Georgia Rewards a 'True Immigration Reform' Candidate
In asking Georgia voters to send him back to the U.S. Senate, Saxby Chambliss promised to support 12 immigration actions that NumbersUSA considers the most important for protecting American workers, communities and our heritage of individual freedom and natural bounty. His defeated opponent basically only promised to grant an amnesty to 12-20 million illegal foreign workers and their dependents. Georgia voters chose the "True Immigration Reform Candidate."
With the whole nation's gaze fixed on this runoff, the Chambliss victory was a great sign.
In October, Sen. Chambliss (R-Ga.) promised that in the next term he will work to:
- eliminate Chain Migration and Visa Lottery categories that bring millions of new foreign workers per decade without any regard to their skills or their effect on American workers
- reduce overall immigration numbers
- stop bills that bring in unnecessary foreign workers
- end birthright citizenship when illegal aliens give birth
Sen. Chambliss also promised to:
- oppose any amnesty/legalization for illegal aliens
- fully fund Attrition Through Enforcement to cause illegal aliens to return to their home countries
- require worker verification of all the nation's employers
- require federal agencies to pick up illegal aliens when local agencies detain them
- fully fund the Entry/Exit system at our borders
- cut federal funds for sanctuary cities
- fund and implement border security measures
WE ALERTED TENS OF THOUSANDS OF GEORGIANS
At the beginning of this year, NumbersUSA offered every Primary candidate for Congress in the nation the opportunity to fill out our immigration survey. We sent the survey multiple times throughout the year.
And we promised every candidate who returned the survey with satisfactory answers (regardless of Party or other policy positions) that we would do all we could to let our own members know and encourage them to tell others.
We notified Georgians several times of the fact that Sen. Chambliss had taken our survey and promised to do everything we asked on the survey.
We told Georgians that they had a choice between two candidates with wildly different promises on what they will do about immigration.
Just before this runoff election, we told Georgia voters:
As you know, NumbersUSA never endorses candidates. We do not judge the character of the candidates, their leadership abilities or their stances on all kinds of other issues. But we do tell you who promises to do a better job on immigration.
In that regard, the election is no contest. Incumbent Sen. Chambliss has taken our survey and promised to support all 12 of our top legislative goals. James F. Martin, on the other hand, declined to take our survey and has campaigned in favor of Comprehensive Immigration Reform, giving a path to citizenship to the 12-20 million illegal aliens -- in other words, he will work for amnesty.
Mr. Martin would work with Senate Majority Leader Reid who has just announced that he intends to pass an amnesty in the spring that has been agreed upon by Pres-Elect Obama and Sen. McCain. To be fair, Sen. Chambliss actually worked with Sen. McCain in 2007 to present a similar comprehensive amnesty bill that involved a lot of compromises. But after Georgians screamed bloody murder, Chambliss withdrew his support and opposed that bill. Many people believe that if he had continued to support the amnesty it might have passed because other Senators would have felt comfortable voting for it. But in the end, Sen. Chambliss did the right thing and the Senate resoundingly defeated the amnesty.
When we look at every floor and committee vote and co-sponsorship on immigration bills, our computer assigns Sen. Chambliss an "A-Grade," which shows that he has done in the past what he promises to do in the future on immigration.
Mr. Martin's bio indicates a man of deep public service, including a stint in Vietnam. But when it comes to protecting Georgia workers' jobs from massive foreign worker competition, Mr. Martin shows almost no sign of doing the right thing on immigration policies. Mr. Chambliss has promised that he will put Georgia workers ahead of importing foreign workers and ahead of illegal aliens. Take a look at the grid. Don't forget to vote on Tuesday.
Sen. Chambliss won in a landslide, even though he had been forced into a runoff by such a close vote at the beginning of the month.
ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA