>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> National * Committee * on * Immigration <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
News Release #9515
Sunday, September 10, 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. 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
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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.
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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.
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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
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4. An African student willing to offer his support........................55
From: "martha baiyee" <mbaiyee@vt.edu>
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
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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 <SHAWC0722@UNI.EDU>
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
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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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or http://superprism.net:/~cbs-ic/
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Editor of this issue: Yi Yan
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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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