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: Fri, 1 Sep 1995 18:56:00 -0400 Reply-To: acca-l@SUPERPRISM.NET Sender: Newsletter on Chinese Community From: acca-l@SUPERPRISM.NET Subject: National Committee on Immigration News Release #9513 To: Multiple recipients of list CCNL Status: RO **************************************************************************** Association for Chinese Community Affairs (ACCA), formerly CBSIC Public Broadcasting System **************************************************************************** >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> National * Committee * on * Immigration <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< News Release #9513 Friday, September 1, 1995 ============================================================================ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= The National Committee on Immigration is a coalition of Chinese Students, Scholars & Professionals who work against the anti-immigration bill HR1915 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= ============================================================================ 1. Please mobilize your fellow Chinese now! ............................. 24 2. Legal Analysis of HR2202 ............................................ 108 3. Call for signatures ................................................. 105 4. New York Mayor's warning on Congress's anti-immigrant movement.........55 5. Today's immigrant-bashing is thinly veiled racism! (2 items) ......... 33 6. ACCA has reached estimated 20,000 readership ..........................12 ============================================================================ 1. Please mobilize your fellow Chinese now! ..............................24 From: ACCA National HQ Recently I met several Chinese students from another University in NYC. As surprised as I was, they did not have slightest idea what is going on in the Congress, much less they were aware of the imminent danger that their chances to immigrate will be sacrificed by callous lawmakers. Since the current situation might not be well known even among our own communities, I hereby call upon you, whoever receive this message, to spread, as much as you can, among Chinese communities around you. You may send this message through e-mails to your local network collectively, or send it to your classmates, sweethearts, or who ever you know their e-mail addresses, even by looking up your system log files. You may print it out, hand them to any Chinese students in your department, on your campus, in your dormitory, or any non-immigrants / immigrants from any other countries you can find. The message can be very simple: the family based immigration is in danger, the employment-based immigration is in danger! Please let then write a blank message to acca@superprism.net, with "help" in "subject:" field, for details. Immigrants and non-immigrants are in extremely small numbers. If we can not mobilize most of them, we are doomed! Please act quickly before the Congress starts in September! This may be the last chance we can keep the door open! ============================================================================ 2. Legal Analysis of HR2202 ............................................ 108 From: Ray Wang, ACCA National HQ H.R. 2202 by Rep. Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) Immigration in the National Interest Act of 1995 Introduced on Friday, August 4, 1995 Overview and Outlook Copyright (c) 1995 Legi-Slate, Inc. OVERVIEW: Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, is sponsoring immigration reform legislation that he says would limit by one-third the number of legal immigrants into the United States and reduce illegal immigration by 75 percent within five years. Smith's Immigration in the National Interest Act [H.R. 2202], which was previously numbered H.R. 1915, would set an approximate annual allowance for 535,000 legal immigrants, with a family preference scheme that heavily favors the spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens. Many of bill's proposals for legal immigration reform resemble the recommendations made in June by the bipartisan Commission on Immigration Reform, led by former Rep. Barbara Jordan, D-Texas. The congressional commission called for a gradual reduction in the annual number of legal immigrants, from the current level of nearly 800,000 to about 550,000, with most of those slots earmarked for the nuclear family members of legal aliens and U.S. citizens. Smith has portrayed immigration reform chiefly as "a nuclear family issue," but he has limited his bill's definition of the nuclear family to exclude four categories of family members who qualify under current laws: adult, unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens; adult, unmarried sons and daughters of permanent residents; married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens; and siblings of U.S. citizens. In addition, the Smith proposal would also disqualify the parents of U.S. citizens from legally immigrating after fiscal year 1998, according to the State Department. Smith has defended those cuts by claiming that they would protect American taxpayers and workers from shouldering the burden brought on by another wave of unskilled immigrants. The bill, which was introduced on June 22, 1995, would also attempt to control the flow of illegal immigration into the United States by adding 5,000 new border patrol agents and several detention facilities by the year 2000. The bill would increase penalties against alien smuggling and fraud used to obtain passports and visas. It would strengthen procedures used to arrest, detain and remove inadmissible and deportable aliens, including alien terrorists; provide for the exclusion and denial of asylum for alien terrorists; and strive to enforce employment restrictions concerning illegal aliens employed in the U.S. In addition, the measure would deny public assistance benefits to illegal aliens, and require aliens seeking admission to prove that they would be unlikely to become a public charge. Lastly, the bill would facilitate the legal entry of immigrants by establishing pre-inspection stations in the foreign countries and airports that process the largest number of arrivals into the U.S. OUTLOOK: The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration approved the previous version of the bill by voice vote on July 20, 1995 as Rep. John Bryant, D-Texas, the subcommittee's ranking member, joined five Republicans in support of the measure. Following the vote, Smith acknowledged that he will face a significant challenge when the bill reaches the full Judiciary Committee in early September, shortly after members return from recess. Threatening to sidetrack his bill are Democrats who vigorously oppose Smith's plan to eliminate four categories of legal immigrants that exist under current law. Subcommittee Democrats Howard Berman, D-Calif., and Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., both expressed serious reservations with the plan in the subcommittee markup. They are planning to offer an amendment at the committee stage that would repeal the legal immigration proposals in the bill, a Becerra aide said. Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Richard Armey, R-Texas, has been a vocal opponent of reductions in legal immigration, and if he maintains that position, it could be extremely difficult for Smith to maneuver his bill to the House floor. However, conservative House Republicans are calling for further restrictions on legal immigration, and they may get behind legislation by Rep. Bob Stump, R-Ariz., that would place a moratorium on legal immigration, a Judiciary aide said. Despite those hurdles, a Judiciary aide said the committee would more than likely pass the bill. In late August, Smith instructed the subcommittee to clean up the bill to include the two dozen technical and substantive changes made in subcommittee, and to re-number it from its previous H.R. 1915 designation to became H.R. 2202, a Judiciary aide said. ============================================================================ 3. Call for signatures ................................................. 105 From: ACCA National HQ Ray Wang, Spokesman of ACCA, has drafted a letter to Congressmen/women. ACCA National HQ hereby calls for sponsoring signatures from all concerned individuals and organizations to endorse this letter and send in their signatures. ACCA will collect all the signatures through e-mail and send them alongside with ACCA's official letter to respective Congressmen/women. Our goal is to collect 20,000 signatures before September 12, the National Lobby day. Where to send your signatures ACCA has established an auto-signature retrieval system. Please send them to acca@superprism.net, and in the "subject:" field, put "signature". Your mail header should look somewhat like the following: From: *your e-mail address here* To: acca@superprism.net Subject: signature How to send your signatures In order to retrieve your signatures automatically, please follow the format. your signature should look like: #NY 10463, Mr. Johnny Gunther, 3044 Albany Crsnt 1G, Bronx #NY 10463, Miss Anne Frank, Bronx Sci. High School, Bronx #NY 10463, Miss Anne Frank, (718)-458-9123 (o) (718)-471-5678 (h) "#" is an auto-retrieval flag, "NY 10031" is for identifying the representatives from your district, following is the complete name and address reachable, or phone numbers. Each entry MUST be kept in ONE line. Multiple entries in one single e-mail is encouraged. Your signatures will be attached ONLY to the petition letters we send to the Congress in general and to the Congressmen/women from YOUR state. To ensure the effectiveness of our petition campaign, we urge you to collect as many signatures as possible. You ask your family members, your friends, your neighbors, your professors, or anyone who supports our cause, to give you the permission to list their signatures in your e-mail to us, no matter what immigration status they might have. IT IS YOUR Constitutional RIGHT to freely express your opinion, and we urge you to exercise your rights! You are also encouraged to freely copy our letter and send it out by yourself, and your friends. The MORE, the BETTER. Number counts in this democratic society. >>>>>>>>>>>>> {*} <<<<<<<<<<<<< From: Association for Chinese Community Affairs (ACCA) (drafted by Ray Wang, Spokesman of ACCA) The Honorable Congressman/Congresswoman [Address] (your may retrieve this from acca, please see the trailer below) Washington, DC 20515 Dear Honorable Congressman/Congresswoman XYZ, We are writing to express our gravest concern over the House bill H.R. 2202. It is our belief that this bill, if enacted, will effect dramatic changes to the time-honored immigration policy of our country and will destroy the image of a melting-pot, the image of a safe haven for the oppressed and persecuted and indeed the image of a country which attracts the cream of the human kind. What at stake is what Americans are proud of, what has made America a great country. While the problem of immigration, illegal immigration in particular, does pose real challenges, we believe that the changes proposed in H.R. 2202 work against the fundamental interests of the United States, whose current status as the world's only superpower is integrally associated with the achievements of the immigrants. From Albert Einstein to the engineers in Silicon Valley immigrants have combined their knowledge and experience with those of Native-born Americans to build this country into a diverse and yet harmonious society, one that serves as a shining example of compassion and prosperity for other countries. It is hard to imagine what kind of USA we would have today, or indeed whether there would have been a USA at all, without immigration. Likewise, we cannot imagine how this country will benefit by cutting back on its intake of immigrants who can make the most contributions. As many employers are now indicating, the cutbacks proposed in the H. R. 2202, if implemented, will seriously threaten their technological advantages, as the skilled labor they need the most could be compelled to work for their competitors elsewhere in the world. By denying opportunities to those people of extraordinary abilities, who deserve opportunities, the United States will start to become less of a land of opportunities than Americans have come to expect. In the end, Americans and the aspiring immigrants will both have to fall victim to such a policy. Besides, the proposed changes will do nothing to help maintain America's international image as a tolerant and compassionate country. In view of the tremendous negative impact such changes will have on this country, we urge you, in the strongest terms, to vote against this bill. Yours sincerely ======================================================================= 4. New York Mayor's warning on Congress's anti-immigrant movement.....55 >From Washington Post, August 26, 1995 No American city has been more proudly hospitable to immigrants from foreign lands than New York. So it is appropriate that the city's Republican mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, should issue a timely warning to his country and his party over the dangers of rising anti-immigrant feeling. Mr. Giuliani, interviewed by the New York Times, laid out two lines of dissent from what appeared to be a prevailing mood. At a philosophical level, he spoke of how wrong it is for a nation of immigrants to respond with fear to the latest immigrant waves. At a practical level, he suggested that moves underway in Congress to cut off federal benefits from immigrants may only increase the burden on states and cities that deal with te day-to-day problems of immigrants and citizens alike. Washington can walk away from such problems, cities and neighbors cannot. Unfashionably, Mr. Giuliani insisted on the benefits that immigrants bring to the United States. We said they are "creating opportunities", even while much anti-immigrant feeling is rationalized on the inaccurate perception that immigrants "are taking away jobs from other people." In fact, much sentiment against new arrivals "is just undifferentiated fear of foreigners, of people who appear to have different values or different ways of doing things." He has also sharply critical of proposals being pushed by his fellow Republicans in Congress, modeled in many cases after California's Proposition 187. There would cut off federal aid to immigrants and force localities to turn over information to the federal authorities on the chidren of illegal immigrants who attend public schools or use public hospitals. Such requirements, he said, could drive chidren away from school and people in need of medical help away from hospitals, endangering public health. Mr. Giuliani was also critical of measures directed against immigrants in his party's welfare proposals. "This is an absolute shifting of responsibility to city and state governments that can do nothing about the immigrant problems" he said, "And I think it's the worst kind of federal scapegoating." Citizens living in States with large populations of illegal immgrants have legitimate gripes against the federal government. They end up bearing sustantial costs for the failure of federal immigrantion policies. And it's reasonable for the country to engage in regular debates-- as it has throughout its history-- over what the proper levels of immigration should be at a given period in light of economic conditions. But Mr. Giuliani and others in his party who have spoken along similar lines, such as Texas Governor George W. Bush, do a service in pointing out that raw anti-immigrant feeling is both wrong and a poor guide to public policy. Many of the federal measures putatively aimed at immigrants, legal and illegal, would not only worsen their lives but add to the burdens of citizens who live in a states with the largest numbers of immigrants. Leaders such as Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Bush speak from both heart and the head. Washington would do well to pay attention to them. ==================================================================== 5. Today's immigrant-bashing is thinly veiled racism! (2 items) ......... 33 From: Charles Shaw It's really absurd for a country that, with the exception of Native Americans, is entirely descended from immigrants to be anti-immigrant. My ancestors came over here from Ireland, during the Potato Famine of the early to mid 19th century. At that time, there was a lot of paranoia about Irish immigrants because they were Catholic, and some even thought it was a plot on the part of the Pope to turn the U.S. into a Catholic country. So, this kind of nonsense has been going on for a long time; there's nothing new about it, really, except that I think the immigrant-bashing of today sometimes is thinly veiled racism. Charles Shaw University of Northern Iowa ----------------------------------------------- I have been receiving the immigration postings, and it leaves me in a quandry. I read the postings because I read almost everything my eyes see. Some of the finest and truly gifted intellectuals and scientists come from without the physical boundaries of the United States. And many of the so-called working class we Americans freely utilize without thought come from without the boundaries of these many states we call America. We are nothing without the immigrants, for we are all the children of immigrants. Except for the Native Americans we freely forget, for we took their lands, destroyed their culture, and relegate them to fourth class status. America is young, and we should remember a very short past. Harold Reed Barker Journeyman Carpenter, Among Other Things ============================================================================ 6. ACCA has reached estimated 20,000 readership ..........................12 From: ACCA National HQ Within only one month, ACCA broadcasting system has reached estimated 20,000 readerships across the continent, either directly or indirectly. There are several hundreds of local networks, most of them immigration advocacy groups, Chinese Student Associations, that joined our system. ACCA-L has become the largest immigration advocacy group in the nation. To save limited resources and cut off unneccesary network traffic, ACCA has established an auto-info center. For any back issues and related materials, please write to acca@superprism.net, with "help" in the "Subject:" field, then follow the intructions sent back to you via e-mail. ============================================================================ 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 or, write to acca@superprism.net, with "help" in the "Subject:" field. 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: Anne Frank ***************************************************************************** ============================================================================ To (un)subscribe acca-l list, please write to acca-l-request@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 through anonymous ftp at superprism.net:/pub/acca or www at http://www.superprism.net:/~acca. For auto-retrieval via e-mail, please write to acca@superprism.net, with "help" in the "Subject:" field. Also, please visit our CBS-IC infor-center, ftp superprism.net:/pub/cbs-ic or http://www.superprism.net:/~cbs-ic. 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 --- ============================================================================