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.

(And to make matters worse, the HOUSE Judiciary Committee again on Wednesday 17SEP08 will try to pass a small amnesty and huge foreign worker increase.)  

Everything seems to be handled at the moment by Senate staffers. We have reports that a  handful of Republican staffers are doing the lifting for the Chamber of Commerce and suggesting that they might agree with Democratic Sen. Menendez that a foreign worker surge should be added to the re-authorization of the E-Verify program.  E-Verify is used by many state and local governments to require that businesses keep illegal aliens out of jobs.

The problem is that the leadership of the Senate doesn't just put the House bill (passed last month) on the floor for a vote and re-authorize E-Verify for another 5 years without any of this nonsense about increasing greencards.

Instead, the employment fate of hundreds of thousands of Americans next year is in the air while some rogue Republican and Democratic staffers do some kind of negotiation dance. 

Your job in faxing and phoning is to break through the fog and get each Senate office to focus on the fact that it would be utterly ridiculous and callous to increase permanent foreign worker visas in this current economic climate.

DESPITE FINANCIAL INDUSTRY CRISIS, SENATE LEADERS WON'T PROTECT U.S. WORKERS

NumbersUSA cannot get commitments from key Senate leaders that they will ensure that E-Verify will go through without an immigration increase tied to it. For some reason, they continue to leave the window open for compromise.

This was difficult to understand a week ago.

Now, it is impossible to understand.  Have the Senators not seen the headlines this week of the further collapsing of our nation's financial industry? All of this collapse bodes ill indeed for jobs over the next year. The Senate should be CUTTING next year's immigration totals, not increasing them.

To make matters worse, we are having to fight a two-front war, with the House Judiciary likely to reconvene tomorrow to try again to pass a small amnesty AND a giant increase in foreign workers. (Read here about your success in pushing back attempts in the House last week.)

THESE AMERICANS BEING SACRIFICED IN BACKROOM SENATE TALKS

• In August, 592,000 additional Americans were added to the official unemployment rolls.
• Total number of Americans who are officially unemployed, looking for a job and can't find one? 8.28 million!
• Current official unemployment rate (highest in 5 years)? 6%
• Official unemployment rate considerably higher for Hispanic women: 8.7%
• Rate twice as high for Black American men: 12.3%!

Look to see whether Sen. McCain or Sen. Obama shows any concerns at all for these people in their Presidential races. 

They are expressing concern about the financial collapse and what that will do to American workers. But where do the two candidates stand on giving even more U.S. jobs away to foreign workers? It looks like they are fighting now over who is most supportive of giving an amnesty to 12 million illegal aliens.

PHONE YOUR SENATORS

Call your two U.S. Senators at 202-224-3121.

 Our message to every Senate office has to be:

1. No increase in immigration and foreign workers of any kind.

2. Re-authorize E-Verify without any strings -- just like the House did a month ago.

Ask your two Senators to talk to the Leadership of their own Party and urge them to get the re-authorization passed before rogue Senate staffers cause any more trouble.