Why are we rallying?
MegaRally
- by D. Garcia
At the heart of our efforts is the common goal of using
our Constitutional rights of assembly, petitioning our government, and expression
to cause Congress to enact comprehensive federal immigration reform. Comprehensive
reform means not breaking families apart, not jailing children, creating a true
and efficient path to citizenship for lawabiding immigrants, and supporting
legislation that continues to project both the human and civil rights of all peoples;
despite their immigration status. This coalition effort is the continuation of momentum
of the Mega- Marcha of Dallas, Texas, that took place on April and May of 2006,
in response to HR 4437 and other anti-immigrant Congressional legislation.
Myths & Facts about Immigrants in America
Immigrants don't pay taxes.
All immigrants pay taxes, whether income, property, sales, or other. As far as income
tax payments go, sources vary, but a range of studies find that immigrants pay between
$90 and $140 billion a year in federal, state, and local taxes. Even undocumented
immigrants pay income taxes, as evidenced by the Social Security Administration's
suspense file (taxes that cannot be matched to workers' names and social security
numbers), which grew $20 billion between 1990 and 1998.
Source: National Academy of Sciences, Cato Institute,
Urban Institute, Social Security Administration
Immigrants come here to take welfare.
Immigrants come to work and reunite with family members. Immigrant
labor force participation is consistently higher than native-born, and immigrant
workers make up a larger share of the U.S. labor force (12.4%) than they do the
U.S. population (11.5%). Moreover, the ratio between immigrant use of public benefits
and the amount of taxes they pay is consistently favorable to the U.S., unless the
"study" was undertaken by an anti-immigrant group. In one estimate, immigrants earn
about $240 billion a year, pay about $90 billion a year in taxes, and use about
$5 billion in public benefits.
Source: American Immigration Lawyers Association, Urban
Institute
Immigrants take jobs and opportunity away from Americans.
The largest wave of immigration to the U.S. since the early 1900s
coincided with our lowest national unemployment rate and fastest economic growth.
Immigrant entrepreneurs create jobs for U.S. and foreign workers. While there has
been no comprehensive study done of immigrant-owned businesses, we have countless
examples: in Silicon Valley, companies begun by Chinese and Indian immigrants generated
more than $19.5 billion in sales and nearly 73,000 jobs in 2000.
Source: Brookings Institution
Immigrants are a drain on the U.S. economy.
During the 1990s, half of all new workers were foreignborn, filling
gaps left by native-born workers in both the high- and low-skill ends of the spectrum.
Immigrants fill jobs in key sectors, start their own businesses, and contribute
to the economy. The net benefit of immigration to the U.S. is nearly $10 billion
annually. As Alan Greenspan pointed out, 70% of immigrants arrive in prime working
age. That means we haven't spent a penny on their education, yet they’re transplanted
into our workforce and will contribute $500 billion toward social security over
the next 20 years.
Source: National Academy of Sciences, Center for Labor
Market Studies at Northeastern University, Federal Reserve
Immigrants don't want to learn English or become Americans.
Within ten years of arrival, more than 75% of immigrants speak English
well; moreover, demand for English classes at the adult level far exceeds supply.
Greater than 33% of immigrants are naturalized citizens; given increased immigration
in the 1990s, this figure will rise as more legal permanent residents become eligible
for naturalization.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Homeland
Security (Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services)
The war on terrorism can be won through immigration restrictions.
No security expert since September 11th, 2001, has said that restrictive
immigration measures would have prevented the terrorist attacks; instead, they key
is good use of good intelligence. Most of the 9/11 hijackers were here on legal
visas. Since 9/11, the myriad of measures targeting immigrants in the name of national
security have netted no terrorism prosecutions.
Source: Newspaper articles, various security experts
and think tanks
Immigrants are patriotic!
On Nov. 28, the Dallas Morning News reported that 69,300
foreign-born men and women are currently serving in the U.S. armed forces (around
five percent of activeduty military). Of those 69,300 service members, around 43
percent -- or 29,800, are not U.S. citizens. Sadly, 100 of these immigrants have
died in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Become a citizen!
According to the Department of Homeland Security, in 2004
there were approximately 8 million legal residents that could apply for citizenship.
To apply for citizenship, a legal resident has to pay $400 for a test which focuses
on civics and English proficiency.
Hispanics need to vote.
Register to Vote- by Domingo Garcia
In March 2006, the Census Bureau released its report on
voting participation in the last presidential election, "Voting and Registration
in the Election of November 2004." The report showed that of the more than 27 million
Hispanics in the U.S. only 16 million are U.S. citizens. Of those 16 million, only
9.3 million are registered to vote. In 2004, only 7 million Hispanics voted. Compared
to other communities, the percentage of Hispanics voting was low: 67 percent of
Whites eligible to vote cast a ballot in 2004, along with 60 percent of Blacks followed
by 47 percent of Hispanics.
Call your senator and congress member
"I support comprehensive immigration reform!"
Speaker Nancy Pelosi Phone 202.225.4965
US Senator, FL Mel Martinez Phone 202.224.3041
US Senator John Cornyn Phone 972.239.1310 Fax 972.239.2110
US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison Phone 214.361.3500 Fax 214.361.3502
US Representative Sam Johnson (District 3) Phone 972.470.0892
Fax 972.470.9937
US Representative Jeb Hensarling (District 5) Phone 214.349.9996
Fax 214.349.0738
US Representative Joe Barton (District 6) Phone 817.543.1000
Fax 817.548.7029
US Representative Kenny Marchant (District 24) Phone 972.556.0162
Fax 972.409.9704
US Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (District 30) Phone
214.922.8885 Fax 214.922.7028
US Representative Pete Sessions (District 32) Phone 972.392.0505
Fax 972.392.0615
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