Tea Party Delivers Letters to Congress Opposing Amnesty

In the hours before the Congress heads home for August recess, a large coalition of Tea Partiers from around the country delivered letters announcing their opposition to amnesty for America’s illegal aliens to every member of the House of Representatives.

“We write to express our opposition to House consideration or passage of any legislation, amendment, resolution or conference report that bears any resemblance to S. 744, the Senate amnesty bill that passed the Senate on June 27, 2013,” the coalition, led by Tea Party Patriots, wrote to each member of Congress.

The coalition also indicated its opposition to any efforts by House GOP leadership to try to enact the Senate bill via a conference with any House bills. “We also oppose any effort by House Leadership to go to conference on the Senate bill, including any plan to pass a simple one-page bill that would allow the House to deceive the American public and pull a bait and switch to ultimately pass a conference report resembling the Senate bill,” they wrote.

The group detailed problems with the nearly 1,200-page Senate bill, including that it will “cost Americans taxpayers trillions of dollars,” will lower Americans’ wages according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), fails to close loopholes allowing illegal aliens access to welfare programs, does not secure the border, imposes “significant burdens on” state and local government, increases the flow of future illegal immigration, “contains payouts and political favors for special interest groups,” gives the Secretary of Homeland Security “total discretion” on whether to follow the law, “reverses America’s ‘melting pot’ tradition by funneling taxpayer dollars to community organizing groups that undermine the patriotic assimilation of new immigrants,” and “decimates” interior enforcement of America’s immigration laws.

“Obamacare should have taught us the dangers of passing sweeping ‘comprehensive’ legislation,” the coalition added. “Congress should not pass legislation that is written by special interests and opposed by the American public. In addition Congress should not pass legislation that is too large and complex for anyone to read and comprehend. Finally, Congress should take its legislative responsibilities and Constitutional duties seriously and not hand over significant policy-making decision and discretion to unelected bureaucrats without any real oversight or accountability.”

The coalition asks each member to call on House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and others in GOP leadership to publicly commit that they “will not convene a conference on the Senate amnesty bill.”

“The Senate bill is severely flawed and should be thrown out,” the coalition told members to tell leadership. “It is not a ‘starting point’ for immigration reform.”

The coalition urged members of Congress to meet with their constituents and their colleagues to lay out and discuss the fundamental flaws of the Senate bill and work to oppose any efforts by House GOP leadership to enact it.

Letter signers include Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots, Ginni Thomas of Liberty Consulting, Maria Espinoza from the Remembrance Project, Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum, Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, Roy Beck of NumbersUSA and Robert Vandervoort of ProEnglish.

They are joined by thousands of Tea Partiers from across the country who also signed the letter, whose names and states appear across nearly 180 pages at the end of the letter.