Well, that was a brief respite. It’s time to defend the United States from Congress again — both houses at once, this time. Man the phones, send emails, send faxes — you know the drill. It’s all about the Visa Waiver Program for friendly countries…

Convicted British terrorist Richard Reid flew to the United States without ANY visa, thanks to the visa waiver program.

We just got this urgent word from Roy Beck of NumbersUSA.

Only the kind of firestorm that citizens can create will stop Congress from sneaking through a radical pro-illegal-immigration provision in the “9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007.”

A joint Senate/House negotiating committee is on the verge of agreeing to a bill containing a giant loophole for terrorists in particular, and potential illegal aliens in general. The conferees could wrap things up by the end of today.

The pushers of this loophole are counting on the American people being unaware of what Congress has tried to make an obscure process. But if we don’t stop Congress from expanding this loophole, we will see the illegal population grow even larger at a faster pace.

We need you to fax and call your two Senators and your U.S. Representative and shock them that you know about this latest capitulation to the illegal immigration industry.

HOW WE GOT HERE

After the terrorist attacks of 2001, the 9/11 Commission made many recommendations for better protecting our nation’s security. Some of them were passed in 2002. The bill before us now is intended to take care of most of the remaining recommendations.

One of the recommendations related to a security loophole known as the Visa Waiver program, which allows travelers from many favored nations to come to the United States without the security screening we require for visitors from all other nations.

The rationale for the program is that these “waivered” countries are friendly, and their citizens generally aren’t a high risk for overstaying their visas as illegal aliens.

A problem, of course, is that terrorist networks are well aware of this and recruit citizens of the “waivered” countries who can enter the United States with ease. The famous Shoe Bomber from Great Britain did just that.

The House version (H.R. 1) and the Senate version (S. 4) both slipped in a provision to expand the Visa Waiver loophole, rather than reduce it.

A recent GAO report found significant weaknesses in the existing program.

WHAT CAN WE ACCOMPLISH?

Some of our closest allies among the Members of Congress have urged us to activate the Network to stop this Visa Waiver expansion. They consider this to be one of the gravest threats to our security of any proposed legislation.

Unfortunately, only one conferee, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), has vocally opposed this threat to our security. In order to stop this, we need to create a firestorm of opposition THE MINUTE YOU READ THIS.

Why would the Senate do such a thing? One reason is that the tourist industry feels that tourism increases when visas aren’t required. This is understandable from a business point of view, although nothing quells tourism like an actual terrorist attack.

But when the choice is clearly between more business and reasonable security, we should expect Congress to choose our security.

This is about more than security. The visa process helps screen out visitors who have a profile that suggests a high likelihood of overstaying a visa and becoming an illegal alien. Since around 40% of all illegal aliens first came as legal visitors, expanding the number of countries that don’t have to issue visas certainly will expand the number of people becoming illegal aliens.