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China News Digest - US Regional Services (Bo Xiong) --------------- Date: Mon, 7 Aug 95 08:17:24 CDT From: my@math.luc.edu (Miao Ye) Message-Id: <9508071317.AA16322@math.luc.edu> Subject: Committee on Immigration News Release #9506 Status: RO >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Committee * on * Immigration <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< News Release #9506 Sunday, August 6, 1995 ============================================================================== +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Committee on Immigration is a coalition of Chinese Students, Scholars & Professionals who work against the anti-immigration legislation HR1915 For more info or want to contribute please send to hr1915@math.luc.edu +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= ============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Words from the Committee on Immigraion..............................85 2. Actions.............................................................81 3. Responses...........................................................69 4. Info and sample letters.............................................78 ============================================================================== 1. Words from the Committee on Immigration.............................85 Based on the talks we have had in Washington with various immigration groups and Congressional Asian American Caucus, and the actual standing of the bill itself, we are proposing this explaination/schedule for the committee and our fellow CSS who have joined our campaign. A). We have achieved a lot in the beginning. The pace, the intensity, and the momentum it created, will impress and surprise lot of people. Various American groups are very much encouraged to see us jumped in. And congressional offices and caucus have shown their interest to work with us and promote the legislative agneda we share. This is a great begining. B). We need to keep on working on spreading the word (or the Gospel) among the CSS community, and let more poeople know and join us, particularly the local CSSAs. We need to have all major schools on board, and we have to make sure EVERY state have our regional coordinator and CSSA. For when it comes to the final show-down, the little state has the same number of senators as the big state like California does. So we will have to work hard on the schools until we reach our goal. With a network of CSSAs set up, it will provide a powerful natioanal leadership and coordination for events such as immigration or any other issues that concern CSS community. C). The Congress will be in recess in August until after the Labor Day. This is not a time to work on the Congress in Wahington DC. The gravity of the battle now shift to each state and each district. Remember the American axiom: "politics is always local." All the CSSAs and other Chinese groups should now focus on: 1). coalition-building. Find out who are there in your state, city, or area that share the same agenda with us. For example, local chapter of Organization of Chinese America (OCA), local chapter of US-China People's Friendship Association. Contact them and make some friends, which will be very useful when you later on lobby local politicians or show your strength. 2). working on your campus. Schools are usually sympathetic to our cause. You should try to win support from the school for our position or encourage the school to come out with their own. This can be either the school's president, senate of the faculty, and student body. In many states, state university holds powerful position and influence in local politics. So work on your school. If you can do some survey or research on, say, the percentage of the Chinese students who graduated from your school and work in this country, who are in high tech, doing advanced research, teaching in university or college, or promoting trade between US and Asia, ect. Come up with some meat, and feed it to local media and politicians, for now they have some thing solid to show for others. 3). launch a public relations campaign. Sooner or later this battle will go by way of media. And much of the outcome of this fight will depend on the reaction from the media, just as in so many other issues. There are a number of ways you can influence (perfectly OK to "influence" others in a democracy) the media. You can write to the paper your opinions, give the story lines to local TV stations. The catch is to provide some interesting angles that will catch the issues and debate of the day. If well prepared, you should make appointment with the editorial board of your local newspaper, to influence the editorial writing of it. For your congressmen and senators pay attention to what the home town editorials say. 4). With all the preparation and ground work laid out, now is the time to go meet your representative or senators. August is the month they will come back and stay in their district or state mostly. Call their district office tosee whether the congressman or the senator have time to talk with you (I mean your group or better still the coalition). If this is not possible, find out the schedule for town hall meeting so you can go and press him/her on the spot and put him/her on the record. With a coalition, you should skillfully suggest your broad base and potential support your groups can give to the congressman/senator's future reelection. Ask your American firend who knows local politics how to best approach them in this critical summer. You can also try to get support and endorsement from your state senate or assembly. If you can find a way to your governer or liutenent governer (they may not be from the same party), and get their support, that will also be a big plus. D). When the Congress is in session again in September, we will then refocus most of our fire on the Capitol Hill. Eqiupped with all the ammunition, and well prepared and trained by the long and hot summer, reinforced with the coalition troops, we will lobby hard on every single congressman/woman on the Judiciary Committee in both House and Senate, and once the bill goes to the whole floor, we will reach every one, from every state and every district where you study and live. At the same time we will also start to lobby on the Administration. If bill remains as bad as before, if not worse, we will lobby the President to veto it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. Actions.......................................................81 Item 1: Rally in New York City against HR1915 and other anti-immigrant legislation Committee on Immigration (COI) participated the rally in New York City on August 4, organized by the Justice For Immigrants Campaign New York Coalition. Though it was on short notice, the COI co-chair Hu Sen, ACCA representative Luo Ning and some local CSP went to Times Square to join the rally on that extremely hot Friday. Hundreds people gathered at noon in front of the Marriott Hotel, mostly Asia Americans, also Latinos and other people, new and old immigrants, waving posters with "Justice for Immigrants!", "American Is A Nation Of Immigrants!" and "Stop All Anti-immigrant Legislation", attracted several TV and newspaper reporters and a lot of tourists. A group of Korean youth wearing their traditional costume played drum and other Korean percussion instruments during the march and speeches. They made the rally a very colorful event. Committee on Immigration and the other organizations joined the rally, e.g., Asian American Pacific Labor Alliance (AFL-CIO), National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Asian American Legel Defense and Education Fund, The New York Immigration Coalition, OCA NY Chapter, Center of Immigration Rights, Korean American Association, Jewish Federation for Immigration and National Immigration Forum, all agreed that it is crucial to form strong local grassroots coalitions in order to make our voice heard by the general public and our pressure felt in Congress. COI will the Chinese student and professional community informed about the latest development in the community reach-out. Item 2: COI co-Chair Xue Haipei and ACCA representative Luo Ning joined the Asiaa Pacific American Leadership Summit at Miami This Summit was initiated and organized by OCA (Organization of Chinese Americans), and participated by several dozens of Asian Pacific American (APA) organizations involved in public policy advocacy and community development, including NAPABA (National APA Bar Associ. NAPALC (National APA Legal Consortium), US APA Chamber of Commerce, New York City Immigration Coalition, etc., at both national and local levels. The major constituents of these organizations, like OCA, are second or older generations of APA, and, different from the stereotypical Chinatown organizations, are actively participating in the mainstream American politics. The major issues of the Summit were divided into five categories: (1) Affirmative Action (2) Business opportunities (3) Health care (4) Legal immigration (5) Political participation The topic attracted the most attention of the participants of the Summit was, of course, the imminent cut-down of all categories of legal immigration by the US Congress, of which APA community would be the chief victim. As pointed out by many during the Summit, this would probably be THE OPPORTUNITY to activate the APA community to participate in the American mainstream politics. In the past, APA has not been a visible force within the American political scene. This time, if on such agenda like cut-down legal immigrants we APA could not even wage a visible action and make an impact in the American politics of the election year 1996, then this community will never be counted for in the American political equation any more in the future, and we will again become the scapegoat of all the problems that the American society facing today. Therefore, this is a real crisis. Our community is facing the real danger. And this also provides real opportunities for us APA community to get organized and our voices heard. The participating organizations formed consensus on several important issues and deviced strategic plans for short-term and long-term actions. In particular, on the issue of anti-immigrant waves, the participants agreed that it is imperative to form strong local coalitions based on grassroots support. It was also pointed out that this is not the time for "engineering-type maneuver" (i.e. calculating pros and cons of detailed legislation items), but the time for political actions. We need to form alliance with as many forces as possible. The possibility of forming a PAC (political action committee) to poll the resources of the entire community was also probed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Responses...................................................69 >From xx@minerva.cis.yale.edu Sun Aug 6 13:01:45 1995 To echo the growing concerns over the proposed anti-immigration bill (H.R.1915), we, the Association of Chinese Students and Scholars in Yale (ACSSY), would like to endorse the activities carried out by your committee, together with those CSSA from other universities. _From: xx@med.unc.edu To response to the campaign sponsored by CSSPU aiming at the blockage of the passage of anti-immigration bill HR 1915, UNC-FACSS would like to join this campaign and fight our Chinese community under your leadership. We would also like to endorse the activity against the bill HR 1915 and petition letter to congressman. _From: xx@vms.cis.pitt.edu The CSSA at University of Pittsburgh support your every effort to kill the bill. In addition, this organization are trying to get the School Deans and Department Chairs to sign our letter to some Representatives. >From xx@uceng.uc.edu Wed Aug 2 10:32:06 1995 We, FASSPRC at University of Cincinnati, will endorse the sample letter in News Release #9501 from Committee on Immigration. [Editor's note: North Carolina State University CSSA, Univ. of Florida CSSA have also endorsed the Committee on Immigration.] >From McGovern: I recently saw the Committee on Immigration News Release from the CSSPU, with your name as the apparent sender. Can you put me on the list to receive news releases when they come out (or forward this to someone who can?). I hope this doesn't seem a strange request from someone who isn't a Chinese student: like many Americans, I'm from a family of immigrants, and I find the current anti-immigrant frenzy antithetical to what America is supposed to be about. Although I work in North Carolina, I vote in Florida and I believe that Florida, with similar illegal alien problems, will follow California's lead in bashing "foreigners" without regard to their legal status. Reading the CSSPU releases will help me when I write my Congressmen. Victoria McGovern, PhD Department of Biology >From XXX@cig.mcel.mot.com Thu Aug 3 20:23:38 1995 As a subscriber to the CND US Regional and Global info service I became aware of the need for coordination in trying to stop the movement pushing for passage of HR 1915. It is my true belief that such a bill is directly contrary to what America is all about and is even a bit frightening as it is a good example of the trend in the US towards isolationism and zenophobia while the rest of the world is becoming more "global". Any American historian knows that this isn't the first time the US targeted immigration due to a changing economic atmosphere - it is human nature to find a scapegoat but it is also racist and wrong! How ironic that the US wants to punish immigrants when perhaps 90%+ of Americans are a product of immigrants. I would like to do whatever I can in stopping HR 1915, including coordination. I am returning to the US (from Beijing) tomorrow, Aug 5 and will have some time to devote to this cause. Thank you very much in advance and I look forward to stopping HR 1915 and any other bills with similar policies. Sherry P.Nist ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Info on the bills and sample letters..........................78 More about Immigration in the Natural Interest Act (H.R. 1915) . It caps family-sponsored immigration at 330,000 per year and eliminates visas for brothers and sisters and adult sons and daughters. . It limits sponsorship of family members to U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents whose annual earnings are 200% of the poverty level. . It allows admittance of parents of U.S. citizens only if the majority of their children are U.S. nationals or legal permanent residents and if they meet specific health insurance requirements. . Provides an additional 50,000 visas eash year between 1997 and 2001 for backlogged spouses and minor children of legal permanent residents. . It limits employment based immigration to 135,000 and eliminates visas for unskilled workers. . It limits annual refugee admissions to 50,000 per year and limits the number of asylees and other "humanitarian immigrants" to 10,000 per year in each category. . This bill provideds for the establishment of a national verification system for employment eligibility. . It also provides an escalation of penalties for alien smuggling and document fraud. Another sample letter: The Honorable Congressman [Address] Washington, DC 20515 Dear Congressman XXX, I urge you to vote against House Bill H.R. 1915 which would drastically reduce the number of legal immigrants entering this country and eliminate all visas currently provided to adult sons and daughters or brothers and sisters sponsored by U.S. citizens. These provisions undermine family values and family reunification as the cornerstone of this country's immigration policy. The bill proposed by Lamar Smith (R-TX) would cut legal immigration by one-third, capping it at 330,000, and eliminate the sibling and adult chidren sponsorship provisions. This proposal fundamentally redefines the family in its own shape, ignoring the fact that for most Americans, adult children and siblings constitute close family relationships. These proposals are insensitive to American business and employers that recruit internationally for professional employees as well as unskilled workers. The elimination of all visas for unskilled workers, and the more stringent regulations for skilled labor undercuts the competitive ability of American business to compete successfully in the global market. Immigrants are making tremendous contributions to the economy, arts, sciences and technology by revitalizing depressed areas and starting business that provide thousands of jobs for all Americans. According to an Urban Institue study, immigrants pay $25 billion more in taxes than they receive in services each year. We urge you to vote against any provisions which scapegoat immigrant Americans while ignoring the nation's real challenges. Instead of scapegoating immigrants and dividing our nation along ethnic lines, Congress must focus on the issues of poverty, unemployment and inadquate health care that challenge this country. Stand up for America -- A Nation of Immigrants! Sincerely, Signature (Prepared by Asian American Legal Defense And Education Fund) ========================================================================= Editor of this issue: Hu Mao =========================================================================