Contact: NAHCC
Loraine Segovia
615-216-6757
Take action now, the negotiation is not over !
CALL CONGRESS NOW AND TELL THEM NOT GIVE UP ON IMMIGRATION REFORM!!
CALL CONGRESS NOW AND TELL THEM NOT GIVE UP ON IMMIGRATION REFORM!!
A vote of 45-50 against a motion for cloture lead to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to pull the immigration reform bill last Thursday night.
"We are to hold our Senators responsible for the well being, stability and further development of our nation placed on a state of denial of our inherently related labor and immigration reform needs. The same Hispanic population who has been conveniently welcomed to help us grow is now in need of our reciprocity. We are not asking for charity or pity, we ask for what is due. Millions of hard working families who live in the shadows need us to step up for them to get what is fair. This is how we start building a real pathway to national security: By creating a nation in which we all are in, in which we are all equal. In which we all defend the same cause because we know we all belong". Yuri Cunza, President, Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
We are not to lose the hope that maintaining the interest on the issue and expressing our views to our representatives in Congress will lead to workable legislation that respects the rights of immigrant workers and their families. This is a time in which we all, concerned citizens should exercise our right to tell our government about the need for real and immediate solutions to an immigration problem that can not longer wait.
Let your voice be heard! Call your Senators today
Express your views about how they voted. Our representatives from Tennessee both Corker and Alexander voted against cloture. Ask them to no longer delay a final vote to resolve this problem. And ask them to keep working to achieve a comprehensive reform this year that will keep families united, protect workers rights and respect due process. Ask them to pass an immigration reform that is just and fair.
Many controversial amendments have both passed and failed, and this in turn has complicated the negotiations over the immigration bill. We need you to tell Congress to work past the problems and to not give up on immigration reform.
Please call your Senators by using these TOLL FREE telephone numbers:
Many controversial amendments have both passed and failed, and this in turn has complicated the negotiations over the immigration bill. We need you to tell Congress to work past the problems and to not give up on immigration reform.
Please call your Senators by using these TOLL FREE telephone numbers:
For instructions in English: 1-800-417-7666
For instructions in Spanish: 1-800-882-2005.
TENNESSEE SENATORS:
Lamar Alexander
202-224-4944
Bob Corker
202-224-3344
You could also give the operator your zip code. Click on the names above to visit your senator web page.
Tell your Senators:
We need immigration reform for our businesses, economy and communities. Please work past the problems, vote for cloture, and keep the process moving forward.
This reform needs to improve the guest worker and employee verification requirements. As a Hispanic business owner, I will judge Members of Congress for years to come on whether they genuinely helped reform succeed or fail.
This is a Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce announcement based in part on a "Call to Action" received from the USHCC. The NAHCC has obtained permission from the USHCC to edit and redistribute this message. The NAHCC is a member of the USHCC.
For additional information about the NAHCC please contact Loraine Segovia or Alejandra Peña Rodriguez by telephone at 615-216-5737 or via e-mail at: info@nashvillehispanicchamber.com
The Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is a 501(c)6 non-profit business organization. The NAHCC keeps the highest level of accountability on sponsorship funds received or other corporate contributions. The mission of the NAHCC is to help Nashville become a better place to live, work and visit by creating positive environments conducive to business growth, education, integration, and cultural appreciation. Partnerships with corporate members wishing to fund NAHCC programs and events are subjected to Board of Director's approval and are primarily to support educational causes and/or empower entrepreneurship opportunities as well as mainstream business member initiatives not restricted to the Hispanic enterpreneur or market.
To learn more about NAHCC programs, events and initiatives please visit us online at: www.nashvillehispanicchamber.com
This legislation has died. Despite the rhetoric, most Americans welcome immigrants. Legal immigrants. Follow the law, and welcome to the country. Break the law, pay the consequences. Why is that difficult to understand?
ReplyDeleteYou say "most Americans welcome immigrants," but does the law welcome them? Here's an example: what about the Irish? "Out of 1.2 million green cards issued last year, Ireland got about 2,000."(1) So when the Irish have so few opportunities (2,000) to come here legally, do we really welcome them?
ReplyDeleteAnd "break the law, pay the consequences" is OK only if the law and the consequences are just. In normal circumstances, the law should be obeyed. But if it is not just, the law is not supreme. (2) Would a law mandating the death penalty for a speeding ticket be OK because, as you say, if you break the law, you have to pay the consequences? No, it depends on the consequences, and the death penalty for a speeding ticket is out of line with our values. "The law is effective only in so far as it can be applied practically and humanely."
Both the law and the consequences regarding illegal immigration are unjust. What our law does is afford legal status to too few people, and for those who live and work among us without the benefit of having one of the precious few visas, the law treats those people as enemies of the state with no distinction of how they have behaved among us, and either segregate them from society or rip them from where they have made their home.
A neighbor is a neighbor is a neighbor, and we cannot ignore that fact because of visa status. "Once they're here, they're us. And once they're us, we're in it together." (3) "The illegal immigrants have become part of their communities, whether in Milwaukee or Nashville or San Antonio, their lives intersecting, often positively, with their neighbors, the Americans." (4) "Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds." - Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail
Fortunately for our country, and contrary to what you indicate in your comment, most Americans believe in these values. See the CNN poll last year, in which 77 percent of Americans were for allowing illegal immigrants who have been in the States for five years to apply for legal status. (5) Or see the polls this year that say the same thing. (6)
The legislation that you say has died was an effort to change the law for the better - to make it more practical, more human, more just. Whether it would succeed on those accounts is being debated, but our right as a society to try to fix our unjust laws is exactly what the democratic and legislative process is for.
(1) http://libertytogether.blogspot.com/2006/12/there-is-no-legal-way-for-irish-to.html
(2)
http://libertytogether.blogspot.com/2006/08/blessed-is-lawup-to-point.html
(3)
http://libertytogether.blogspot.com/2006/09/once-theyre-here-theyre-us-and-once.html
(4)
http://libertytogether.blogspot.com/2006/05/legal-or-not-immigrants-are-already.html
(5)
http://libertytogether.blogspot.com/2006/05/legalize-longtime-immigrants-most-tell.html
(6)
http://www.hispanicnashville.com/2007/05/most-americans-want-new-road-to.html
(7)
http://libertytogether.blogspot.com/2006/04/in-name-of-law.html