>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> National * Committee * on * Immigration <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
News Release #9513
Friday, September 1, 1995
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The National Committee on Immigration is a coalition of Chinese Students,
Scholars & Professionals who work against the anti-immigration bill HR1915
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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
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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!
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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.
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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
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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.
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5. Today's immigrant-bashing is thinly veiled racism! (2 items) ......... 33
From: Charles Shaw <SHAWC0722@UNI.EDU>
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
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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
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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.
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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
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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/
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Editor of this issue: Anne Frank
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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.)
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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 ---
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