************************************************************** IFCSS Headquarters News Release No. 5005 July 10, 1993 ************************************************************** Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars (IFCSS) 733 15th Street, N.W., Suite 440, Washington, D.C.20005 Tel. (202)347-0017 Fax: (202)347-0018 Email: ifcss@wam.umd.edu IFCSS Continues to Work on Late-Arriving Dependents Issue Before we left for IFCSS 5th Congress, we received calls from the White House and Senator Kennedy's office, both expressing their willingness to continue to help with us on the late-arriving dependents issue. At the convention, we had further discussions with Mr. Steffen Nelson and Ms. Michelle Chin, who had come to the convention to extend support on behalf of Senator Gorton and Congressman Joe Barton. The agreement was reached that we would immediately devote ourselves to the issue upon return to Washington D.C.. Now we are back at touch with these offices. Our current strategy is to seek solutions at both the policy-making level (Congress and the White House) and the implementation level (INS). At the policy-making level, our position is: either the late- arriving dependents be allowed to file applications under CSPA or a special program be created for them; we do not want these dependents to line up with the applicants who have already filed applications under the 2nd or 3rd preferences using China quota. At the same time, we want to be prepared for the worst. Since there is a chance that we might fail to achieve the above-mentioned goal and since many dependents will lose their status very soon, we will request that Department of Justice and INS designate special staff at service centers to process voluntary departure applications by CSPA dependents so as to ensure approval. In addition, we will work with Department of State to find out a way to waive the applying- from-the-third-country requirement. Yesterday, we got in touch with Ms. Sharen Nichols at INS HQ. She told us that so far INS had received about 33,000 applications nation-wide. To us, this news is too good to be true. For if this is true, it means that every applicant will be able to get the green card this year. In addition, this means great benefit for late-arriving dependents. We will have even stronger reasons to demand that these dependents be allowed to file applications under CSPA. According to statistics produced by IFCSS CSPA Information Center, the ratio between qualified dependents and late-arriving dependents is roughly 2:1. If the 33,000 number is accurate, the total number of late-arriving dependents will be less than 10,000. The logical result is: every dependent, qualified or late-arriving, will fit into the 45,000 visa numbers available this year. We want to assure all of you that this issue will remain top priority on our agenda until a satisfactory solution is worked out. To accomplish our goal, we request maximum cooperation from you, our fellow students. Because of the budget, there are only three people working full-time at the HQ. Owing to the transition, our tasks are simply overwhelming. We are working evenings and weekends. Right now, we receive hundreds of e-mail messages and phone calls a day, which are too many for us to cope with. Therefore, please do not call or e-mail just to tell us you want the issue to be solved. Our time is limited, and we need to concentrate our efforts to deal with the U.S. government. If we believe that a mass campaign is necessary, we will certainly turn to you for help. Meanwhile, please be patient. Some students have proposed to stage a demonstration demanding a solution, we strongly discourage such extreme actions. Our strength lies in our unity and our organization. A well-organized community carries much more weight than individual voices. *** *** *** The following letter has been sent to Attorney General Reno. Similar letters have been sent to National Security Council, Department of State, Senator Gorton, Senator Kennedy, Congressman Barton, Congresswoman Pelosi. 07/09/93 The Honorable Janet Reno Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice Tenth Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W. Room 4400 Washington, D.C. 20530 Dear Madam Attorney General: As newly-elected president and vice president of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars, we are writing to refresh your memory of an important issue regarding The Chinese Student Protection Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-404). The Act is virtually an extension of Executive Order 12711, which was issued in the wake of Tiananmen Massacre and aimed at protecting Chinese students and their family members from reprisal and persecution because of their involvement in the prodemocracy movement. Thanks to the hard work of your department, the majority of the students have sent in their applications timely. However, one serious problem remains. Family members who came after April 11, 1990 are not allowed to adjust their status with the principal applicants. With the current INS arrangement, family members who cannot otherwise maintain their legal status have the option of applying for Voluntary Departure at local INS offices. There are two potential problems with this arrangement. First, once a person enters voluntary departure status, he/she will have to go to a third country before being granted permanent residence. For the CSPA dependents, this would mean to go back to China, where they are most likely to be subject to harassment and reprisal. Here we would like to emphasize that these people have sought protection in the U.S. precisely because they are afraid of being harassed by the totalitarian government in China. Therefore, it is ironical that they should be thrown back at the mercy of the Chinese government before they can be protected. There is also a more imminent problem. Some of these dependents will be out of status in a matter of a few weeks. Since the approval of voluntary departure is at the discretion of local INS officers who quite often lack knowledge of special regulations, we expect that applicants will get into various difficulties or even face denial. We strongly recommend that a blanket program be created immediately to ensure the legal status of these dependents. We also recommend that their applications be processed by special staff at INS Service Centers rather than by local INS officers. We sincerely hope that you can look into this matter and ensure the unity and safety of the families of thousand Chinese students who have defied their own government in pursuit of democracy and freedom. Thank you for your attention. We are looking forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Changsheng Lin, President Heping Shi, Vice President The Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars ********************************************************************* * IFCSS Headquarters Office * *-------------------------------------------------------------------* * President: Lin Changsheng Vice President: Shi Heping * *-------------------------------------------------------------------* * PBS-L is IFCSS's news distribution list for individuals. 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