The apparent choice of Arizona Gov. Napolitano to be Pres. Obama's head of Homeland Security is a very mixed signal. But Napolitano has witnessed how a mandatory workplace verification law in her state has performed like a charm with no significant disruption of the state's businesses. She should make her DHS job a lot easier by persuading Obama to endorse Rep. Shuler's (D-N.C.) SAVE Act which essentially would make the Arizona law a federal law.

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Considerable national media attention is being given to a disgusting murder of an Ecuadorian man in Long Island, New York, allegedly by a group of seven teenagers who in the middle of a drinking binge decided to go "beat up a Mexican." My guess is that these teenagers are opportunistic thugs who would have found somebody else to beat up if they hadn't had some animus toward Latin Americans, but it is incumbent on all of us who fight for lower immigration to emphasize the importance of not allowing our language about the problems of immigration policies to stir up hatred, and especially not vio

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The NumbersUSA staff had a fascinating, meaningful time at our Veterans Day lunch Tuesday, as each person recounted the broad stories of each veteran in his or her family. If you didn't do something like this at your place of work (or if you got the day off), I hope you will encourage it Wednesday. We become a true national community by our shared values and especially by shared sacrifices we make for each other. There are many kinds of sacrifice to celebrate and recount, but this week belongs to the stories of those who donned the uniform in service of our country.

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Hopelessness is a dangerous thing. That is why the petition urging Pres-Elect Obama to reject amnesty is so important -- and urgent. He and his transition team need to know that our side of the immigration debate is not depressed into inaction by the election of yet-another open-border president. And all who are disappointed by the election results need to act their way out of their depression. Right now, too many have the opinion of Steven from Texas:

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With all those incumbents falling left and right, and seats changing Parties all night, it has been understandable if you feel uneasy about how we will do in the next Congress in terms of protecting American workers and communities from radical new immigration efforts. Especially troubling has been the defeat of several of our strongest allies in both Parties. Our preliminary assessments, however, find some reassuring signs:   

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CHICAGO -- Changing planes here seems an appropriate place to anticipate the results and congratulate Sen. Obama on his victory. As my readers know, I have rated most past immigration actions and campaign promises of both Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain as "bad" to "abysmal." But I feel mildly optimistic at this moment about the next Presidency.

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Well, they did it. The Presidential candidates got to election day without disappointing The Establishment which thrives on massive foreign labor importation. No matter how much Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama talked of helping mainstreet or Joe the Plumber or the middle-class or the forgotten Americans -- and no matter how much they talked of change and shaking up the Washington establishment -- the fact is that ON IMMIGRATION ISSUES, both have reached election day with almost no veering from the status quo, fatcat, Robber Baron approach of the Establishment that drove Pres.

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The most important vote in the fight against immigration next Tuesday will take place in Arizona. Contrary to its name, "The Stop Illegal Hiring Act," Proposition 202 abolishes the use of E-Verify in Arizona and requires the state to wait for the federal government in actions against employers.

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Lots of big talk these last few days before the elections, but we've prepared a list of 20 U.S. Representatives and 19 U.S. Senators who are the best in Congress at consistently taking immigration actions that really protect jobs for American workers. Come inside and see.

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A coalition of employers has started a group to lobby for increases in the number of low-skilled immigrants admitted into the United States. They claim to need workers for meatpacking, poultry plants, plant nurseries, landscape laborers, construction, restaurant work, and to work in hotels, presumably as maids and janitors. We believe that the website represents yet another lobby asking for a handout from the United States government.

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The rotating banner ads in the left column of our home page are from a national campaign that NumbersUSA is running this fall. You probably have seen them on the home pages of national internet providers and national news sites. Generous donors specifically designated that we use their contributions to try to expand understanding among those in the American public who may have been a little bit afraid to examine immigration issues -- especially younger Americans.

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Anti-enforcement entities are crowing about estimates that the raid on the Postville, Iowa meatpacking plant cost more than $6 million thus far to deal with only 389 suspected illegal aliens. And that does sound like a lot of money. But my rough calculations suggest that if all 389 are deported, taxpayers are likely to save nearly $8 million in the first year alone.

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As is always the case when there are news stories, such as the one enclosed below, about fraud in the H-1B program, I've been flooded with e-mail messages from people who are elated that "the truth has come out." As always, my response to them is "Thanks for writing, but as I have stated repeatedly, the main issue in H-1B/employer-sponsored green cards is loopholes, not fraud. Indeed, the industry lobbyists love these news stories, because it diverts attention away from the real issue, the loopholes."

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Low unemployment numbers help the political party in power get reelected. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reports the unemployment rate, is part of the Department of Labor. The Secretary of Labor is appointed directly by the President, is a member of the President’s cabinet, and is likely to be loyal to the President. For these reasons, it is not surprising that the figure commonly supplied by the government and reported by the media actually underreports the true situation.

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OK, I'm having a little fun with the famous headline from another NY paper in the 1970s about Pres. Ford's reaction to NYC's request for a bailout. But essentially "Drop Dead" was the NY Times editorial board's response to rising American unemployment on Friday. The callousness of the media elite toward U.S. working stiffs continues to amaze me.

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(PLUS, WHY DID THE HISPANIC CAUCUS & THE IMMIGRATION REFORM CAUCUS COMBINE TO DEFEAT THE BAIL-OUT?) The Bank Bail-Out Crisis should teach us two very important things relevant to the immigration debate: (1) Not all economic growth is good (that is, it doesn't necessarily serve the public good). (2) It's a whole lot less painful to act when a problem is festering than after it becomes a full-blown crisis. To avert immigration crisis in the future, this was the year to pass the SAVE Act (Rep. Shuler's H.R. 4088) and finally start our immigration mess on the road to recovery.

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Senate Majority Leader Reid has two honorable choices: (1) Bring Sen. Menendez's backroom filibuster to the Senate floor for a vote. If he does this, there easily will be the 60 votes necessary to stop Menendez and allow a vote to pass H.R. 6633 (a clean E-Verify reauthorization). (2) Avoid a vote altogether by talking to Menendez privately, persuading him that what he is doing is threatening the reputation of the Democratic Party just before elections and get him to withdraw his "hold" on H.R. 6633.

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A lot of you are calling Senate offices and being told that NumbersUSA is overstating the seriousness of the crisis we have been telling you about. There is no question that the situation at this moment is confusing, and there may be nobody who understands it all. I will try to share what we know at this moment and appeal to you to keep the pressure on because I believe we remain in great danger of the Senate taking up a bill with a big surge in permanent foreign worker visas this month.

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Great news from Capitol Hill - I'm doing a series of radio shows all day at the "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" event, and talking on my cell phone in between with our Hill lobbyists, but I am pleased to hear that the House Judiciary Committee is not returning today to pass a giant foreign worker increase.

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Remember all the rhetoric at the two Presidential nominating conventions about standing up for America's workers and their families in tough times? Well, the House Democratic Leadership (with support from a lot of Republicans) plans this week to move forward a bill (H.R. 5882) to permanently give away even more U.S. jobs to an additional half-million foreign workers next year! With the corportate special interests calling shots, the only way to stop this callous move is if hundreds of thousands of you reading this decide to send a fax and make a phone call.

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In dissecting the Postville raids, many news stories, and even the Governor of Iowa, Chet Culver, have likened the working conditions in the Agriprocessors plant to those depicted in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Having recently reread The Jungle, I find it unfortunate that none of the news stories I have read touched on an obvious and important message of the revolutionary tome: that an influx of too many immigrants is the biggest contributor to such unspeakable working conditions.

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As we prepare for the expected Congressional battles over immigration numbers this fall, it’s a good time to take stock of the urgency of our cause and the tools we have available to help fight for lower immigration numbers. This video captures the essence of NumbersUSA and is a must-see for anyone who wants to fully understand the basic information behind our work.

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We hear so much these days about the separation of families due to immigration raids, but no one seems to mention the family separation as a result of both legal and illegal immigration to the United States and other parts of the world.

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Wealthy advocates of H-1B visas have industriously worked to keep this employer-designed program hidden from middle-class Americans, who are outraged when they learn how it harms them. In 2002, Nobel economics laureate Milton Friedman correctly identified the 1990 H-1B visa program as a "government subsidy" because it allows employers access to imported, highly skilled labor at below-market wages.

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As soon as we take a single skilled immigrant from a developing nation, around 17 different families may be put in line to follow because of our reckless Chain Migration policies. Our immigration policies literally "take a village" every time a new Anchor Immigrant is admitted to this country.

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Today, the Census Bureau again revised its U.S. population projection for 2050, giving us the bad news that we are headed to 439 million instead of 420 million. In nearly every measure, our local, state and federal governments can't even provide our current 304 million Americans with adequate infrastructure for a high quality of life in terms of the environment, transportation, public health, education, parks and many other areas, so why do federal officials insist on the immigration policies (particularly Chain Migration) to force us to handle 439 million?

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In personal relations, we are urged to forgive and forget. This is no doubt a good thing. But when U.S. Representatives and Senators try to sneak in votes for ever-higher immigration numbers, NumbersUSA never, ever forgets. With us, a vote, once cast, is remembered and evaluated forever.

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H.R. 5882 appears to be on its way. The bill would expand the number of employment-based green cards by a "recapture" process. This would first make available unused visas going all the way back to 1992, and would continue to do the same thing in the future, under a system in which visas unused in one year would be available for use in the next year. The same policy would hold for family-based immigration.

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Last May, ICE agents descended on the quiet town of Postville, Iowa, swooping up 390 people at the Agriprocessors, Inc. slaughterhouse in the largest immigration raid in U.S. history. Months later, we find ourselves in the middle of a blame game in which the big picture has been obscured. The employers blame the illegal aliens for deceit and falsifying documents. The illegal aliens blame “necessity,” possibly interpreted as blaming their home governments for neglecting their countrymen. Agriprocessors, Inc. is receiving blame for egregious working conditions and abuse.

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The U.S. Department of Labor today announced some of the worst stats on the fate of American workers in years while Sen. Menendez of New Jersey and Rep. Lofgren of California fought to import hundreds of thousands of additional foreign workers. This morning, Rep. Lofgren shoved her foreign worker bill through the House immigration panel, not allowing amendments to protect American workers.

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Pro-amnesty leaders had reasons to be distraught as the U.S. House passed a "clean" re-authorization of E-Verify for 5 years just after the release of a report that perhaps a million unlawfully present foreign citizens may have left the U.S. during the past year. One of the main arguments for an amnesty is that nothing -- NOTHING -- can cause most of the 12 million illegal residents to go back to their home countries. The pro-amnesty spokespersons were falling all over themselves telling the news media that the exodus is not what it seems to be.

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Mostly good news to report this evening from multiple sources in the U.S. House -- negotiators have agreed to a 5-year re-authorization of the E-Verify program to keep illegal aliens out of U.S. jobs and without the strings attached that had threatened to strangle it in future years. There are several indicators that many Members of Congress in both Parties really listened to you the citizens through your hundreds of thousands of faxes and phone calls this past week.

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Our Capitol Hill Team has been gathering information from elected officials and staffers all evening, and the picture is clear that the planned vote this week on re-authorizing the E-Verify system is a battle over whether the federal government will continue to enforce immigration laws at all.

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E-Verify (the effective program to keep illegal aliens out of U.S. jobs) now is facing danger in the Senate, as well as the House (see my previous blogs on House troubles). The NumbersUSA Capitol Hill Team has been told that Sen. Menendez (D-N.J.) has put a "hold" on legislation to reauthorize the E-Verify workplace verification program. That means the Senate is barred from voting to keep it alive. Without a vote, E-Verify will die in November.

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The most effective government program against illegal immigration is again under attack behind the scenes in the U.S. House of Representatives. Your NumbersUSA Capitol Hill Team just called me and urged that you pick up a phone this afternoon and help the Hill Team protect the E-Verify program that keeps illegal foreign workers out of U.S. jobs.

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Even many activist critics of the H-1B work visa fail to understand that one of its central attractions to employers is as a tool to avoid hiring older (age 35+) American programmers and engineers. Yet it couldn't be simpler and more obvious: (a) young workers cost less than older ones; (b) the vast majority of H-1Bs are young; (c) therefore employers want to hire H-1Bs, to avoid hiring the older and thus more expensive U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

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We have good results from Primary elections for two Democratic incumbent congressmen who bucked their Party leadership on immigration. Both faced vigorous Primary challenges from candidates backed by Democrats who said the incumbents were too centrist. We are well aware that Democrats who stand for reduced immigration levels will do better in the General elections, but we are particularly gratified to see that standing for sensible immigration also is a good political sell in Democratic Primaries.

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Having worked in Oregon politics for a number of years, I was quite surprised to see a new study that suggested the state doesn't have enough workers -- until I saw who paid for the study. The Coalition for a Working Oregon, an organization whose members include Oregon's Farm Bureau and Restaurant Association, as well as Immigration Works USA and Essential Workers Immigration Coalition, commissioned a study on what would happen to Oregon’s economy should the new “no-match” rule be implemented.

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Just back from my first trip to the Berkshires (in western Massachusetts) where the affluent of the East Coast megalopolises like to summer and play, and I was just stunned to see nearly every visible job filled with an English-speaking American.

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Did you know that registered members of NumbersUSA can now add their own comments to our blog entries? True! It's easy, and I'll show you how to do it. (For those who've never registered, you'll need to do so before you can add your comments.)

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In this press release found below, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it has initiated a "supervised recruitment" action with Cohen & Grigsby, the immigration law firm of "TubeGate" fame. This is the firm whose videos on YouTube showed employers how to legally avoid hiring Americans when they are sponsoring a foreign worker for a green card. DOL now will be giving Cohen & Grigsby's green card applications extra scrutiny.

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Friends, it is essential that the E-Verify program be re-authorized immediately and without any strings that might later strangle it. Earlier today, there were signs that supporters of illegal foreign workers were trying to attach just those kinds of strings, and we're happy to report that negotiations seem to be back on track for a clean re-authorization. Members of Congress must know that the E-Verify program to keep illegal aliens out of jobs is wildly popular -- and that the citizens will pay close attention to anybody who messes with it.

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Recently, the Dept. of Labor announced an audit of the Fragomen law firm, the largest in the U.S., alleging that Fragomen's attorneys got improperly involved in clients' hiring, supposedly trying to talk the clients out of hiring qualified American applicants. My take on it was that while Fragomen was probably within the law, the case illustrates how use of loopholes to avoid hiring Americans in favor of foreign workers being sponsored for green cards is standard operating procedure, including for America's biggest firms and most prominent immigration attorneys.

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You can order "The New Case Against Immigration (Both Legal and Illegal)" by Mark Krikorian at Amazon. And you can read reviews and descriptions here. HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, MY AMERICAN FRIENDS,

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I wish I could tell you precisely what Rep. Price (D-N.C.) and his U.S. House Appropriations Committee did to local immigration enforcement last week. Price and his staff have been so clever in their writing of the DHS spending bill that both NumbersUSA analysts and federal agencies are still attempting to figure out precisely what the House Appropriations Committee last week did. A week later, still nothing definitive.

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