faxed the below letter to 27 senators. Rest tomorrow. The spreadsheet with the fax numbers is very handy (I was looking up the web and getting the fax numbers for each before that - thank you).
I think we need to continue this thing tomorrow morning. I am delighted at the participation from everyone for this campaign. We should fill their offices with paper by tomorrow morning so they don't forget to say NO to the amendment.
Honorable Senator ,
I am writing this to request you to please VOTE AGAINST THE BYRD AMENDMENT on the budgetory reconciliation bill (S.1932).
There are many misconceptions about these relief provisions attached to the budgetary proposal, and the major fear seems to be that this proposal will lead to Americans lose more jobs. However, these relief provisions have nothing in them, which will lose American jobs. On the other hand, in the abscence of these relief proposals, the American IT industry stands to lose many of its most experienced and hardworking people and thereby lose tremendous momentum. These provisions give relief to the guest workers WHO ARE ALREADY HERE LEGALLY AND LABOR CERTIFIED FOR IMMIGRATION - that is they are doing the jobs for which the employers cannot find American workers after advertising many times over in the media with competitive salary and benefits (thus certified by the labor department after close scrutiny). Many Americans do not seem to understand this, that is why this issue is often mixed up with illegal immigration.
Our immigration system is badly broken, those who dis-regard the law should be punished, and the illegal immigration should be curbed urgently - everybody agrees on all these points. But it is un-American to punish the LEGAL immigrant community AGAIN AND AGAIN for the mistakes of a failed burocracy and a broken system. It is cruelty to ask people who patiently stood in line for four to five years already, to wait for another five years without any interim benefits like AC21 protection. American Industry needs the services of the highly skilled workers who are ALREADY HERE LEGALLY and standing in line for immigration for several years already. Without immediate relief, many of them will go out of status and be forced to leave the country and it will be a great loss for the American IT industry. It is an undeniable fact that for the speciality IT jobs like large database security designing, enterprise ERP implementation, enterprise datawarehousing etc., IT companies are struggling to find qualified workers, even with the guest worker program. It will be a tremendous loss to the American Industry if we lose the experienced professionals who support the lifeline systems of the industry because the senate and the house failed to recognize the genuine need for relief at this critical juncture.
I once again request to you to PLEASE VOTE AGAIST THE BYRD AMENDMENT on the budgetory reconciliation bill, in the greater interest of America.
Thanking you again,
Yours sincerely,