(note to reader: H1-B is pronounced H-one-B) ModelMinority.com is highlighting a new bill in Congress by Tom Tancredo, a longtime anti-immigrant legislator from Colorado. The bill proposes to eliminate the controversial H1-B visa, which allows high tech workers to come to America. The stereotypical H1-B recipient is an East Indian going to work for a high tech company in the Silicon Valley. The bill, in calling for total elimination of the visa, threatens an estimated 500,000 people who hold these high tech work passes. It¹s not likely to pass. Tancredo is an anti-immigrant activist who uses these bills to make political stands for conservatives. H1-B workers have started organizing online to preserve their legal status. petitions have been started, and people are attempting to preserve their jobs. They stand to make a lot less money in their home countries, where similar high-tech work earns as little as $4,000 a year. In this battle, immigrant and domestic workers are being pitted against each other. The anti-immigrant faction is taking advantage of the weak economy to get American workers to side with their conservative agenda. Meanwhile, immigrants and their allies may find themselves siding with conservative corporations that hire them. The high tech labor organization, Washtech, has avoided the issue entirely on their website. Likewise, the unions, while generally critical of H1-B, have asked for reforms only, not for elimination. What the labor organizations are focusing on, instead, is globalization. Today, corporations are sending entire projects to subcontracting companies in India, Russia, the Philippines, and China. There, workers make far less, and have far fewer rights. What happened with sewing and manufacturing in the 1980s, is now happening with high tech work. union http://www.washtech.org anti-visa http://www.h1b.info/ pro-visa http://www.sulekha.com/petitions/petition.asp?cid=34 ------------------ The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee is asking people to contact their Senators about the anti-Palestinain Middle East expert Daniel Pipes, who has been nominated to the US Institute of Peace. The ADC has said that Mr. Pipes has a history of ethnic and religious bashing, and has promoted war in the Middle East. They want to make sure the nomination fails. The Institute for Peace is a government organization that influences American policies dealing with conflicts around the world. This issue concerns Asians because of the escalation of militarism in Korea, which looks like the next hotspot. Besides Korea, there¹s the whole of Asia and southern Asia, which are now being identified as ³terrorist.² Arab-American Anti-Defamantion Committee - http://www.adc.org US Institute for Peace http://www.usip.gov ---------------- The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, also known as APALA, is looking for artwork to display, and artwork to auction off at their next convention in August.Proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Immigrant Worker's Freedom Rides. The Freedom Rides are a project of the AFL-CIO. Their goal is to change the laws so that immigrant workers can get citizenship more easily, and have increased rights at work.Artist who want to support APALA should call Liza at 323-660-2076 to arrange submissions. http://www.immigrantworkersfreedomrides.com this news was written by john kawakami, wildgift@mac.com