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China News Digest - US Regional Services (Bo Xiong) --------------- Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 03:15:04 -0500 From: Miao Ye To: acca-2@accaic.org Subject: National Committee on Immigration NewsRelease #9539 Resent-Message-Id: <"Gdtpa2.0._1.JCIrm"@acca> **************************************************************************** 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 #9539 Friday, December 15, 1995 ============================================================================ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= The National Committee on Immigration is a coalition of Chinese Students, Scholars & Professionals who work against the anti-immigration bills +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= ============================================================================ 1. Day of Action to defend Affirmative Action and Immigrants Rights ..... 34 2. Help Save Affirmative Action ......................................... 63 3. More Analysis of S 1394 ............................................. 170 4. Letter From a Reader ................................................. 97 ============================================================================ 1. Day of Action to defend Affirmative Action and Immigrants Rights ..... 34 ------------------------------------------------------------- _From: Progressive Student Organization March 14th 1996 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Throughout the nation Affirmative Action and Immigrants Rights are under broad attack in the media, by federal and state governments, and college administrators. These attacks are being spearhead in California with the passing of Proposition 187 and the proposed California Civil Rights (Wrongs) Initiative, but are radiating out nationally through cuts in health services, welfare, Medicare, and student loans. Affirmative Action began to allow People of Color entrance to colleges and universities, and now public opinion is being whipped up to dismantle it. The solution being offered is more prisons, more police on the streets rather than dealing with the real problems. As a response to this racist climate, a call for action to defend Affirmative Action and Immigrants Rights surfaced from a student conference at Howard University, the national student conference of the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC), the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and the Center for Campus Organizing (CCO). A broad array of organizations are now working toward a long term campaign including a unified day of action. Organizing should directed at local targets with the goal of halting the attacks and shifting the debate towards solutions. The call is for organizations across the country to research and identify specific targets and demands, mobilize people, use direct action at thousands of campuses, and build sustainable coalitions to change the course of the 1996 elections. Together we will tell right-wing government officials and the wealthy that we won't stand for their meddling with Affirmative Action and that the attacks on Immigrants must Stop! For more information call: Malcolm Goff (914) 257-3066 Jennifer Mckeever (612) 813-1969 Abdi Soltani (510) 533-7583 ============================================================================ 2. Help Save Affirmative Action ......................................... 63 ------------------------------------------------- _From: Lesbian Contradiction Help Support a Grassroots Movement to Save Affirmative Action or . . . We Get What We Pay For! Since last June, Californians for Justice has been building a base of activists and community organizations who are gearing up to defeat the anti-affirmative action initiative expected to be on the California ballot in November 1996. Using the Million Voices for Justice petition, CFJ has signed up 195,000 supporters of equal opportunity and identified over 10,000 people who want to work on the campaign. With offices in Los Angeles and Oakland, CFJ has done this with only five (underpaid) staff and hundreds of committed volunteers. Contrast this record with CCRI (the anti-affirmative action initiative) -- they report they've blown $450,000 on their campaign to outlaw affirmative action and collected only 250,000 signatures the vast majority from paid signature gatherers. Now they think they are going to get help by appointing Ward Connerly head of their operation and using Newt Gingrich's mailing list of donors. WE CAN DEFEAT CCRI, but only if we have the $$ to do the job. To win, we think we will need to win the support of and turn out to vote at least 450,000 people who have not usually voted before, most of them from the communities of color and among youth. This work can only be done by one-to-one contact and that requires organizers to enable volunteers to do the work. Send donations to Californians for Justice, 1611 Telegraph Ave., Ste. 206, Oakland, CA 94612. (If you send $25 or more, the California Fair Political Practices Commission requires us to record your occupation and employer.) Californians for Justice Statewide Organizing Committee (organizations listed for identification only) Ignatius Bau, Asian and Pacific Island American Health Forum Hatem Bazian, California Student Civil Rights Network Francis Calpotura, Center for Third World Organizing York Chang, UCLA Student Body President Cynthia Carey-Grant, Kaiser Permanente Medical West Bay CSA Rev. Lorenzo Carlisle, Prophetic Movement to Save Affirmative Action Gary Delgado, Applied Research Center Frank Martin del Campo, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, San Francisco Chapter Angie Fa, San Francisco Board of Education Craig Fong, Los Angeles Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center Emily Goldfarb, Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Services Juan Jose Gutierrez, One-Stop Immigration Services Gabriel Hernandez, Xicano Moratorium Coalition; H.E.R.E Local 2850 Roy Hong, Korean Immigrant Workers Association Kenneth Jacobs, Share Foundation Kim Klein, Grassroots Fundraising Journal Rev. James Lawson, Pastor, Holman United Methodist Church Roberto Lovato, Central American Refugee Center Joel Ochoa, California Immigrant Workers Association Wilson Riles Jr., American Friends Service Committee Peggy Saika, Asian Pacific Environmental Network Tracy Salkowitz, American Jewish Congress Tim Sampson, California Faculty Association Rinku Sen, Center for Third World Organizing Anthony Thigpenn, AGENDA, Los Angeles Mark Toney, Strategic Tools, Inc Vallerie Wagner, Black Gay & Lesbian Leadership Forum ============================================================================ 3. More Analysis of S 1394 ............................................. 170 ----------------------------------------------- _From: Larry Soler, forwarded by yu@CS.UCLA.EDU S. 1394, the Immigration Reform Act of 1995 Summary of Provisions Affecting Higher Education December 11, 1995 The Senate Immigration Subcommittee November 29 marked up and approved, by a 5-2 vote, S. 1394, the Senate legal immigration reform bill. The Subcommittee also agreed to join together into one bill S. 1394 and S. 269, the illegal immigration bill. During subcommittee markup, a number of amendments were adopted which deleted, or modified, a number of restrictive provisions in the legislation. However, the bill still contains the following provisions which continue to be of concern to colleges and universities: Elimination of the Outstanding Professor and Researcher Category Senate Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Alan Simpson (R-WY) offered an amendment at subcommittee markup to restore a modified version of the Outstanding Professor and Researcher visa category. The original version of the bill eliminated the Outstanding Professor and Researcher permanent visa category. As amended, the Outstanding Professor and Researcher visa category would require labor market screening (a new version of labor certification), English language proficiency, and two-year conditional residency. In addition, it would cap this visa category at 6,000 (including family members), which is a 25-percent increase over current usage. These additional restrictions are unduly burdensome for this class of highly talented researchers and professors. We support the restoration of this category to current law. In addition, the House immigration reform bill retains this visa category as it appears in current law. In 1994, only 1,809 petitions for Outstanding Professor or Researcher visas were approved (and only a portion of these applications came from colleges and universities). In comparison, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that in 1992, a total of 220,673 full-time faculty with teaching responsibilities were employed at doctoral-granting colleges and universities (there are more than 800,000 faculty members in all of higher education). Therefore, the market impact of these highly talented professors or researchers is minimal in comparison to the overall number of university faculty. Elimination of "Special Handling" The bill eliminates the "special handling" provision for college and university teachers. "Special handling" allows colleges and universities to hire through an expedited labor certification process those foreign teaching faculty who are the best qualified applicants for a particular position. When colleges and universities must use the full labor certification process, their approval rate for that procedure is nearly 100 percent."Special handing" is an efficient, streamlined alternative to full labor certification, and should be restored. H-1B Visas Limited to Three Years The bill limits the length of H-1B visas to three years from the current six year level. Research projects often last longer than three years. Important scientific projects could be indefinitely delayed if H-1B visas last only three years, before many research projects are completed. Three Year Work Abroad Requirement for Permanent Visas The bill imposes a new three-year work requirement before an individual can obtain a permanent visa. Although the three-year work requirement could be satisfied while the individual is working on an H-1B visa, the limitation of H-1Bs to three years could make it difficult or impossible for an alien to have sufficient time to complete the work requirement and apply for a permanent visa. Requirement to Pay 105 Percent of the Prevailing Wage The bill requires employers to pay 105 percent of the prevailing wage to permanent and temporary aliens. Under this policy, universities would be placed in the position of having to pay foreign researchers and scholars salaries that exceed those paid to comparably employed U.S. academic researchers and scholars. This system would result in a built-in disparity in wages based not on objective criteria, such as productivity or talent, but rather solely on nationality. Furthermore, many state universities, even if they could find the resources to meet this mandated wage increase, are constrained by state law to predetermined salary scales for all workers. Colleges and universities strongly support policies that require employers to pay 100 percent of the prevailing academic wage to foreign researchers and scholars and provide them with the same benefits as their U.S. colleagues. Fees for Using Permanent Visas For permanent visas, the bill requires employers to pay 10 percent of the value of the alien's annual compensation or $10,000 (whichever is greater) to a private fund dedicated towards increasing the competitiveness of American workers. One-half of the funds are to be targeted for college and university scholarships and fellowships for U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. The remaining funds are targeted for training workers in the United States. It would be counterproductive for universities to be required to pay this fee. Colleges and universities already provide significant amounts of institutional aid to students. The primary mission of colleges and universities is to educate students, whether they are U.S. citizens or foreign. The vast majority of students (both undergraduate and graduate) at American colleges are U.S. citizens, who are already being educated to be the next generation of American workers. This fee requirement would result in fewer funds being available to serve this important purpose. In addition, the bill requires that employers pay an additional fee to the Department of Labor to "cover its costs of administering the labor market screening required...including all enforcement activities in connection therewith." Attestations The bill requires a series of new attestation requirements that must occur before an employer can hire an H-1B worker. First, the employer would have to pay the H-1B worker 105 percent of the prevailing wage. Second, the employer must agree not to replace U.S. workers with H-1B workers unless each replacement is paid 105 percent of the mean of the compensation paid to the replaced worker. Third, employers must agree to take "timely, significant, and effective steps" to end dependence on foreign workers. Fourth, employers must certify that they have offered 105 percent of the prevailing wage during recruitment of a U.S. worker. In addition, an amendment adopted at Subcommittee markup requires that prior to hiring an alien on a permanent visa which requires labor market screening, an employer must certify that it has not laid off a U.S. worker in the occupational classification subject of the application in the past six months and will not layoff or otherwise displace any U.S. worker in the occupational classification subject of the application in which the immigrant is intended to be employed. This language could be interpreted to mean that a university could, for example, be restricted from hiring a foreign chemist to work on a research grant because a U.S. citizen chemist, who specializes in an entirely different aspect of chemistry, may have been laid off due to the ending of a federal research grant. We believe that this language should be narrowed to avoid such unintended problems. Student Visas The bill includes several provisions affecting student visas. The bill requires that foreign students must make "normal progress" toward obtaining their degrees and they must be admitted only for the duration of their program. The impact of this provision may be that those graduate students who are unable to finish their degree in the mandated time-frame may be forced to leave school and return home before they can complete their studies. Although the bill permits INS to grant an extension in their stay, past experience shows that INS has had trouble acting in a timely manner. Also, the bill would establish a pilot program to collect from colleges and universities certain information relating to nonimmigrant students. INS is planning a similar study and this section is unnecessary and duplicative. In addition, students applying for visas would be charged a $100 processing fee. This fee could prove to be a hardship to those students who come from poor families. Deeming and Student Aid The Senate immigration bill contains broad language requiring that the income and resources of a permanent resident alien's sponsor must be added to the resources of the alien before the alien can be eligible for any federal program. This requirement, known as deeming, would apply until the alien receives citizenship. House and Senate leaders, following extensive negotiations during the conference on the welfare reform bill, have already determined that student aid should be excluded from similar deeming requirements in that bill. Since this issue has already been fully debated and settled by the Congress, it is unnecessary to consider it once again as part of the immigration reform bill. ============================================================================ 4. Letter from a reader ................................................. 97 ------------------------ >From ilatal@ort.org.il Incorrect allegation concerning H-1B aliens ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Reference is made to National * Committee * on * Immigration Release #9536 as of Monday, December 4, 1995. Citation from the above says: > 3). High-Tech Employee Organizations hold Washington news conference > . . . . .Linda Kilcrease who worked for American International Group > before that company laid her off in order to replace her with an H-1B > programmer; and Julie Cairns-Ruben who was laid off from Sea-Land Services > to make way for lower paid H-1B workers. . . . . My comment: ~~~~~~~~~~~ Federal Law prescribes that H-1B worker may neither be paid less, nor be relace U.S. residents having the same skills. Accordingly the claims of those who had been allegedly fired unfairly are 'inaccurate'. Enclosed please see the wording of the relevant federal law. 8 USC Sec. 1182 (1993) Selected citation Any alien who seeks to enter the United States for the purpose of performing skilled or unskilled labor is excludable, unless the Secretary of Labor has determined and certified to the Secretary of State and the Attorney General that - @ (I) there are not sufficient workers who are able, willing, qualified (or equally qualified in the case of an alien described in clause (ii)) and available at the time of application for a visa and admission to the United States and at the place where the alien is to perform such skilled or unskilled labor, and @ (II) the employment of such alien will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the United States similarly employed. # (ii) Certain aliens subject to special rule [snip] * (n) Labor condition application + (1) No alien may be admitted or provided status as a H1-B >> nonimmigrant described in section (a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of <<<<<< this title in an occupational classification unless the employer has filed with the Secretary of Labor an application stating the following: >>>>>> o (A) The employer - >>>>>> # (i) is offering and will offer during the period of >>>>>> authorized employment to aliens admitted or >>>>>> provided status as a nonimmigrant described in >>>>>> section 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of this title wages >>>>>> that are at least - >>>>>> @ (I) the actual wage level paid by the employer >>>>>> to all other individuals with similar >>>>>> experience and qualifications for the specific >>>>>> employment in question, or >>>>>> @ (II) the prevailing wage level for the >>>>>> occupational classification in the area of >>>>>> employment, whichever is greater, based on the >>>>>> best information available as of the time of >>>>>> filing the application, and >>>>>> # (ii) will provide working conditions for such a >>>>>> nonimmigrant that will not adversely affect the >>>>>> working conditions of workers similarly employed. >>>>>> o (B) There is not a strike or lockout in the course of a >>>>>> labor dispute in the occupational classification at the >>>>>> place of employment. >>>>>> o (C) The employer, at the time of filing the application >>>>>> - >>>>>> # (i) has provided notice of the filing under this >>>>>> paragraph to the bargaining representative (if any) >>>>>> of the employer's employees in the occupational >>>>>> classification and area for which aliens are >>>>>> sought, or [snip] In order to settle this matter legally the employees should write to: Mr. Solomon Sugarman, Chief Division of Fair Labor Standards Francis Pertins Building Room S-3510 200 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20210 or by FAX (202) 219-8198 or call to the same office requesting: Monica Gallagher Associate Solicitor Tel. (202) 219-7570 Greg Tawlor Attorney Tel. (202) 219-7626 Edwin Tyler Attorney Tel. (202) 219-7650 Please advise the injured individuals to act within 180 days, as of the alleged abuse. In fact, any person may file a complaint with the above office of the DOL. Sincerely, Doron "White-Collar Alien-Slave" ============================================================================ **************************************************************************** Editor of this issue: Miao Ye **************************************************************************** ============================================================================ To (un)subscribe our acca-l mails, please write to acca-2-request@accaic.org 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 http://www.superprism.net/~acca or ftp://wabbit.superprism.net/pub/acca or gopher://wabbit.superprism.net:70/11/acca National Chair of ACCA, Mr. Lin Huang ============================================================================ 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 --- ============================================================================