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China News Digest - US Regional Services (Bo Xiong) --------------- Date: Tue, 14 Nov 1995 07:58:51 -0500 From: ACCA National HQ To: acca-2@acca.superprism.net Subject: National Committee on Immigration News Release #9527 Resent-From: acca-2@acca.superprism.net Precedence: list Resent-Sender: acca-2-request@acca.superprism.net Status: R **************************************************************************** Association for Chinese Community Affairs(ACCA) Public Broadcasting System Made possible by generous support from http://www.superprism.net/ **************************************************************************** >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> National * Committee * on * Immigration <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< News Release #9527 Tuesday, November 14, 1995 ============================================================================ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= The National Committee on Immigration is a coalition of Chinese Students, Scholars & Professionals who work against the anti-immigration bill HR1915 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= ============================================================================ 1. Simpson's Bill S 1394 Hurts Legal Immigrants as Well! ................ 30 2. Simpson's Bill S. 1394: Title & Current Status ....................... 39 3. College Students's Hunger Strike for Affirmative Action ............. 101 4. Simpson Bill Scheduled for Consideration This Week ................... 40 5. Simpson's Fax Number Changed .......................................... 7 ============================================================================ ============================================================================ 1. Simpson's Bill S 1394 Hurts Legal Immigrants as Well! .................30 _From: Matthew Finucane, APALA (Wash. DC) Urge you to add to your broadcast concerning Simpson bill that it would eliminate brother/sister and adult children preferences, and would make it much harder for parents of citizens to enter the country. The bill would block at least a million Asian brothers and sisters who have been waiting patiently, in some cases for more than 10 years, in the backlog for visas. Keep up the good work! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from the National Immigration Forum/November 9, 1995 Key provisions of S. 1394: * Proposes severe cuts in both family-sponsored and employment-based immigration--S. 1394 would eliminate entirely the ability of U.S. citizens to reunite with their adult sons and daughters or their brothers and sisters. The bill would also prevent lawful permanent residents from bringing their adult children to the U.S. to join them. S. 1394 would also cut employment-based immigration from the current level of 140,000 down to 90,000 visas per year. * Proposes harsh, new obstacles for parents of U.S. citizens--S. 1394 would require that any parent trying to reunite with their family in the U.S. must be over 65 years old, have over half of their children lawfully residing in the U.S., and obtain health insurance equivalent to Medicare and Medicaid. * Cap lowered on spouses and minor children of LPRs--S. 1394 would limit the visas for the spouses and minor children of lawful permanent residents to just 85,000 per year. However, minor children with pending petitions would be protected from aging out, and 150,000 visas per year would be provided to reduce the backlog. ============================================================================ 2. Simpson's Bill S. 1394: Title & Current Status ....................... 39 _From: Ray Wang , ACCA Description and Status of S. 1394, Immigration Reform Act of 1995, as of Thursday, November 9, 1995 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The bill was introduced in the Senate on Friday, November 3, 1995 by Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-WY). At the present time there are no cosponsors of this bill. The bill's official title stated its purpose as follows: "A bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to reform the legal immigration of immigrants and nonimmigrants to the United States." The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. The most recent action on the bill was on Friday, November 3, 1995: Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary. There is a mark-up scheduled on this bill by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Monday, November 13, 1995, at 2:00 pm, and there is a mark-up scheduled on this bill by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Wednesday, November 15, 1995, at 2:00 pm. Also, one other bill has been located that is a counterpart or companion bill to S.1394: H.R.2202 by SMITH, LAMAR (R-TX) -- Immigration in the National Interest Act of 1995. ============================================================================ 3. College Students's Hunger Strike for Affirmative Action ............. 101 1995 San Francisco Chronicle, Wednesday, November 1, 1995 Page A17 SACRAMENTO -- Affirmative Action Hunger Strike Goes to the Capitol Students' protest enters third week Yumi Wilson, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau Sacramento Four university students now entering their 16th day of a hunger strike traveled to the state Capitol yesterday to tell Governor Wilson that they would rather die than give up the advances that have been made through affirmative action for minorities and women. The visibly weakened young men -- three from the University of California at Irvine and one from Claremont Colleges -- rolled their wheelchairs onto the blue carpet of Wilson's office to demand that the governor and other UC regents rescind their vote to end affirmative action at the 154,000-student UC system. ``I'll be honest with you -- I don't want to die,'' said 21-year-old protester Cesar Cruz. ``But they say if you don't live fighting for social justice, you're already dead. If my small life means social justice, I'm willing to risk that for our people.'' Cruz and the other protesters say they decided that, rather than resorting to violence, they would fast in the tradition of Gandhi and Cesar Chavez to defend a principle: affirmative action, which they believe gives thousands of minorities a chance to compete in higher education. Although some allies are asking the students to quit fasting before they hurt themselves, their action is beginning to attract national attention and could further inflame a debate that has already galvanized intense passions on all sides. Hunger strikes have been employed by student groups in the past with some success. In 1993, a 14-day hunger strike by Latino students at UCLA led to an expanded Latino studies program at that school and to a $100,000 appropriation for a Latino studies center at San Francisco State University. ``There is a long and proud tradition of individuals fighting on behalf of civil rights through protest, fasting and other forms of civil disobedience,'' said Francisco Lobaco, lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union. ``We should applaud those who are willing to take a personal stance in support of affirmative action.'' But few observers believe the hunger strike will work this time, and some supporters have urged the students to start eating again. ``I don't think the governor is going to respond to their concerns,'' said Rodrigo Torres, who along with his brother has written a statewide ballot initiative to preserve affirmative action. ``It's an exercise in futility.'' Wilson spokesman Paul Kranhold met the students yesterday and told them the governor was not at the office. But, he told them, Wilson has no intentions of being swayed by the hunger strikers. Although he once supported affirmative action, Wilson now says it is unfair, and he is leading an attack on programs base on race and gender. ``Thirty years ago, had we denied admissions to a more qualified African American in favor of a less-qualified Caucasian, we would have called that racial discrimination,'' said Kranhold. ``Today, or prior to the July vote (by the board of regents), if we had denied admission to the University of California to a more qualified Asian American in favor of somebody who belonged to a preferred racial group, we call that affirmative action. But it's still racial discrimination and it's wrong.'' Kranhold said it is unfortunate that the students are risking their health, and possibly their lives, to try to change the governor's mind. But he maintained that ``the taxpayers can't be held hostage to a voluntary decision by a hunger- striker. They are doing this on their own will.'' Cruz and four other students began drinking only water and Gatorade on October 17 to protest the vote to end programs that consider race and gender in hiring, public contracting and admissions. University officials allowed the students to camp out at their school if they agreed to end their fast after 10 days. But they decided to continue. On Sunday, UC Irvine police arrested the five hunger-strikers and two other protesters and charged them with violating campus rules that forbid overnight camping. The students also were kicked off campus. Since then, one student has dropped out of the protest because of medical concerns. Ailing health also prevented another student from finishing yesterday's protest at the office of Assemblyman Bernie Richter, R-Chico, a leading affirmative action opponent. Richter, who also was out yesterday, spoke to the protesters by speaker phone. But like so many other debates on affirmative action, the talks went nowhere as each side refused to budge from its beliefs on the pros and cons of race and genderpreferences. ``You claim there aren't preferences, you're wrong,'' Richter said. ``They're blatant, they're discriminatory, and they affect innocent people and we're going to do away with them.'' The protesters left Richter's office before he finished speaking, saying that they were disillusioned with the response at the state Capitol. But they are hoping many more students will join their fight at campus rallies planned across the state today. ============================================================================ 4. Simpson Bill Scheduled for Consideration This Week ................... 40 Source: NAFSA Netwrok, Abridged by: CND-US DATE: November 12, 1995 (11:15pm Eastern) Simpson Bill Scheduled for Consideration This Week. Simpson Bill Scheduled for Consideration This Week. After introducing his immigration reform legislation November 3rd, Senator Alan K. Simpson (R-WY) scheduled an Immigration Subcommittee markup of the bill for Wednesday and Thursday of this week (November 15th and 16th). Many observers believe the expedited consideration, without a formal hearing on the proposal, is designed to prevent opposition groups from having sufficient time to mobilize against the legislation. However, those groups are doing their best to express opposition to the proposal. NAFSA, along with the Association of American Universities and the College and University Personnel Association, has drafted a sign-on letter which is now being circulated to many of the leading higher education associations in Washington for their endorsement. The letter expresses the academic community's belief that the Simpson legislation curtails the ability of colleges and universities to attract the best and brightest students, researchers, and scholars. A copy of the final letter, which will be delivered to Senator Simpson late on Monday, will be posted to INTER-L at that time. A similar letter is being sent by the business and family immigration coalitions, with the business community planning a press conference on Monday against the legislation. Their general message, along with that of the academic community, is the same: the Immigration Reform Act of 1995 should not be approved by the subcommittee, and it instead should be sent back to the drafting table for a complete re-write. In the meantime, NAFSAns are urged to contact their senators and express opposition to the Simpson bill. A separate action alert follows this posting to INTER-L, complete with talking points NAFSAns can use both for expressing their concerns to their senators, as well as for alerting campus officials about this draconian legislation. ============================================================================ 5. Simpson's Fax Number Changed .......................................... 7 _From: chwang@mail.utexas.edu (Chunlin Wang) 9 Nov 1995 Please be advised that Senator Arlen Specter's FAX number has been changed. The correct number is: 202-228-1229. The other FAX numbers of that committee members are correct. **************************************************************************** Editor of this issue: Anne Frank **************************************************************************** --GAA00734.816349723/wabbit.superprism.net-- ============================================================================ To (un)subscribe acca-l, please write to acca-l-request@acca.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 is at ftp://www.superprism.net/pub/acca/ or ftp://cnd.cnd.org/pub/InfoBase/HR1915/hr1915-2202/ or gopher://cnd.cnd.org:70/11/English-Menu/InfoBase/HR1915/hr1915-2202 Also, please visit our CBS-IC infor-center at ftp://dirac.superprism.net/pub/cbs-ic/0index.html or http://www.ifcss.org/www/pub/org/cbs-ic/index.html 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 --- ============================================================================