WASHINGTON, D.C. — The limited immigration group, Numbers USA, is calling on its activists to be in touch with their congressmen to protest the recent push for immigration reform in the House.
In an “urgent action alert” to members Monday obtained by Breitbart News, Numbers USA warned that “The Amnesty Threat Level is at Code Red this week,” due to the effort by Reps. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), and Mario Diaz Balart (R-Fla.) to move immigration reform forward before the August recess.
“Your phone call today can help stop their Secret Summer Amnesty plan before it gets out of the gate,” the alert urges. “We’ve done it before and we can do it again. Thank you for sticking with us throughout this tireless effort.”
Chris Chmielenski, Numbers USA’s content and activism director, told Breitbart News that the action alerts went to its members based on their representatives, specifically the alert focused on activists represented by Republican congressmen.
According to the group, regardless of the parameters of a possible immigration reform deal in the House, any such legislation could be combined with the Senate-passed immigration reform bill.
“Even if the House passes a limited bill, it could be used by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and amnesty champion Sen Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) as a vehicle to tack on the Senate-passed Schumer-Obama amnesty (S. 744). Of course, this bill would have to go back to the House for approval, but with 192 Democrats already signed on to a discharge petition to bring the House version of S. 744 to the floor for a vote, only a handful of Republican votes would be needed for passage,” the alert reads.
Mulvaney confirmed to Breitbart News this week that he is working on finding support for immigration reform, but noted that he has not yet seen a bill that “I could whip even if I wanted to” and does not want to go to conference with the Senate immigration bill.
“I have absolutely no interest in taking up the Senate bill or going to conference on the Senate bill. Securing our borders is my first priority on any immigration reform, and the Senate bill falls woefully short on that point. Furthermore, I will not support a special pathway to citizenship for those who are here illegally. The Senate bill has always been and remains a non-starter,” Mulvaney told Breibart News.
Regardless of claims that they are not working on amnesty, Numbers USA sees the effort as just that.
Friday, the group sent out a newsletter to 900,000 if its most active members, calling the effort by Mulvaney, Ryan, and Diaz Balart a “Secret Summer Amnesty Push” and “by far the biggest threat we’ve faced this year.” That newsletter also encouraged members to call their congressman, if he or she is a Republican, to tell them to resist the push.
On Monday, Rosemary Jenks, Numbers USA’s director of government relations, pointed to those Republican members working on “amnesty” as just as blameworthy as Obama and Democrats for the current surge of unaccompanied minors crossing the border.
“[T]hese Republicans who are still pushing amnesty, along with President Obama and most Democrats, are to blame for the current crisis at our Southern border,” Jenks wrote in an email to Breitbart News. “It is totally irresponsible to be talking about new immigration laws — which act as an incentive to illegal immigration — when the President has thoroughly dismantled current immigration enforcement laws, thus facilitating the current illegal surge across the border.”