Let me arm you with some very important numbers to resist a frantic push today by open-borders-leaning journalists and pundits to persuade congressional Republicans to help Pres. Obama pass a mass amnesty early next year.
No question that the results were quite mixed for those of us desiring rational, pro-worker immigration policies. But I believe the net puts us in a somewhat stronger position the next two years than in the last two years. Let's take a first look . . .
Twenty-two incumbent True Reformers ran for re-election on Tuesday, and 21 of the 22 won their races, while one incumbent True Reformer awaits a recount. Six newly identified True Reformers also won re-election, and at least 13 of 14 5-for-5ers also won re-election on Tuesday night.
I'll be live-blogging throughout Election Night about the immigration policy implications among the hundreds of results that you are unlikely to find on TV. I will be assisted by two dozen members of the NumbersUSA staff who will be combing through all the resources and results and alerting me to information that I should pass on to you.
The best place -- perhaps the only place -- in America for you to follow the Election Night results and their implications for immigration policy will be at www.NumbersUSA.com on Tuesday night. We'll be live-reporting the news and analysis from 6 p.m. Tuesday night into the wee hours of Wednesday -- as we did two years ago.
With Election Day just a few days away, it's a good time to take a look at some of the races NumbersUSA has been monitoring and will watch closely on Election night. With most of the focus on the Presidential campaign, there hasn't been as much coverage of the Congressional elections because, primarily, the make-up of both the House and Senate will look very similar to what it does today. Still, there are 20 Congressional races that could have an impact on immigration when the 114th Congress convenes in January.
The good news about Mitt Romney's pick to be his vice presidential running mate is that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) doesn't seem to have put a lot of thought into immigration policy and doesn't seem to have deep ideological reasons for his poor immigration record during his 14 years in Congress. Our Grade Card on him finds him throwing about half his weight toward protecting American workers and taxpayers from bad immigation policy -- and throwing the other half of his weight behind immigration policies that hurt American workers and taxpayers.
Recently, we've had some questions come across our help desk asking about Congressional redistricting and how it affects the Action Board. The Constitution requires the federal government to count its citizens every 10 years for purposes of Congressional apportionment. As a result of the 2010 census, several states are adding seats in Congress, while many others are losing. And several states have redrawn their district maps to reflect their state's changing demographics. So how does this all impact your Action Board?
Tuesday's Texas Republican runoff appears to ensure another major shift in next year's Senate toward immigration enforcement and protecting American workers from unfair foreign labor competition. Ted Cruz won an upset victory in part on immigration policy promises that would place him in sharp contrast to the retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Former Texas State Solicitor Ted Cruz overwhelmingly defeated Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst on Tuesday in the GOP runoff for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by long-time Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Cruz completed a NumbersUSA immigration-reduction survey answering "yes" to all questions earning him "True Reformer" status.
No matter which Party wins in November, the Indiana Senate seat now held by Richard Lugar should produce far better immigration actions. Democrat Joe Donnelly has a B+ Career immigration grade in the U.S. House. And the GOP primary victor filled out the NumbersUSA survey to earn the title of TRUE REFORMER supporting all 12 of our immigration stances.
Republican Presidential Hopeful Rick Santorum criticized the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops during an interview on Iowa public television on Monday. The USCCB have lobbied Congress for amnesty legislation, and over this past weekend, 30 bishops wrote a letter sympathizing with illegal aliens. Santorum is Catholic.
Much of the mainstream media seem stuck in the old paradigm that there are only two major options of what to do with the officially estimated 11 million foreign citizens living illegally in this country -- either deport them or legalize them. Nowhere is this false dichotomy more apparent than in the media treatment of Mitt Romney's immigration stance. Even though no candidate has talked more about the details of dealing with the 11 million, the common journalistic description is that Romney tells us what he opposes (amnesty) for them but not what he proposes to do with them.
Roy Beck, Chris Chmielenski, and Andrew Good analyze Newt Gingrich's immigration plan and how many illegal aliens could take advantage of the amnety. They also break down the overall immigration approaches of the other 2012 Presidential Hopefuls.
How many illegal immigrants could gain legal status under an idea proposed by Newt Gingrich? Perhaps as many as 3.5 million, according to figures published Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.
For the first time in three debates, Texas Gov. Rick Perry's decision to sign the Texas DREAM Act was challenged by the debate moderator and the other GOP Presidential Hopefuls. During Monday night's Tea Party Express debate in Tampa, Fla., Gov. Perry was forced to defend signing an in-state tuition bill for illegal aliens, while former Utah Gov. John Huntsman had to defend his decision to sign a bill allowing illegal aliens access to driver's licenses.
The field of GOP Presidential Hopefuls faced questions on how to secure the border and deal with the 11 million illegal aliens who live in the United States during Wednesday's debate held at the Reagan Library. While everyone in the field provided some details to their border security plans, most of the field also danced around the issue of amnesty with only a few providing a strongline opposition to amnesty.
Polls may not suggest it, and the candidates may not be catering to it, but immigration is an issue that voters won’t let the GOP White House hopefuls escape.
Republican primary voters keep bringing immigration up as the candidates campaign in back yards, opera houses and recreation halls across Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. To a sizable chunk of those who will pick the GOP’s presidential nominee, immigration is an urgent issue, even a litmus test.
Eight GOP Presidential Hopefuls participated in Thursday night’s debate in Ames, Iowa, but only five were asked about immigration. And none of the candidates brought up the issue on their own. Herman Cain had the strongest response in dealing with illegal immigration, while the frontrunner Mitt Romney was finally asked the question we’ve all been begging to hear.
When it comes to immigration policy, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman falls basically in the run of the pack of disappointing and unhelpful Republicans showing interest in the GOP nomination for President.
Our NumbersUSA staff has run an exhaustive research of public statements and actions by Huntsman on immigration and summarized them on our Presidential Hopefuls Grid.
Much to the misery of the open-borders lobby, Arizona voters have transformed yet another pro-amnesty champion into a secure-borders-only candidate.
Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) stunned his national pro-amnesty allies today in an Arizona Republic interview by saying that he has changed his mind about wanting "comprehensive immigration reform."
Neither Gov. Christie (R-N.J.) nor Rep. Bachmann (R-Minn.) meet the criteria to be among the 9 front-runners on our 2012 Presidential Hopefuls' Immigration Stances grid. But tens of thousands of readers of NumbersUSA.com asked that we rate these two. See the results . . .
