Helena (Mont.) Independent- Record –
January 13, 2009

The drip, drip, drip of layoffs in Montana — Semitool is laying off 200 in Kalispell and Libby, after jettisoning 100 in November — is echoed by the torrent of job losses nationwide. Employers eliminated more than 500,000 jobs in both November and December.

Meanwhile, month after month, our government, via legal immigration, lets nearly 140,000 new foreign workers per month flood in and compete with struggling American citizens. Surely Congress is aware of this and is about to fix it, right?

Nope. Instead, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been telling reporters that he wants to amnesty 11 to 19 million illegal aliens and — amazingly — greatly increase the number of foreign workers legally entering the country. Reid has introduced a bill, S9, for the purpose.

Citizen outrage stopped amnesty in 2006 and 2007, crashing the Senate’s switchboard in the latter case. Now citizens need to step up again to quash Reid’s new, expanded nonsense. This means telling Senators Baucus and Tester: “No amnesty. No increases in legal immigration. No way!” Best bet: Phone their Washington offices (202-224-2651 and 202-224-2644) and tell them that, with the economy and employment plummeting, drastic decreases in immigration are mandatory.

Paul Nachman
Bozeman, Mont.