Late last week the Open Borders coalition, in and out of Congress, revealed their plans to push through two major amnesties this year. Now is our chance to stop them.

Here are the developments:

• The Los Angeles Times reported that foundations controlled by billionaire George Soros and others have put together an $18 million war chest to push through a GENERAL AMNESTY this year.
• The "Dream Act" amnesty for illegal alien high school grads has been reintroduced. The open borders crowd expects this least offensive (to some people) amnesty to break NumbersUSA's eight-year perfect record on defeating amnesties.
• An aide to Harry Reid told the Los Angeles Times that the fix is in: "comprehensive immigration reform," which we know to contain a GENERAL AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS will be brought to the floor of the Senate this Fall. So you see, they are hoping to amnesty the kids with "Dream Act," then follow up by amnestying their parents, aunts, and acquaintances, a few months later.

Let me remind you about the "Dream Act." It's an amnesty for illegal aliens who graduate from high school in the U.S. The immigration grievance lobbies argue that it wasn't the fault of these kids that their parents brought them illegally into this country. Therefore, they say, these young people should be given an automatic path to citizenship, in-state tuition at universities, and the whole galaxy of other social benefits that only citizens are entitled to.

We object strongly! Every time someone is rewarded for breaking the law, bad things result. First, millions more people will be tempted to illegally cross our borders, and bring their children with them. Secondly, government resources are scarce. Every subsidized slot at a state university given to an illegal alien is one less we ultimately will be able to give to a current American citizen.

The open borders lobby believed two years ago that the "Dream Act" garnered too much sympathy to fail. Well, it did fail—we defeated it soundly several times. But last Friday, Sens. Dick Durbin and Richard Lugar introduced it afresh into the Senate.

We expect a huge, expensive struggle on this. The other side only lost by eight votes last time. Since then, the election has added several new open borders votes to the Senate. Frankly, the only way we can defeat this amnesty this year will be if every one of our activists sends all their faxes, makes all their phone calls, and contributes financially to our struggle.

Here are some critical Action Items every NumbersUSA member should do today:

1) Go to your Action Buffet and send all the Faxes to Congress and the President you see there. This is hugely important. Don't wait a minute.

2) Read all the details about the new amnesty threats in our news section. Some of our activists only read emails from us and don't go to our Home Page. Only on the NumbersUSA web site will you see the in depth news and extended analysis by Roy Beck and others.

3) If you haven't made a financial contribution lately, please donate now. You've already read that the other side has raised an $18 million war chest to defeat us on total amnesty. Needless to say, we don't have that kind of big money funding us. We're totally dependent on the activism and financial donations of our members to send your faxes and band down the doors of Congress.

4) Have you signed our brand-new Petition to President Obama? This is new, different from the one several months ago. It's important you sign it and submit the name of friends, so we can send the petition to them as well.

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JIM ROBB is NumbersUSA's Vice President, Operations