POSITION ON S1348, SENATE IMMIGRATION BILL



Chinese American Citizens Alliance, with 112 years of history, is one of the oldest civil rights organizations in the country. All through our history, we have championed civil rights for all Americans and humane immigration policies that are based on family reunification. We agree with most Americans that America urgently needs comprehensive immigration reform. The Senate is ready to vote on the immigration bill negotiated by Senators Kennedy and Kyl, supported by President Bush and a bipartisan group of senators. We want to declare our support for most, but not all, of the provisions of this bill. We advocate for the following:

  1. We urge congress to put our country's best interests before politics and pass this immigration bill. Immigration reform must be a top priority for 2007.

  2. We support the plan to give a path for the 12 million illegal immigrants to earn their residencies and citizenship. In the current bill, they are required to pay a $5,000 fine, learn English, hold steady jobs and pass a criminal background check before they can apply for permanent residency; and they have to take position behind legal immigrants in the queue. But we disagree on the requirement that the head of household would have to return to his native country to apply for legal residency, as it may create an unnecessary hardship on the family and it serves no useful purpose except as a punitive measure. We support a House idea that "touch-back" should be no more than temporary exit from the United States to a neighboring country, should this provision be required to compromise for a passage.

  3. We agree with tough new border control and a crackdown on employers who hire illegal immigrants.

  4. We support the inclusion of parents in automatic family reunification that is limited to spouses and children under 21 of American citizens and permanent residents, provided an applicant must support and pay for medical care for his/her parents, and the parents shall never be eligible for any Government benefits such as Medical, Medicaid and SSI.

  5. We support the point system and the requirement that siblings of a citizen are included in the system. But having family ties should count heavily in this system.

  6. We support a temporary worker program that includes urban workers besides agricultural workers. However, temporary workers should have a path for permanent residency. Otherwise many of them will overstay their visas and become illegal immigrants

  7. On quotas, the bill would nearly double the visas for skilled workers in the H1-B program from 65,000 to 115,000.a year. H1-B is heavily used in the Silicon Valley of California and affects many Asian skilled professionals. We support doubling of the family preference visas, doubling the 40,000 per year cap for parents and the 87,000 cap for spouses and minor children of citizens and permanent residents.

  8. We strongly support clearing all backlogs in all preferences within 8 years or sooner.

  9. We support adequate funding, not using fees, for the Immigration Services Bureau Personnel to clear the existing back logs, and to ensure that no new back logs will be created. Clearing backlogs is a key goal, and no bill of reform is realistic without implementation provisions.

  10. We believe family reunification should remain the first priority for immigration. The proposal to issue 380,000 visas per year with 50% based on employment, 20% on education, 15% on English proficiency and 10% on family connections has to be adjusted. We support the increase of issuance of visas per year to 500,000 with 40% based on family connection, 25% on employment, 25% on education and 10% on English proficiency

  11. We oppose the indefinite detention of illegal aliens without due process.

  12. We oppose the imposition of exorbitant fees for filing or sustaining application. No fee should exceed $1,000.00.
CHINESE AMERICAN CITIZENS ALLIANCE SUPPORTS THE DC VOTING RIGHTS ACT


The DC Voting Rights Act (HR1905) passed the House of Representatives on April 19, 2007. On May 1, 2007, Senators Joe Lieberman, Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett introduced the DC Voting Rights Act (S1257) in the Senate. A hearing on the new Senate bill was held in the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on May 15, 2007. Chairman Lieberman announced his intentions to mark-up the bill in early June 2007. Chinese American citizens Alliance urges the Senate to pass this bill to give voting representation to the nearly 600,000 Americans living in the nation's capita. Americans who live in DC pay full federal taxes. This bill will end taxation without representation in our nation's capital.

CHINESE AMERICAN CITIZENS ALLIANCE OPPOSES THE PHOTO ID AMENDMENT


Senator Mitch McConnell (R. KY) has offered an amendment to the pending immigration bill that would require every voter in the 2008 election to provide a government issued, current and valid photo identification before being allowed to vote at a polling place. Chinese American Citizens Alliance opposes this amendment, as it would disenfranchise large numbers of legal voters such as the elderly, the people with disabilities and people of color. It would discourage voter participation by adding unnecessary burdens to the voting process. Voter participation is fundamental to our democracy. We should be breaking down barriers to citizen voter participation, not erecting new ones.