Dear BlueLatinos,

The Senate will resume debating S. 1348, the comprehensive immigration reform bill on Tuesday. Throughout the week, Senators will vote on a number of amendments before casting an up-or-down vote on the entire bill by the end of the week.

http://www.bluelatinos.org/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=42916&qid=22489

Every day this week, send your Senators an email urging them to vote for improvements to the bill - like those that would help reunite families and allow all future guest workers the same rights and protections as other workers - and to vote against poison-pill amendments - like those that would strip away from the legalization provisions in the immigration reform bill.

Follow the link below to see a list of email messages, each related to specific amendments that the Senate is likely to debate this week. Send an email on Monday, another on Tuesday, another on Wednesday, and continue until the Senate votes on final passage of the bill to be sure that your Senators hear from you in this critical time.

http://www.bluelatinos.org/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=42916&qid=22489

All throughout the Memorial Day recess, anti-immigrant groups that want to kill the "Grand Bargain" battered President Bush and all Senators working to build a rational immigration system. [source 1] These groups hate that 12 million undocumented immigrants will have an opportunity to legalize their status and be able to join society in the full light of day. Their hate is so extreme that they are calling for mass deportations of millions of people without regard to human suffering, social upheaval and economic consequences to our country. Indeed, these groups would much rather see the Senate debate ways to ship all 12 million out of the country than see them debate any rational compromise that would fix our broken immigration system. [source 2]

We can not allow for their voices to trump ours. Even though we may not love the "Grand Bargain," we must continue to push the bill forward so that we can have more possibilities to make it better. Otherwise, we’ll only have the certainty of a dead bill.

House Democratic leaders have said that they will take up their immigration bill in July. Once they do so and pass their version of immigration reform, a select group of House and Senate members will meet in a conference to re-negotiate the differences in both of their bills. It is in this conference where we will have another opportunity to significantly improve a final immigration reform bill.

Contact your Senators every day this week and urge them to keep moving forward: http://www.bluelatinos.org/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=42916&qid=22489

Now is not the time to throw in the towel. It is not the time to act with hesitation. We must continue to move forward. We must continue to raise our voices for justice and fairness. And we must speak with the power and confidence of knowing that we’re on the right side of history.

America is ready. America is on our side.

En la lucha,
José Quiñonez, BlueLatinos.org

Sources:

1. Bush’s Push on Immigration Tests His Base

2. National "No Amnesty" Petition

Make a Bad Bill Better

Contact your Senators every day this week and urge them to keep moving forward.

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