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China News Digest - US Regional Services (Bo Xiong) --------------- From: XIAO@scri.fsu.edu Date: Sat, 16 Sep 1995 0:56:05 -0400 (EDT) To: acca-l@superprism.net Subject: National Committee on Immigration News Release #9517 Resent-From: acca-l@superprism.net Precedence: list Resent-Sender: acca-l-request@superprism.net Status: R **************************************************************************** Association for Chinese Community Affairs (ACCA), formerly CBSIC Public Broadcasting System **************************************************************************** >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> National * Committee * on * Immigration <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< News Release #9517 Saturday, September 16, 1995 ============================================================================ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= The National Committee on Immigration is a coalition of Chinese Students, Scholars & Professionals who work against the anti-immigration bill HR1915 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= ============================================================================ 1. More than 10,000 signatures have been sent to Congress ............... 25 2. Directory of House Judiciary Committee - Call Them NOW! .............. 75 3. Boston Coalition's Letter to Congress ............................... 122 4. Job opennings at AALDEF (3 items) .................................... 23 ============================================================================ 1. More than 10,000 signatures have been sent to Congress ............... 25 >From ACCA National HQ As of September 15, first around of letters with over 10,000 signatures from all over the country were sent to members of the House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on International Laws, Immigration and Refugees, especially those key figures, such as Lamar Smith, Charles Schumer, and Charles Hyde. Carbon copies were also sent to Organization of Chinese Americans and National Immigration Forum. Action-India's letter (see COINR9512) is also included in each package we dispatched. We urge our readers to contact their congressional representatives from their states. All of the congressional representatives are elected locally therefore they care more about their local constituents. Also individual calls are very effective. As we have learnt from our D.C. representatives, those direct calls to the Congress have already made an impact. Please concentrate on the members of the House Judiciary Committee for the time being. If you do not call, your voice will not be heard, your rights will not be taken care of! Remember, starting from September 19, the House Judiciary Committee is marking up the H.R. 2202, for the better or the worse, it depends on YOU! Together, we MUST make a difference! ============================================================================ 2. Directory of House Judiciary Committee - Call Them NOW! .............. 75 Directory of 35 members of House Judiciary Committee Republicans (20) D.C. Offices Fax District 2138 RHOB 202 225 3951 202 225 7682 Henry Hyde (Chair), IL 202 225 4561 202 225 1166 708 832 5950 Carlos Moorhead, CA 202 225 4176 202 226 1279 818 792 6168 Jim Sensenbrenner, WI 202 225 5101 202 225 3190 414 784 1111 Bill McCollum, FL 202 225 2176 202 225 0999 407 872 1962 George Gekas, PA 202 225 4315 202 225 9440 717 541 5507 717 367 6731 717 273 1451 Howard Coble, NC 202 225 3065 202 225 8611 910 229 0159 910 626 3060 910 333 5005 704 246 8230 Lamar Smith, TX 202 225 4236 202 225 8628 512 895 1414 210 821 5024 915 653 3971 512 218 4221 Steven Schiff, NM 202 225 6316 202 225 4975 505 766 2538 Elton Gallegly, CA 202 225 5811 202 225 1100 805 485 2300 Charles Canady, FL 202 225 1252 202 225 2279 813 688 2651 Bob Inglis, SC 202 225 6030 202 226 1177 803 427 2205 803 582 6422 803 232 1141 Bob Goodlatte, VA 202 225 5431 202 225 9681 703 857 2672 703 885 3861 703 432 2391 804 845 8306 Steve Buyer, IN 202 225 5037 314 454 7551 219 583 9819 Martin Hoke, OH 202 225 5871 202 226 0994 216 356 2010 Sonny Bobo, CA 202 225 5330 202 225 2961 619 320 1076 Fred Heineman, NC 202 225 1784 202 225 3269 919 571 4661 Ed Bryant, TN 202 225 2811 202 225 2814 901 382 5811 615 503 0391 Steve Chabot, OH 202 225 2216 202 225 3012 513 684 2723 Michael Flanagan, IL 202 225 4061 202 225 3128 312 588 2288 Bob Barr, GA 202 225 2931 202 225 2944 404 429 1776 706 290 1776 404 836 1776 706 812 1776 Democrats: (15) B351C RHOB: 202 225 6906 John Conyers, MI 202 225 5126 202 225 0072 313 961 5670 Patricia Schroeder, CO 202 225 4431 202 225 5842 303 866 1230 Barney Frank, MA 202 225 5931 202 225 0182 508 674 3551 617 332 3920 508 999 6462 508 697 9403 Charles Schumer, NY 202 225 6616 202 225 4183 718 627 9700 Howard Berman, CA 202 225 4695 202 225 5279 818 891 0543 Rick Boucher, VA 202 225 3861 202 225 0442 703 980 4310 703 628 1145 703 523 5450 John Bryant, TX 202 225 2231 202 225 0327 214 767 6554 Jack Reed, RI 202 225 2735 202 225 9580 401 943 3100 Jerrold Nadler, NY 202 225 5635 202 225 6923 212 489 3530 718 373 3198 Robert Scott, VA 202 225 8351 202 225 8354 804 380 1000 804 644 4845 Melvin Watt, NC 202 225 1510 202 225 1512 704 344 9950 910 379 9403 919 688 3004 Xavier Becerra, CA 202 225 6235 202 225 2202 213 550 8962 Jose Serrano, NY 202 225 4361 202 225 6001 718 538 5400 Zoe Lofgren, CA 202 225 3072 202 225 3336 408 271 8700 Sheila Jackson Lee, TX 202 225 3816 202 225 3317 713 655 0050 ============================================================================ 3. Boston Coalition's Letter to Congress ............................... 122 _From: hr2202@mit.edu Dear : We're writing to you to express our concern about H.R. 2202 (originally H.R. 1915). We appreciate your effort in responsible reform of the immigration system, but we are troubled by some aspects of the bill. The bill contains two major parts, dealing with illegal and legal immigration. We believe that your legislative initiative would strongly benefit if the illegal immigration to the U.S. is addressed in a separate bill. While support for curbing illegal immigration may be almost universal, major reduction of legal immigration is much more controversial. Addressing the issues of legal and illegal immigration in one bill presents a double danger: the effort to curb illegal immigration is threatened by opposition from those with vital interest in legal immigration (most notably the U.S. employers), while the drive to stop illegal immigration may "spill over" to do unacceptable damage to the legal immigration system. The bill sets strict numerical limits on legal immigration, about a third down from what they're now. This will dramatically increase the already large backlog of visas in many categories, making the wait for a visa unbearably long. In addition, by setting strict limits on refugee visas, the bill severely limits the ability of the U.S. to deal with unpredictable events such as refugee crises. This ability is crucial to maintaining the international image of the U.S. as the world's leading power. The bill places excessive restrictions on employment-based immigration. Of particular concern is the labor certification requirement for "outstanding researchers and professors". The long and costly labor certification process is unnecessary in this case, since any truly outstanding researcher or professor by definition cannot be replaced by a "readily available" U.S. worker. Also, the elimination of a "national interest" waiver exempting certain workers (mostly in medical research or defense fields) from labor certification is unnecessary. The INS has developed regulations that prevent abuse of this waiver, and there is no evidence of such widespread abuse. Since labor certification is costly and can take over a year to process, it can significantly delay research plans or even force an employer to pick a less qualified worker for whom an LCA is not required. Therefore, it's best to avoid labor certifications whenever possible. H.R. 2202 also imposes arbitrary requirements on professionals and skilled workers, requiring 5 and 7 years of experience, respectively, even in professions where only 2 or 3 years of experience after a baccalaureate degree are usually required for employment. This measure will only hurt the employers, since they generally avoid hiring overqualified workers. The experience and education requirements should not exceed the usual requirements for employment in a particular field. Another disturbing provision of the bill would reduce employment immigration if there is excess family immigration. This leaves employment immigration in an uncertain state, creating a potential for a considerable decrease in work visas without any regard to the need of U.S. companies for highly qualified foreign employees. Dropping this provision would greatly benefit the U.S. companies by protecting them from such uncertainty. The restrictions on family immigration in H.R. 2202 contradict the principle of family reunification which the US has adopted. The bill eliminates from family immigration siblings, unmarried children over 21 years of age, and parents when less than 50% of their children live in the U.S. However, the traditional U.S. family includes these relatives. Note especially that children over 21 are often students who live with the family and are an integral part of it. Also, it can happen that only the child in the U.S. can support a parent, while two or more children living elsewhere cannot; the 50% restriction would leave the parent without any support. The bill contains provisions that will bar all but the well-to-do Americans from sponsoring their family members for immigration. A sponsor would be required to purchase complete health insurance for the alien and to maintain the income of at least 200% of the poverty level for the sponsor's family (including the alien). While we understand the need to increase sponsors' responsibility for the aliens they sponsor, we believe that the provisions of H.R. 2202 go too far in this respect and will significantly harm family reunification. Moreover, they're unnecessary since the law already requires the alien to prove that he/she is not likely to become a public charge. In addition to hindering family reunification, the restrictions on family immigration will hurt U.S. employers. Many immigrants who come on family visas find jobs shortly after coming to the U.S. Furthermore, qualified foreign professionals may reject an employment offer if they cannot bring their relatives with them to the U.S. It is in the U.S. interest to do everything possible to attract excellent specialists by creating hospitable conditions for their families. We understand that the goal of restricting employment immigration is to protect U.S. workers from being displaced by foreign ones. However, such restrictions damage the U.S. both in the short run (by depriving U.S. companies of much-needed specialists) and in the long run (by not encouraging U.S. workers to become as competitive as their foreign counterparts.). These restrictions must not be allowed to pass. We appreciate your attention to our concerns, and urge you to amend the bill to address them. Sincerely, (223 signatures) Ilya Shlyakhter Massachusetts Institute of Technology ilya_shl@mit.edu Dr. Alexander Shlyakhter Harvard University shlyakhter@physics.harvard.edu ============================================================================ 4. Job opennings at AALDEF (3 items) .................................... 23 _From: Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) Currently there are three job opennings at AALDEF, New York, New York. Interested party may write to acca@superprism.net, with "get AALDEF" in the "subject:" field, for detailed information. Your mail head should look like the following: _From: *your-e-mail-address here* To: acca@superprism.net Subject: get AALDEF The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) is the oldest non-profit organization on the East Coast that specifically addresses the legal needs of Asian Americans. Founded in 1974, AALDEF is dedicated to protecting the legal rights of Asian Americans through legal advocacy, impact litigation, community education and law student training. Current program issues include voting rights, anti-Asian violence, immigrant rights, affirmative action, and employment/labor rights. AALDEF has an eight-person staff assisted by student interns and volunteers. ============================================================================ More info about HR 1915: ftp at superprism.net:/pub/acca www at http://superprism.net:/~acca/ gopher://cnd.cnd.org/11/English-Menu/InfoBase/HR1915 or, write to acca@superprism.net, with "help" in the "Subject:" field. Further inquiries or inputs send to hr1915@math.luc.edu **************************************************************************** To sub/unsub acca-l@superprism.net send to: acca-l-request@superprism.net with "sub" or "unsub" in the "Subject:" field. ACCA is formerly CBS-IC, to know more: ftp superprism.net:/pub/cbs-ic or http://superprism.net:/~cbs-ic/ **************************************************************************** Editor of this issue: Anne Frank **************************************************************************** ============================================================================ To (un)subscribe acca-l list, please write to acca-l-request@superprism.net with "sub" or "unsub" in the "Subject:" field, from your individual or local network redistribution account. You may also send your local redistribution address to hr1915@math.luc.edu. Committee on Immigration needs everyone of your support to protect our community and rights. ACCA's HR1915 infor-center through anonymous ftp at superprism.net:/pub/acca or www at http://www.superprism.net:/~acca. For auto-retrieval via e-mail, please write to acca@superprism.net, with "help" in the "Subject:" field. Also, please visit our CBS-IC infor-center, ftp superprism.net:/pub/cbs-ic or http://www.superprism.net:/~cbs-ic. National Chair of ACCA, Mr. Lin Huang (A.K.A. Mi Mi Sr.) ============================================================================ In Germany, they came first for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist; then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew; then they came for the Trade-Unionists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Trade-Unionist; then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I am a Protestant; then they came for me, and by that time no-one was left to speak up. --- Martin Niemoller --- ============================================================================