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China News Digest - US Regional Services (Bo Xiong) --------------- Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 00:05:08 -0400 From: ACCA Message-Id: <199509110405.AAA25124@superprism.net> To: acca-l@superprism.net Resent-From: acca-l@superprism.net Precedence: list Resent-Sender: acca-l-request@superprism.net Status: R **************************************************************************** Association for Chinese Community Affairs (ACCA), formerly CBSIC Public Broadcasting System **************************************************************************** >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> National * Committee * on * Immigration <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< News Release #9515 Sunday, September 10, 1995 ============================================================================ +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= The National Committee on Immigration is a coalition of Chinese Students, Scholars & Professionals who work against the anti-immigration bill HR1915 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= ============================================================================ 1. Updates on letter campaign ............................................55 2. Updates on Capitol Hill on HR 2202.................................... 23 3. News from OCA and other Asia American Organizations....................67 4. An African student willing to offer his support........................55 5. Chinese Americans got recognition in academics and more................21 ============================================================================ ============================================================================ 1. Updates on letter campaign ............................................55 _From: ACCA Signature Processing Center Since we have launched the signature drive on September 1, this center has received more than 5,000 signature as of 5:00 PM, September 10, EDT. Most notably efforts were made by Louisiana State University, over 100 signatures have been received by this Center, while an additional 300 are being compiled, thanks to variouse student organizations from Louisiana State University. ACCA urges every one of our readers to pass our NR to a more broader audience, and help us to collect as many signatures as possible. Every signature COUNTS! Also, we urge each individual to send their own letters, faxes, and phone calls to the Congress. Together, we CAN make a difference! There are several points we'd like to share with you. 1) Please follow the official format as the following: #NY 10463, Miss Anne Frank, 3044 Albany Crsnt, 1G, Bronx or #NY 10463, Miss Anne Frank, (718)-568-9114 (h) (212)-560-6771 (o) or #NY 10128, Miss Anne Frank, The Spence School, New York '#AA XXXXX' is your *postal zip code*, the same thing you use when you write a letter. We use this to identify YOUR Congressional district. There is no need on your side to identify your congressional representatives. 2) Please do not put congressional representative=s names in your mail. Be aware that this center receives multi-national signatures (a significant portion of the responses are from our non-Chinese readers), your mixing congressional leaders names with your own are causing some delays. 3) If your signature is submitted correctly, you will receive a copy of our letter to Congress in return. If you have not received this letter, PLEASE re-submit your file again to acca@superprism.net, with "signature" in the "subject:" field. Due to the heavy traffic load we have experienced in recent days, some of your mails may have been lost. Either case, we do apologize for the inconvenience this might be brought you and appreciate your efforts to re-do your submission. 4) There are several facts we must bear in mind. Internet access are not quite so common; our readers' pool, although now are well over 50,000, are not significant in numbers comparing with the general public. With these in mind, we need much much more efforts to make our voice be heard. Help those around you with or without Internet access to register their support with us. This is very important. Remember, there was an majority vote last year for California Prop 187, the first significant anti-immigration attempt which led to this year's HR 1915/2202. Certainly we do not want to see another serial Exclusion Acts of 1995. Every signature you submitted COUNTS. All the back issues and related information can be obtained via e-mail by writing to ACCA's Infor-Center, acca@superprism.net, with "help" in the "subject:" field. ============================================================================ 2. Updates on Capitol Hill on HR 2202.................................... 23 The following lists several schedules and their developments for the related bills. Please pay attention to them if you are concerned. (1). H.R. 2202 will start its mark-up in Full House Judiciary Committee from September 19th. Advocating the blockage or split of the whole bill or improvement by "good" amendments, is the major goal for most of lobby groups at this moment; (2). Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming will formally introduce his new form of the bill in the coming week (around Wednesday). He insists on combining the two separate bills into one as previously mentioned which makes the benefits of most legal immigrants and legal immigration more vulnerable; (3). Robert Dole's "Welfare Reform" is back with a new shape after modification. Unfortunately it was modified by not favoring immigrants at all. Despite the bill's severe immigrant-related provisions, assurance from Senators' Kennedy and Feinstein offices that positive amendments will be offered. It's suggested to offer support to these amendments and other efforts to improve it. ============================================================================ 3. News from OCA and other Asia American Organizations....................67 Washington, DC -- The Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA), the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC) and the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) are urging the Asian Pacific American community to protest the drastic reductions in legal immigration numbers called for by Representative Lamar Smith's (R-TX) immigration bill, HR 2202 (previously HR 1915). Starting September 19, the House Judiciary Committee is expected to mark-up HR 2202, also known as the Immigration in the National Interest Act of 1995. "It is extremely urgent that the APA community contact their members of Congress before and during House debates on the bill to let them know how detrimental HR 2202 will be to the APA community," said Ms. Vicki Shu, OCA's Immigration Project Coordinator. If passed, HR 2202 would slash legal immigration numbers by a third, in part by eliminating most of the family reunification categories. The categories targeted for elimination are: the 1st (Unmarried Adult Children of US Citizens), 2nd-B (Unmarried Adult Children of Legal Permanent Residents), 3rd (Married Children of US Citizens), and 4th (siblings of US Citizens). While approximately 60% of Asian immigrants utilize all family reunificati~ron categories, a majority of Asians waiting to immigrate fall under the 4th preference. Of the 1.59 million people waiting in the backlog under the 4th preference, over a million are from Asian countries. According to Mr. Angelo Ancheta, Executive Director of the Asian Law Caucus (ALC), a member organization of the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC), "To say that the elimination of the family preference categories, especially the 4th preference, will have a negative affect on the APA community is an understatement. In addition to the cuts, nothing will be done to take care of the backlog. Over one million Asians, who have played by the rules and have been waiting for at least 10 years, and who have paid their fees to immigrate to the United States, will now be informed that they no longer will be able to join their families in this country." Mr. Matthew Finucane, Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), said "It is very hypocritical that at a time when policy makers are promoting family values, HR 2202 is telling the Asian Pacific American community that our families are unimportant and that parents, adult children, and brothers and sisters do not matter. If we do not speak up, another era of Asian exclusion will begin this year." Members of the Asian Pacific American community should immediately ontact their Representatives by calling the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121 to protest the elimination of the family preference categories. Be prepared to provide the operator with your state, city and zip code. Founded in 1973, the Organization of Chinese Americans is a national, non-profit, civil rights group dedicated to securing justice, equal treatment, and equal opportunities for Chinese Americans and all Asian Americans. OCA educates and advocates through its 40 chapters nationwide, Hong Kong and its national headquarters in Washington, D.C. Organization of Chinese Americans 1001 Connecticut Avenue, NW Suite 707, Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 223-5500, (202) 296-0540 (f), oca@ari.net For Additional Information: Vicki Shu, Organization of Chinese Americans: 202-223-5500 Angelo Ancheta, National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium: 202-296-2300 Asian Law Caucus:415-391-1655 Matthew Finucane, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance: 202-842-1263 ============================================================================ 4. An African student willing to offer his support........................55 _From: "martha baiyee" Hi Wei Chen, I am a Ph.D. African student very interested in international affairs. I strongly support you Organization's move to not let the so call bill pass the committee. We have an African student Association that would be glad to join your efforts to not let the bill pass. Please let me know what we as an international body can do to help make this bill not pass the committee. Thanks Martha Baiyee ..................Response from Chen Wei........................ Dear Martha: Thank you very much for your interest and support for our lobby campaign against the bill HR2002. I believe you and your African Student Association can do a lot in helping block the bill. Right now, there is a urgent call from National Committee on Immigration, my organization, for the signature on a petition letter to the Congress. Please read the petition letter and SIGN on it. Also, ask your organization to endorse and sign on this petition letter. Besides, please ask your family member, colleague, advisor, friend, classmate, neighbor, whoever supports/is sympathetic to our lobby campaign to SIGN on the petition letter. To send the signature list, you can either send to National Committee on Immigration, according to the rules written in the Friday's News Release (I will send it to you immediately), or directly send your signature list to me. I will send them together to Committee on Immigration. Also, since African American has a very important role in current US society, I wonder if your organization could contact African American Organization / Community for possible support. This may be very helpful. More important is the spreading of the news among your fellow students, your university (by the way, where is your university and what is its name?). As far as I know, quite amount (if not the majority) of international student/scholar has not known about this bill and the exact meaning of this bill. Hence, please DO SPREAD the news. I will contact my organization and ask them to contact you for the possibility of coordinating the efforts of your organization with ours. If you have not got the back issues of News Release of Committee on Immigration, please let me know and I will send them to you. Or you can try the WWW server of Committee on Immigration at: http://superprism.net:/~acca Again, thank you very much for your support. Sincerely, Wei Chen ============================================================================ 5. Chinese Americans got recognition in academics and more................21 _From: World Journal, September 6, 1995, A1 There are 30 recipients of "1995 Presidential Faculty Fellow Awards" this year. Among them, there are four Chinese, all of them are recent immigrants from mainland China and obtained their Ph.D.'s in the U.S.. Each recipient will receive $100,000 a year reseach grant for the next five years. They are: Miss Li, Jing, Rutgers; Miss Shi, Jie, Arizona State, Mr. Liu, Sheng, Florida Poly.,and Mr. Zheng, Xingwong, from Yale. _From: Charles Shaw Has anyone ever point-out what is occurring right now is a "brain-drain" from Asia to the United States? Our top universities are increasingly staffed by the brightest scientists, mathematicians, and engineers from China, India, and other Asian countries. This is similar to the situation that occurred after World War II, when German physicists and rocket scientists came to the U.S., only it is on a larger scale. This is immensely to the advantage of the United States -- we should be going out of our way to make to make these people feel welcome, instead of bitching at or about them. Chuck Shaw ============================================================================ 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: Yi Yan **************************************************************************** ============================================================================ 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 --- ============================================================================