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Action needed in early December

Call the White House and your congressional representatives right away!

Urge your representatives to REJECT extremist attempts to add anti-immigrant and anti-privacy provisions to legislation implementing the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations on intelligence reform.

Call the White House at 202-456-1111. To find the name and phone number of your representatives, call 202-224-3121 or go to www.senate.gov and www.house.gov. While calls to all Members of Congress are important, calls to the legislators listed at the end of this alert are especially important.

Why call the White House and Congress now?

Shortly before the November election, legislation implementing the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission's report was passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. However, the House version contains numerous anti-immigrant and anti-privacy provisions that are unrelated to intelligence reform and that go far beyond the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission itself.

For various reasons – including numerous calls from supporters of immigrants’ rights – Congress was unable to pass a unified version of this legislation before adjourning just before Thanksgiving.

Right now, it is more important than ever to keep the pressure up! Congress will go back into session briefly beginning December 6 in a renewed attempt to reconcile the bills and present legislation to the President for his signature. It is critical for supporters of civil liberties and immigrants’ rights to call the White House and Congress immediately, urging your political representatives not to cave in attempts to use intelligence reform legislation to recycle an extremist anti-immigrant agenda that goes beyond the Commission’s own recommendations.

What are some of the harmful provisions in the House version?

• Undocumented immigrants will be prohibited from obtaining a driver's license.
• Many immigrants who entered the US “without inspection” will be subject to “expedited removal,” which means they can be deported without a hearing before an immigration judge. This places immigrants at risk of wrongful deportation.
• Federal agencies will refuse to accept consular identification cards (“matriculas”) as proof of personal identification, and undocumented immigrants will be prohibited from obtaining other identification accepted by federal agencies.

What is the 9/11 Commission and its report?

On November 27, 2002, Congress and the President created the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, commonly referred to as the 9/11 Commission. Its mandate was to provide a “full and complete accounting” of the attacks of September 11, 2001, and to recommend how to prevent such attacks in the future. The Commissioners (not members of Congress) were five Republicans and five Democrats appointed by Congress. On July 11, 2004, the Commission released its report which included 41 recommendations.

For additional information, visit the website of the Rights Working Group (www.rightsworkinggroup.org).

Members of the Conference Committee reconciling intelligence reform legislation

Leaders of the conference committee are italicized in the listing below.

From the Senate:

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) - 202-224-4041; 202-224-9750 (fax)

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) - 202-224-2523; 202-224-2693 (fax )

Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) - 202-224-3353; 202-228-1382 (fax)

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) - 202-224-5641; 202-224-1152 (fax)

Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) - 202-224-2841; 202-228-4131 (fax)

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) - 202-224-4774; 202-224-3514 (fax)

Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) - 202-224-2315; 202-224-6519 (fax)

Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) - 202-224-6253; 202-224-2262 (fax)

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) - 202-224-6221; 202-224-1388 (fax)

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) - 202-224-2152; 202-228-0400 (fax)

Sen. John Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) - 202-224-6472; 202-224-7665

Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) - 202-224-3041; 202-224-2237

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) - 202-224-3224; 202-228-4054

From the House:

Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) - 202-225-4401; 202-226-0779 (fax)

Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) - 202-225-8220; 202-226-7290 (fax)

Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) - 202-225-2305; 202-225-7018 (fax)

Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) - 202-225-4561; 202-225-1166 (fax)

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) - 202-225-5672; 202-225-0235 (fax)

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) - 202-225-5101; 202-225-3190 (fax)

Rep. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) - 202-225-7919; 202-226-0792 (fax)

Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO) - 202-225-2876; 202-225-2695 (fax)

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