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: Sat, 19 Aug 1995 16:40:29 CDT Reply-To: Miao Ye Sender: China-Net From: Miao Ye Subject: Committee on Immigration News Release #9509 To: Multiple recipients of list CHINA-NT Status: RO >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> National * Committee * on * Immigration <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< News Release #9509 Saturday, August 19, 1995 ============================================================================== +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= The National Committee on Immigration is a coalition of Chinese Students, Scholars & Professionals who work against the anti-immigration bill HR1915 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= ============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Update on Upcoming Lobby Days to Defend Immigration.................65 2. NJ CSS Meet US Representative to express their concerns on HR1915...25 3. Letters to editors..................................................40 4. Some basic facts about HR1915 (II).................................200 5. Who is John Bryant? What does Bryant's Amendment mean? .............23 ============================================================================== 1. Update on Upcoming Lobby Days to Defend Immigration.................65 From: Lowell Sachs and Angela Kelley, National Immigration Forum WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT! Sweeping restrictionist legislation(HR 2202, formerly HR 1915) is likely to be marked up by the House full Judiciary Committee by the middle of September. Once the bill gets reported out of committee there is a strong possibility that it will move rapidly to the floor for a vote by the full House. In the Senate, Alan Simpson (R-WY) is planning on adding a legal immigration bill to his enforcement bill, S. 269, in the very near future. The bipartisan support for immigration reform in both the House and the Senate will make it extremely difficult to stop this legislation once it heads for a vote. THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW! You can make your voices heard by coming to join us in Washington, D.C. on September 11th and 12th for "Lobby Days to Defend Immigration"--a massive, national lobbying effort. Many Forum friends and members are joining forces to bring people to D.C. and deliver our message to the nation's policymakers. Among the supporters of Lobby Days are: American Immigration Lawyers Association, Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Services of America, Church World Service, Organization of Chinese Americans, United States Catholic Conference/Migration and Refugee Services, National Council of La Raza, Rick Swartz and Associates, Catholic Charities USA, Council of Jewish Federations, Mexican American Legal Defense & Education Fund, and others. Following is a flyer with detailed information on Lobby Days which you can use in your efforts to reach out to local members. A quick update on scheduling and logistics for Lobby Days appears below. More details, such as the exact locations of briefings and other information, will be forthcoming as they develop. SCHEDULE OF EVENTS: Monday, September 11th 9:00 - 10:30 am BRIEFING (Covers lobbying tips, a review of advocacy materials, and a role-playing session) 12:00 - 1:00 pm PRESS BRIEFING (Tentative) 5:00 - 6:00 pm DEBRIEFING (A chance for advocates and participants to regroup) Tuesday, September 12th 9:00 - 10:30 am BRIEFING (For those who did not attend the briefing on Monday) 5:00 - 6:00 pm DEBRIEFING (Provide opportunity to get together and share information) KEY POINTS FOR LOBBY DAYS: Logistical * Participants will be responsible for arranging their own visits on the Hill. * The first visits participants schedule with their Senator or Representative should take place no later than 11:30 am. Media * Groups should be contacting their LOCAL MEDIA to let them know about their plans to travel to D.C. for Lobby Days. The Forum will be producing generic press advisories which can be adapted for use with lical media. Materials * An advocacy packet on HR 2202 entitled "House Immigration Legislation 1995: Information and Analysis" will be available along with practical information for getting around the D.C. area. Promotion * Participants should bring new citizens, immigrants and refugees with them to D.C. to act as spokespeople and to help put a human face on the issue. People should begin doing outreach to local groups now to get this word out. ________________________________________________________________________ 2201 Street, NE #220 Washington, DC 20002-4362 202-544-0004 . Fax: 202-544-1905 Posted by Xue Haipei, D.C. ============================================================================ 2. NJ CSS Meet US Representative to express their concerns on HR1915...25 On Aug. 17, Hu Sen from Princeton, me and Xu Yang from Rutgers, took part in a town meeting which Congressman Frank Pallone sponsored at the County Hall of South River NJ. We learned from Congressman Pallone's office that he is going to have a town meeting on Aug. 16 to meet with people in that town to discuss about the environmental problems. We thought it is a chance to meet the congressman and put some influence on him on the HR 1915 bill. Before the meeting, we prepared a letter to the congressman in the name of Rutgers Chinese Students and Scholars Association and Princeton Chinese Students and Scholars, expressing our concerns on the bill. We didn't get the chance to bring up the issue to the congressman until the end of the meeting. When we talked with him about that bill, surprisingly he is pretty concious about the detail, except that he is not aware of the fact that the bill also cuts significantly on high skill immigrants. We brought up couple of details to him. Later he promised to look into the detail of the bill, and expressing that he does not encourage cutting on high-skilled worker. We can say that this is a pretty sucessful trip. It's not that hard to get access to those congressmen. We need to find out what they are doing, and try to bring up our opinion to them. If people bring up the issue many times to them, like this time Indian people also talked to him about that previously, they will seriously think about it, and we may have more chance to win the game. Jun Cao, Co-ordinator of CSSA at Rutgers. =========================================================================== 3. Letters to editors...................................................40 I am shocked to learn the new changes (Bryant's laid-off Amendment) added to the anti-immigration bill HR1915, now as it is called, HR2202. Everyone knows how difficult it is already now, to apply employment-based immigration through third preference (there are two years backlog right now). One must, as the current Immigration Law requirs, to prove that 1) the applicant's ability is NOT higher than what the position requirs; 2) the wage of the applicant is NOT lower than the market wage an American worker would take for that position; 3) after serious public advertisment, the employer could not find a suitable American worker to fill in that position. Now, one MORE string is to be attached - the wage should be 10% more, while the applicant is waiting for a visa, and only God knows how long does it take (maybe 10 years after all?). If HR2202 is finally enacted, then, bye bye the employment-based immigrations! I hereby urge all of our fellow students and scholars, to be moblized, under the leadership of National Committee on Immigration, in co-operation with ALL other organizations, to BLOCK the passage of this bill! Thanks for the great effort made by National Committee on Immigration, Association for Chinese Community Affairs (the successor of very impressive CBS-IC led by Mi Mi Sr.), and other organizations. It is really our task of every individual at the grassroot level, to make lobby efforts. Please keep on your good work, the whole community is looking upon you! A CSS resder, Anne He -------------------------------------- Thanks for your information about the anti-immigration bill HR2202. This anti-immigration bill targets not only Chinese immigrants, but Vietnamese as well. I would suggest your organization to reach out more, not only Asians, but also Latinos, and ALL of the groups in the country. It is the time we MUST speak up. Thanks for your efforts, and please keep us informed. Kim Ngugen ======================================================================== 4. Some basic facts about HR1915 (II)...............................200 By Luo Ning As shown in the following discussion, the family-sponsored immigration is under more severe attack from HR1915. I. Facts on Family-Sponsored Immigration FAMILY IMMIGRATION is how U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents bring family members from other countries to live permanently in the U.S. Citizens may bring their spouses, unmarried children, parents (if the citizen is over 21 years), married children, and brothers and sisters (if the citizen is over 21 years). Lawful permanent residents (LPRs) may bring their spouses and unmarried minor and adult children. To begin the process, the citizen or LPR must file a petition with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, seeking an "immigrant visa" for the family member. FAMILY MEMBERS ELIGIBLE FOR SPONSORSHIP CITIZENS may sponsor: LPRs may sponsor: spouses spouses unmarried children unmarried children parents married children brothers and sisters The INS divides the family members eligible for sponsorship into two tiers: 1) those who are "immediate relatives" of U.S. citizens and receive an unlimited number of visas each year, and 2) the rest, who fall into the "family preference system" which places an annual maximum limit of 226,000 visas issued to these relatives. HR1915 now puts a cap of 330,000/year on the OVERALL NUMBER of the family-sponsored immigration. In comparison, the current number of immigration of the "immediate relatives" of U.S. citizens is about 235,000 annually in recent years, that puts the total family-sponsored immigration to 461,000 per year. FAMILY-SPONSORED IMMIGRANTS ENTER AS EITHER IMMEDIATE RELATIVES OF U.S. CITIZENS, OR THROUGH THE FAMILY PREFERENCE SYSTEM Immediate relatives are the: spouses unmarried minor children and parents of U.S. citizens who receive an unlimited number of visas each year (approximately 235,000 have been issued annually in recent yeas) HR1915 splits it into two categories: (1) Spouses and minor children of US citizens (no direct limit) (2) "Qualified" parents of US citizens (the "qualification": (i) if a majority of the sons and daughters of the parents are in the United States; and (ii) the parents meet the insurance requirements "at least comparable to coverage provided under the medicare program under title XVIII of the Social Security Act" and "at least comparable to such coverage provided under the medicaid program under title XIX of such Act for the State in which either the alien intends to reside or in which the petitioner (on behalf of the alien under section 204(a)(1)) resides, throughout the period the alien is residing in the United States") The Family Preference System allows in: unmarried and married adult children and brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens and spouses and unmarried minor and adult children of LPRs (these relatives are eligible for a maximum of 226,000 visas each year) Under the FAMILY PREFERENCE SYSTEM, visas are distributed among four different categories (called "preferences"), with the first receiving top priority. THE CURRENT FAMILY PREFERENCE SYSTEM AND PROPOSED CHANGES BY HR1915 U.S. SPONSOR RELATIONSHIP PREFERENCE # VISA ALLOCATION HR1915 U.S. Citizen unmarried 1st Pref. 23,400 visas/year, E* adult children plus any visas left (21 yrs or older) from the 4th Pref. LPR spouses and 2nd A Pref. 87,900 visas/year Cut to minor children 85,000 LPR unmarried 2nd B Pref. 26,300 visas/year E* adult children (21 yrs or older) U.S. Citizen married adult 3rd Pref. 23,400 visas/year E* children plus any left over from the 1st and 2nd Preferences U.S. Citizen brothers 4th Pref. 65,000 visas/year E* and sisters plus any left over from the previous Preferences The second preference has two categories that provide a total of 114,200 visas per year, plus any left over from the first preference. * All four categories: 1, 2B, 3 and 4, are ELIMINATED altogether by HR1915. Since HR1915 proposes "no direct numerical limit on admission of spouses and children of United States citizens", the world quota of 330,000 will presumably satisfy this category first, with the other two remaining categories (the spouses and children of legal permanent residents and "qualified" parents of US citizens) use the remaining quota. Since HR1915 puts a quota of 85,000 on the the spouses and children of legal permanent residents, it seems that the "immediate relatives" of U.S. citizens will still have a little room (330,000 - 85,000 = 245,000) left over above the current annual level of 235,000. U,S. law also limits the number of visas that may be issued to any one country in a year. This "per-country ceiling" (about 25,600 visas) represents the total number of family preference and employment-based visas that may be issued. When Visas Are Not Available: The law requires that preference visas be issued to eligible immigrants in the order the petitions are filed. When there are more applicants applying for visas in a preference category than there are visas available, the preference category is considered "over-subscribed." Applicants must then wait until a visa becomes available before they can immigrate to the United States. Currently, there are delays in all the preference categories. The length of the delays varies in each category. For example, the wait for a third preference visa at this time is two years, and almost ten years for a fourth preference visa. This means that a brother or sister of a citizen whose petition was filed in 1984 is only now getting the visa. Similarly, a person applying today for a fourth preference visa can expect to wait until the year 2004. In most cases, family members must wait outside the United States until a visa is available, and thus remain separated from their families. II. Comments (1) The little room left for the spouses and minor children of US citizens will soon disappear as the overall immigration increases naturally, and then they will start to take the employment-based immigration quota. A few years down the road, a backlog may appear after the "allowance" from the employment-based immigration is used up. (2) Many parents of US citizens will not be able to come to join their children in the US because they are not "qualified". (3) The adult children of both US citizens and LPRs (Legal Permanent Residents) will not be allowed to join their parents in the US. (4) Brothers and sisters of US citizens will not be allowed to immigrate. (5) About half of the current family-sponsored immigrants are from Asian Pacific countries. Therefore they are the ones to be hurt the most in reality. Although nowhere on paper it is written that the HR1915 is based on racial consideration, the fact is that the Asian Pacific American community in the US is the main victim of this legislation. It must be viewed within the historical perspective: Due to the exclusion legislations against Asian immigrants (starting with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882), the Asian immigration was severely strangled for over half a century, during which large numbers of Europeans immigrated to the US. The door of America was essentially closed to the Asian immigrants until 1965. The Asian American community has not been completely recuperated from the damage of the exclusion period yet, now come another round of restrictions. While the history of slavery of the African-Americans is well-known and the necessity to right that wrong done in the past has been well-recognized, little has been known about the racialist and inhumane treatment toward Chinese and other Asian immigrants, who built the railroads and made the California the foremost important agriculture in the US, among many other great contributions to this country. Right now, Asian Pacific American community happens to be the window of this nation to the most dynamic and prosperous region in the world --- the Pacifi Rim. It is a vital link of this nation to the economic prosperity of the 21st century. ============================================================================== 5. Who is John Bryant? What does Bryant's Amendment mean? .............23 From: Jan Pederson, American Immigration Lawyers Association John Bryant is a Democrat from Dallas who thinks there should be no foreign workers on US soil.-- This guy is very dangerous and needs to hear from H-1b employers, etc. The new restriction on H-1B, as it is known now as the Bryant Amendment, has made it even more unattractive to employers. Actualy the movement led by John Bryant is to abolish H-1B altogether! How to interpret the message? *No more green cards for aliens of extraordinary ability.. *No more green cards for "outstanding professors and researchers". *No more green cards for "national interest" workers. *No green cards for professionals with less than five years experience. *No green cards for skilled workers with less than seven years experience. Only you netters can stop the anti-immigrant railroad. Drop everything and act now!!! Please remember that every letter and phone call to a Congressman or Senator counts! (edited and Posted by Association for Chinese Community Affairs) ============================================================================ More info about HR 1915: ftp at superprism.net:/pub/acca www at http://superprism.net:/~acca/ gopher://cnd.cnd.org/11/English-Menu/InfoBase/HR1915 Further inquiries or inputs send to hr1915@math.luc.edu **************************************************************************** To sub/unsub acca-l@superprism.net send to: acca-l-request@superprism.net with "sub" or "unsub" in the "Subject:" field. ACCA is formerly CBS-IC, to know more: ftp superprism.net:/pub/cbs-ic or http://superprism.net:/~cbs-ic/ **************************************************************************** Editor of this issue: Yi Yan ****************************************************************************