lead on numbers reductions we can not expect politicians to stand firm in favor of strong numbers reduction bills. Yet both the Neo-Con and Dim Lite groups refuse to seriously push the Moratorium bill (HR 946) and the Dim Lite group recently cut the legs out from under the over 100 Members of Congress who support a Matricula Ban bill.

Another mistake of these Lite Groups is that they continue pushing the ineffective 'category approach' to reduction. And one of them actually implements a ‘de facto' immigration ‘management approach'. These flawed strategies have distracted activists from focusing on The Big Issue, number
reductions, as well as these strategies also are counterproductive and have resulted in achieving no reductions in the last 20 years.

The reprints of email Alerts show how the Neo Con Lite and Dim Lite Groups have failed us and our country, and how they can avoid failing us in the future are enclosed.

Bottom Line:

The Dim-Lite and NeoCon-Lite Groups have been serious impediments to getting immigration reductions. If these groups hear from enough genuine immigration reduction activists like you, they may change their approach to a more constructive one. If they do not, at least we have exposed them for what they are-- part of the problem, not part of the solution. Real immigration reduction is possible if we act immediately to do the following:

1. Contact your Representative and Senators and urge that they cosponsor the Moratorium Bill (HR 946) with an amendment to cap the numbers at 100,000 per year AND that they push for a Matricula Card Ban by cosponsoring HR 687.

2. Ask the groups you support if they have signed on to the ASAP! Coalition's four point program in which every signatory makes pushing for a moratorium its very first priority, and to send you a copy of their letter signing on.

3. Ask them to tell you, in writing, what they actually are doing to make passing an immigration moratorium their very first priority.

4. Support CCN and its' ASAP! Coalition allies in a unified front behind the only position that will work to get reductions, the ASAP! Coalition's four point program with its Moratorium Centerpiece.

Pushing for A Moratorium is Essential!
Pushing such a moratorium bill as our first priority:

1. Increases pressure to reduce all immigration numbers and to pass other good bills, regardless of whether the moratorium bill itself passes or not.

2. Increases the pressure on Congress to stop bad bills and policies such as granting Social Security benefits or Driver's Licenses for illegal aliens.

3. Will help stop illegal alien amnesty bills. Amnesties serve as a magnet for more friends and family members to come illegally.

4. Provides another tool to stop the de facto "stealth amnesties" of illegal immigrants that are being pushed by the Bush Administration and Mexican Officials through the acceptance of Matricula ID cards and/or the establishment of Amnesty/Guestworker programs.

5. Places the burden of justifying mass immigration where it belongs - on the opposition, while allowing our side to tout all the benefits that would be achieved by U.S. population stabilization.
6. A moratorium on all legal immigration in excess of 100,000 per year is the only way for the U.S. population to ever have a hope of stabilizing.

6. It makes our message entirely clear and gives our activists a rallying point: we must end mass immigration.