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) --------------- Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995 23:28:32 GMT Reply-To: ifcss Sender: Newsletter on Chinese Community From: ifcss Subject: HQ NR #7020: Update Info On Bills and Lobby Efforts Comments: To: pbs-l@ifcss.org, council-l@ifcss.org Comments: cc: china-nt@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU To: Multiple recipients of list CCNL Status: RO Please Help Forward This Post To Local Nets - Thank You &=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&= HEADQUARTERS NEWSRELEASE * HEADQUARTERS NEWSRELEASE * HEADQUARTERS NEWSREL &^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^ * * * N E W S R E L E A S E 7020 * * * _________ August 16, 1995 __________ [[[[[[ [[[[[[[[[[ [[[[[[ [[[[[[[ [[[[[[[ ______ [[[ [[[ [[[ [[[ [[[ [[[ [[[ [[[ _________ [[[ [[[ [[[ [[[ [[[ [[[ [[[[[[[[ [[[ [[[[[ [[[[[ [[[ [[[ [[[ [[[[[ [[[[[ ______ [[[ [[[ [[[ [[[ [[[ ____ [[[ [[[ [[[ [[[ [[[[ [[[ [[[[ [[[ [[[[[[ [[[[[[ [[[[[[[ [[[[[[[[ [[[[[[[[ &^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^ IFCSS Foundation, Inc. 733 15th Street, NW Suite 440 Washington, DC 20005 Tel: (202) 347-0017 Fax: (202) 347-0018 &=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&= 1. Senator Dole Pulls Welfare Reform Bill Off Senate Floor Senator Majority leader Dole announced last week that the Senate would postpone consideration of welfare reform until after the August recess. Reports on why the bill was pulled differ. Dole is blaming Democrats' opposition, and also claims all Republican can support if the bill is brought to the floor in September. Optimists speculate that it may be a challenge getting the bill to the floor in September as the Senater already has a packed schedule of bills to consider. * * * * * 2. National campaign does work as confirmed by Senater offices, which were logging calls and hearing from lots of local advocates, and was having impacts on the Senators. During the ongoing congressional recess, IFCSS appeals to CSS organizations, and all CSS nationwide, to call your district Representatives and Senators. If you need any help, talking points and phone numbers, please contact IFCSS headquarters. * * * * * 3. IFCSS representative Chen Dong attended the regular Coalition confer- ence on Monday. The House Judiciary Committee mark-up of Rep. Smith's bill looms ahead in early September. This bill, named newly as H.R. 2202, contains a lot of benefits-related provisions that are very draconian. In the Senate, Simpson is promising a bill on legal immigration in the very near future that he intends to join with S269 with restrictions targeting both legal and illegal immigrants access to benefits. IFCSS Headquarters attaches another sample letter on lobbying H.R.2202, drafted by our colleague, Ilya Shlyakhter at M.I.T. Thanks to Ilya. Please distribute it as wide as possible for immediate contact to your district congressmen/congresswomen, especially if he/she is in House Judiciary Committee! * * * * * 4. National Immigration Forum (NIF) calls for stories, to counter damaing characterizations being made of immigrants by members of Congress who want to cut legal immigration. NIF claims, to put a human face on the immigration policy debate, we are putting together a series of one-page stories that demonstrate both the importance of legal immigrants to this country. NIF will submit these stories to Congress or the press. NIF would even like to get legal immigants to tell their stories publicly in a hearing, in a visit with a member of Congress, or at a press conference. In deve- loping a story, a short description of the immigrants, their circums- tances by which they came to the U.S. and their accomplishments in the U.S., will be the best to fit (real name need not even be used). IFCSS Task Force will relay the stories to NIF if any CSS would like to respond to its call. * * * * * 5. Sample Letter to Representatives of House on H.R. 2202 [As this letter contains several talking points, you could send it out or split it into several parts, and then them respectively with your signature ] Dear Mr. Congressman/woman [ ]: 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 immig- ration. These should be separated into two bills, to give people more flexibility in supporting just the provisions they want. While support for curbing illegal immigration may be almost universal, major reduction of legal immigration is much more contraversial. 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. 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 oustanding reasearcher 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 certifica- tions whenever possible. H.R. 2202 also imposes arbitrary requirements on professionals and skil- led workers, requiring 5 and 7 years of experience, respectively, even in professions where only 2 or 3 years of experience after a baccalau- reate degree are usually required for employment. This measure will only hurt the employers, since they generally avoid hiring overqualified wor- kers. 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 immigr- ation if there is excess family immigration. This leaves employment immigration in an uncertain state, creating a potential for a conside- rable decrease in work visas without any regard to the need of U.S. com- panies for highly qualified foreign employees. To protect the U.S. comp- anies from such uncertainty, this provision should be dropped. The restrictions on family immigration in H.R. 2002 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 with out any support. The bill contains provisions that will bar all but the well-to-do Ameri- cans 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. 2002 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 encou- raging U.S. workers to become as competitive as their foreign counter- parts.) 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, ********************************************************************* * PBS-L is IFCSS's news distribution list for individuals. To sign * * on or off from the list, please send email to listserv@ifcss.org * * leave the subject line open and put in the mail body: * * (For signing on) sub PBS-L last name first name * * (For signing off) unsub PBS-L last name first name * * For more information about IFCSS, write to ifcss-info@ifcss.org * *********************************************************************