The following is collected and archived by CND-US. If you have any questions regarding the following information/message, please contact the original sender(s) listed below. Thank You. China News Digest - US Regional Services (Bo Xiong) --------------- From: cssa@caledonian.CS.UCLA.EDU (CSSA-UCLA) Subject: stop S1394, major info update Date: Wed, 22 Nov 1995 07:01:34 -0800 (PST) Hi, S1394 is scheduled to be voted on Nov 29. We've posting and putting a web page since Nov 9, and here is our major update. You would see results of a study that reflect what voters are thinking about immigration issues, quotes from newspapers, among other things. ACT and forward. Keep doing it. - CSSA-UCLA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://caledonian.cs.ucla.edu/~cssa STOP Simpson's Senate Bill S1394 Spend your 20 minutes on it, please You heard about a bill that might change your future plan in entirety. You know as an individual, you can do nothing about the bill, but as a member of tens of thousands individuals, you know you can make a difference. Why don't you act against the bill? And now you know other people who heard about the bill earlier than you have acted against it, have gathered information, have provided convenient tools for you to do something. All you need is to sit down and spend 20 minutes to go through the information, and decide. Spending 20 minutes vs. being forced to change 2-year-, 5-year- or even 10-year-plan. Why don't you act against the bill? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +The major provisions of Senate Bill S1394 - THREE years outside US before Labor Certificate - Plan to implement starting Oct 1,96 - much more +Tens of Thousands people have acted against Senate Bill S1394 - through mail aliases immigration@caledonian.cs.ucla.edu or stop_s1394@umich.edu - Faxed/phoned - Talked to friends, fellow students +Quotes from people for S1394 - Simpson's: standard reply to your mail - Email from some netter +Quotes from Media - The Washington Times - The Wall Street Journal +Why senators listen to you at all? Why you can help to stop S1394? - They're not supposed to check upon you - Number does count - Voice you opinion is nothing wrong +Know what the votes think about the immigration issue -- Results of a study - Immigration, esp. legal immigration, is not a burning issue. - Most voters believe legal immigration is a good thing. - Most voters want to reduce immigration, including legal immigration. - Many voters don't buy that immigrants help U.S. economy. - The race card does not work for proponents or opponents of immigration. +YOUR CHOICE OF ACTIONS: Do it before NOV 29 - Email/phone/fax the 7 senators in Senate Immigration Subcommittee - Use email alias to make it convenient - Write to President of your University +Keep updated: Information sources about efforts against S1394 - web sites - news groups - your local mailing lists -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The major provisions of S1394, bad news for legal immigration -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- S1394, introduced on Nov 3 by Alan Simpson, Chair of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, * You need 2 years experience outside of the U.S. before you can apply for H-1B ( called H-1 by most people ) visa. * Your employer has to pay up to 10% of your annual salary and benefit, in order to hire you as an H-1B worker; * To get Labor Certificate, you must have THREE years of experience in the profess ion outside the U.S. after obtaining advanced degree or equivalent, or FIVE year s outside the U.S. if you have a baccalaureate degree. * You employer has to pay 25% of your annual salary and benefit as a newly- imposed fee for your Labor Certificate. * and start implementation by Oct 1, 1996. There is how to get more detailed information on the bill: - Find the on line text of S1394,ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/thomas/c104/s1394.is.FTP - A newsletter from NAFSA, Association of International Educators at http://caledonian.cs.ucla.edu/~cssa/nafsa.news.txt. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- People in action -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Very limited information we have on this: On November 10th, CSSA-UCLA set up an email alias, immigration@sunlab.ph.ucla.edu, later changed to immigration@caledonian.cs.ucla.edu which is an alias of the email addresses of the 7 senators on Senate Immigration Subcommittee. More than 1,300 people have used our mail aliases. Similarly, there is another one set up in U of Michigan, stop_s1394@umich.edu We are aware that many people didn't user our email aliases at all, but sent email directly to the senators, or called/faxed. Also, thousands of people have read News Releases from Assn. Chinese Community Affairs at http://www.superprism.net/~acca, or Chinese News Digest at http://www.cnd.org. People have been talking about this to friends, to fellow students, to professors, to university officers. The overall reaction against S1394 is tremendous. And now, we need YOUR action. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quotes from people who are for S1394 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Email to senator@simpson.senate.gov and you'll get his standard reply. - Quote from a netter: "Thanks for the article posted to the news groups. Since I was not aware of the bill before your post..Thanks. As a US Citizen by birth, which means I can run for President and you can't. I plan to send E-Mails to the list provided in your post supporting this Bill. I want more laws keeping immigrants out since all they do is complain when they get here, and become professional students. See ya, and now go home.........." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quotes from Newspapers -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11/14, The Washington Times, P. A17 Business: Immigration helps not hurts "Immigrants generally pay more to the U.S. government in taxes than they use in services, as a number of studies have shown.... Immigrants play a key role in product and technological development, the cutting edge of U.S. industrial growth.... Immigrants own a significant share of small businesses.... On balance, a survey of Noble economists released by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution showed near unanimous agreement immigration is a major economic ..... (signed by) John Whitehead, former co-chairman, Goldman Sachs, former deputy secretary of state. .... Barton M. Biggs, chairman, Morgan Stanley Jerry Junkins, chairman, President and CEO, Texas Instruments Lee Iacocca ... " 11/15/95, Wall Street Journal, Republican Immigration Policy "The Washington budget standoff has temporarily shut down the Statue of Liberty. If Congress passes the immigration bill that Senator Simpson's committee starts marking up today, why don't we all agree to make the Statue of Liberty shutdown permanent... The bill being working up by Senator Simpson and his House counterpart, Rep. Lamar Smith, both Republicans, is itself a monument to the mentality of the modern political bureaucrat". -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why Senators listen to you? Why you can help stop the bill? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Senators simply are not supposed to check upon your visa status even you're an F-1 student; - Number of email/phone/fax counts. - You will be a voter some time; - There is absolutely no risk involved in voicing your opinion. Thoughts like "I will be recorded/monitored by US government because I said no to S1394" is simply out of question. - Stop the bill right inside Senate Immigration Subcommittee where there are only seven senators involved. If the bill passes the Subcommittee, much much more effort is needed to stop it. By that time, you probably have to spend days, months or even years to change your future plan. Now, You can either jump to "Action" section, or first study what a recent study have revealed about the voters' thinking about immigration issues, as shown in next section: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Know what the voters are thinking. Know what to say ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Recent study shows among voters: - Immigration, esp. legal immigration, is not a burning issue - Most voters believe legal immigration is a good thing. - Most voters want to reduce immigration, including legal immigration - Many voters don't buy that immigrants help U.S. economy - The race card does not work for proponents or opponents of immigration The findings might be counter-intuitive to you -- You of course believe that immigrants help U.S. economy. You might be surprised to know that many voters don't buy that argument. It's important to know what voters are thinking. Please read a summary of the recent study: A recent public opinion research reveals much what voters have on mind about the immigration issue. You will find many of the findings useful when you're writing or talking against S1394. The still-in-progress research is conducted by the National Immigration Forums and the respected Republican pollster Vince Breglio of RSM. Summary of some of the Key Findings: == Immigration, especially legal immigration, is not a burning issue. Here is a list of top issues that concern voters the most: 1. Crime; 2. Education; 3. Health 4. Care; 5. Taxes; 6. Environment and ILLEGAL immigration; ... 9. Legal immigration. Legal immigration lands in the number 9 spot, and well below illegal immigration. == Deal with illegal immigration first, and don't blame legal immigrants for the problem of illegal immigration. By a margin of 84% to 13%, voters agree with the following statement: "Congress should settle the problem of illegal immigration before worrying about reducing the number of legal immigrants." (58% strongly agree with this statement). By a margin of 83% to 11% voters also agreed with the following statement: "We have an illegal immigration problem that needs to be dealt with directly and effectively. What we don't have is a problem with legal immigration. It is unfair to penalize those who follow the rules just because others break them and enter the U.S. illegally". == Reduce immigration? Yes. Is legal immigration a good thing? Yes. - Voters support reductions in immigration levels by approximately a 2 to 1 margin. - However, 73% agree/22 disagree "America still attracts the world's strongest and most courageous people willing to risk everything to make a new start in the United States". - and "diversity has made American a stronger society". (72% stronger/17% weaker) == Why do American think legal immigration is good and why do opponents think it is bad? - Why legal immigration is good? 1) We are a nation of immigrants, based on immigration, and build by immigrants; 2) immigration brings in people with energy, talents, and ideas; 3) the diversity that stems from immigration is a unique source of strength; 4) it allows us to set quotas and control who comes into the United States. - Why legal immigration is bad? 1) the U.S. is overpopulated; 2) we need to take care of our own; 3) immigrants cause unemployment; 4) too many use welfare. == Those in the middle don't buy economic growth arguments It's clear that the economic arguments -- i.e. immigrants create economic growth -- although true, provoke insecurity among those in the middle and tend to backfire. Focusing on economic impacts seems to infect the debate like virus. However, the issue can be defused. By a margin of 63% to 31%, Americans agree that "legal immigrants are being blamed for problems they did not cause. They are unfairly blamed for high unemployment, welfare abuse, higher taxes, and crime. If all legal immigrants left tomorrow, these problems would not change". == The race card does not work for proponents or opponents of immigration Those who argue that opponents of immigration are motivated by racism offend most voters intensely ( by a 3 to 1 margin ). Similarly, most Americans are deeply offended by arguments for reductions based on the race and nationality of today's newcomers. By almost 4 to 1, Americans believe that "in America, what you contribute is more important than the color of your skin, and it is okay to design immigration policies without regard for race or national origin" and reject the argument that "the racial mix in the U.S. is important and it is okay to design immigration policies with race and ethnicity in mind". == (FACT) Immigrants population - On an annual basis, the U.S. accepts 3 immigrants for every 1,000 residents; - Every year the U.S. accepts 675,000 legal immigrants, and 100,000 refugees. The levels have been set by the Congress. == The dividing line is not ideology, but education and perspective - The sub-groups most supportive of immigration are college graduates, those who are upper middle class, and men between 45-65. - Those most likely to oppose immigration are high school graduates, conservative Democrats, and those 65 and over. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOUR CHOICE OF ACTIONS: Do it before NOV 29 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - A short history of S1394 Nov 3 Introduced in Senate Immigration Subcommittee ~Nov 9 Various groups, media and people started to react against the bill. Nov 15-16 Scheduled markup/vote of S1394. For various reasons, it was postponed to Nov 29. Nov 20-27 Congress Thanksgiving Recess. Nov 29 Scheduled markup/vote of S1394. - Email to individual senators: Email/WWWpage Alan Simpson, Chair R-WY senator@simpson.senate.gov http://www.senate.gov/senator/simpson.html Charles Grassley, R-IA chuck_grassley@grassley.senate.gov http://www.senate.gov/senator/grassley.html Jon Kyl, R-AZ info@kyl.senate.gov http://www.senate.gov/senator/kyl.html Arlen Specter, R-PA senator_specter@specter.senate.gov http://www.senate.gov/senator/specter.html Edward Kennedy, D-MA senator@kennedy.senate.gov http://www.senate.gov/~kennedy Paul Simon, D-IL senator@simon.senate.gov http://www.senate.gov/~simon Dianne Fenstein, D-CA senator@feinstein.senate.gov http://www.senate.gov/~feinstein - Use email aliases To make it convenient, we also created an mail alias for you so you can send letter to all the above 7 email addresses at once. All you need to do is send your letter to immigration@caledonian.cs.ucla.edu. As we know, there is another email alias you can also use: stop_s1394@umich.edu - A simple sample letter: --------- November , 1995 Honorable Senators, S1394 unfairly blames legal immigrants for problems they did not cause. The problems of high unemployment, welfare abuse, higher taxes, and crime would not go away even if all legal immigrants left tomorrow. S1394 forces aliens educated in the United States to work outside the U.S. for other countries to compete with U.S., which is against U.S. national interest. I hereby appeal to you: please vote NO on S1394! Sincerely, (Signed) Resident of US Mailing Address: --------- - More sample letters to find at the web site of Assn. of Chinese Community Affairs, http://www.superprism.net/~acca. - Call or FAX to the senators: The Capitol Switchboard's number is 202 224-3121. And the individual numbers are: Phone Fax Alan Simpson, Chair R-WY 202 224-3424 224-1315 Charles Grassley, R-IA 202 224-3744 224-6020 Jon Kyl, R-AZ 202 224-4521 224-2207 Arlen Specter, R-PA 202 224-4254 228-1229 Edward Kennedy, D-MA 202 224-4543 224-2417 Paul Simon, D-IL 202 224-2152 224-0868 Dianne Fenstein, D-CA 202 224-3841 228-3954 - Write to President of your University Here is a letter from "Stop S1394 Working Committee" at the University of Michigan to the President of University of Michigan. Also, letters from Harvard Chinese Students and Scholars Association to Harvard President and Senator Kennedy respectively. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keep updated: Information sources about efforts against S1394 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - web sites http://caledonian.cs.ucla.edu/~cssa http://www.superprism.net/~acca http://www.cnd.org/ To find bill status information, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/, select "104th Congress Bills", or "Bill Summary and Status for the 104th Congress", then do a search on S1394. - news groups soc.culture.china soc.culture.taiwan soc.culture.hongkong - your local mailing lists ACT and Spread the mesg