Meet the Grover Norquist of the immigration debate
Roy Beck may not have a pledge, but he does have Numbers USA—an influential lobbying and grassroots group with 1.3 million members, which focuses on limiting and reducing the numbers of immigrants in the country.
Beck’s group flexed its muscles during lobbying over a Republican-backed immigration bill that passed the House Friday, which would create visas for math and science graduates from American universities, while eliminating the Diversity Visa Program, a lottery that randomly awards visas to applicants from countries that send the fewest immigrants to America, and whose beneficiaries tend to be poorer and less educated.
Beck downplays his influence, but nonetheless says he doesn’t think the bill would have passed if Numbers USA had opposed it. “Everybody who was trying to get this bill through wanted to figure out a way that we would not oppose this bill,” he told MSNBC.com shortly after the vote.
It’s happened before. Back in 2007, when Bush pushed an immigration bill, Numbers USA supporters flooded congressional fax machines and phones with letters and calls. The New York Times credited the group with halting the bill. “And we only had 350,000 members then,” Beck says proudly.
So what does Beck want? He’d cap immigration levels at 500,000 legal immigrants a year, around half the current level. According to his plan, the majority of immigrants will marry or be adopted by Americans while a few highly skilled workers and special needs refugees will round out the numbers.
Today, Beck describes Tanton, who once warned of a “Latin onslaught,” with admiration, but denies that race plays a role in the group’s work. “Nothing that I’ve ever said or done or that Numbers USA has said or done agrees with [Tanton’s radical views]” he said. He says the group rejects racism and immigrant bashing.
“There are 11 million immigrants forcing 7 million Americans out of work,” he told MSNBC.com.
Numbers USA works closely with House members in crafting immigration legislation. Beck says the group emails, and phones legislators to discuss bills regularly. Regular email blasts request member action—sometimes two and three times a week, Beck says.
“I rely on Numbers USA whenever there’s an immigration-related bill in the House,” said Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., a member of the House’s conservative Immigration Reform Caucus. ”I like to get their input and their opinion on pending legislation, and I like to hear what they have to say about immigration-related bills and amendments I’m considering offering.”
Beck says this battle for immigration will be no different than previous fights.
“We are doing what we always do, which is to communicate with members of Congress when it looks like they’re starting to slide more into the loose labor way of thinking,” Beck said. “It’s not impossible to have some kind of amnesty, [if it] has offsets in future Green Cards and enforcement triggers, but there’s nothing we’ve ever seen that we can support.”
“In terms of style, there are some similarities between us, but he asked people to sign a pledge—that’s airtight,” Beck said. “We are not that way. There are sometimes reasons for compromise.”
“And you know,” Beck said with a small laugh. “Grover Norquist is an open borders kind of guy.”
http://tv.msnbc.com/2012/12/04/meet-the-grover-norquist-of-the-immigration-debate/