Tag: Filipino immigrants

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7 Immigration Policy Changes Important to Filipinos

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On his first day in office, President Joe Biden will introduce hundreds of pages of immigration executive orders that will cover most of the policies he pledged to change. With several provisions that are proposed, the more than 4 million Filipinos residing in the United States and their relatives still waiting to migrate are looking forward to major change in policies. Below are 7 immigration related agenda that may have the most impact for Filipinos.

1. The DACA Program

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients are immigrants who arrived in the United States at a very young age. After several attempts to pass legislation to confer legal status to this category of immigrants and the failure of Congress to pass law, former President Obama issued an Executive Order giving these young immigrants protection from deportation and issuing them employment authorization. When President Trump came into office in 2017, one of his first executive actions was to rescind the DACA program. More than 800,000 DACA recipients were affected by Trump’s rescission of the program. Court litigation ensued and the Supreme Court affirmed the legality of the DACA program. While the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services started implementing the DACA protections to initial applicants, it did so only a few months ago leaving thousands of DACA recipients still in limbo about their status.

During this pandemic crisis, more than 200,000 DACA recipients are considered essential workers. Thus, in the Biden proposal, green cards or permanent immigrant visas will be granted to DACA recipients with a pathway to U.S. citizenship in three (3) years.

2. FWVP Program

More than 200,000 Filipinos were conscripted to join the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II (WWII)when the Philippines was still a territory of the United States. Under the War Powers Act, those who fought under the American flag may be entitled to apply for U.S. citizenship. All 66 allied countries nationals who fought side by side with the Americans during WWII were able to obtain U.S. citizenship but not the Filipino Veterans. A 1946 Rescission Act was enacted declassifying their services during WWII as not considered services for purposes of the veteran benefits. Hundreds of thousands of veterans lost their opportunities to apply for U.S. citizenship until 1990, when the Immigration and Nationality Act was enacted allowing belatedly the then 70 and 80 year old veterans to apply for U.S. citizenship.

As soon as they became U.S. citizens, they started filing petitions for their children. As the system in place takes more than 20 years to be current due to the severe backlog, most of the veterans who came in 1990s have already passed away. In the last 5 years, approximately 8,000 veterans are still alive but they have been slowly reducing in numbers. The Obama Administration proposed a Parole program specifically for the families of the veterans to enter the United States and be reunited with their veteran parents who are now of advanced age and sickly. This parole program is the Filipino World War II Veterans Parole Program. This Program only has a 5 year validity until 2021. Last December 2020, the Trump administration issued a notice to rescind the FWVP after 60 days of comment period. President Biden should consider supporting legislation that will give immediate green card status to families of the veterans; or, if not, extend the FWVP program.

3. Family Reunification

Family unity is very important to immigrants, and this applies most specially to Filipino immigrants. Petitioning immediate relatives by U.S. citizens is faster than petitioning adult children and siblings. For those being Petitioned from the Philippines the waiting period for visas to become available for adult married children and siblings of U.S. citizens takes approximately 20 years. And for those who are unmarried adult children, the waiting period is approximately 10 years.

With the pandemic crisis, even those whose visas are available who waited more than 20 years are not being processed at the U.S. Embassy because of the Trump Presidential Orders banning certain immigrants from entering the United States. Visa applications of parents and fiances of U.S. citizens are also put on hold at the U.S. Embassy. President Biden should reform the immigration system by adding more visas to the Family based category to reduce the backlog and make it faster for U.S. citizens or green card holders to petition their family members. Trump’s Presidential Proclamations 10014 and 10052 banning the entry of immigrants and processing of their visas at the U.S. Embassy must be revisited and rescinded.

4. Pathway to Citizenship for Undocumented Immigrants

About 2% of the 11 million undocumented immigrants are unauthorized Filipino immigrants. These are mostly those who fell into the cracks because of the broken immigration system leaving them no option to legalize their status. These unauthorized immigrants are with their family members in the U.S., are hardworking and regularly pay taxes. It is just an opportune time to provide them a pathway to U.S. citizenship.

The Biden administration is introducing the immigration reform bill that will allow unauthorized immigrants an 8 years pathway to citizenship by granting them green cards after 5 five years and allowing them to obtain U.S. citizenship in 3 years. This proposal is the centerfold of the immigration bill introduced by Biden and needs to be passed by Congress to become effective.

5. Public Charge Rule

One of the salient feature of the Trump legacy on immigration is not just curbing illegal immigration but also legal immigration. Deeply disguised as promoting national interest, the public charge rule also known as the wealth test prohibits the grant of immigrant visa if the petitioner or the beneficiary does not have enough financial resources to show that the beneficiary will not rely on public assistance for their subsistence. Restrictive rules were issued making it difficult for US citizens with meager income to be reunited with their families. There is also the 2019 Trump “uninsured ban” rule where those coming to the United States must be able to show proof within 30 days of arrival that they have health care insurance coverage. All these restrictive rules have become barriers to lawful immigration and it is cloaked in a way that benefits the U.S. when in fact it is based on the Trump administration’s assumption that immigrants are a drain to the nation’s resources. This has to change. Most of Filipino immigrant families are educated and bring their skills and knowledge to flourish and succeed in this country. President Biden should rescind the restrictive changes made by the Trump administration related to the public charge rule.

6. Healthcare Workers

During this global pandemic, the Filipino immigrants who are admired most as heroes are our health care workers. We have many Filipino caregivers, physical therapists, medical practitioners and nurses. These essential workers have proven their worth especially during this time of crisis. Current immigration law makes it difficult for most healthcare workers to obtain their immigrant visas. Even when the priority dates for employment-based third preference became current for Philippine nationals, it is usually still subject to long delays of months or years for the healthcare professionals to migrate to the United States. The increasing need for the essential healthcare workers had never been critical and President Biden should consider re-establishing a temporary visa category for nurses like before such as the H1C and H1A visas. This category will make it faster for healthcare workers to enter the United States.

7. Other Employment Based Visas

Philippines was included again in the list of those countries eligible to participate in a temporary working visa program or the H2B. Realizing how it will be in the best interest of the U.S. to make sure that the Filipinos are added to the workforce in the construction of military bases in Guam. This is a positive development. But also, there are Filipinos who are holders of H1B, J and L visas that have been affected by the Presidential Proclamation banning them from entering except those covered by litigation. President Biden should rescind this proclamation and reverse the H1B regulatory changes that Trump released prior to his departure from the White House.

All 7 immigration issues are just a few of the immigration priorities of the Biden Administration. As we maintain our faith in the new administration, we also hope that the Democratic led Congress will find it a priority to pass the Biden’s immigration reform bill for all these provisions to have a meaningful impact on our Filipino immigrants and their families.

(Atty. Lourdes Santos Tancinco, Esq. is a San Francisco based immigration attorney and an immigrant rights advocate. She may be reached at 1 888 930 0808, law@tancinco.com, or facebook.com/tancincolaw, or through her firm’s website at www.tancinco.com)

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Updates

End of DACA puts at risk up to 6,000 young Filipino recipients

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There are approximately 22,000 young Filipino immigrants who are eligible to apply for benefits under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Only 27 percent of those eligible applied, or approximately 6,000. The rest of these young Filipino immigrants continue to wait for permanent solution to their status. With the announcement that President Donald Trump is ending the DACA program will those who took advantage of the DACA program be arrested and eventually be deported?

Unfortunately, those who are just in the process of filing their DACA applications for the first time, will no longer be able to do so. This will affect those who just became eligible to apply for DACA and those who took time or postponed the filing of their DACA applications despite the fact that they were eligible. After September 5, 2017, USCIS will no longer accept new DACA applications.

Future of DACA recipients

There is a short window afforded to existing DACA recipients to renew their expiring DACA employment authorization documents (EAD) if these EADs are expiring between September 5, 2017 and March 5, 2018. The request for renewal and application for employment authorization document must be received by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services no later than October 5, 2017. This is an important deadline because USCIS will reject all requests to renew ACA and associated applications for EADs filed after October 5, 2017.

Once the application for renewal is adjudicated, USCIS is expected to renew it for another two year period or until 2019. Unfortunately, for those whose DACA benefits are expiring after March 5, 2018, once their employment authorization document expires, USCIS will no longer be able to accept and adjudicate their applications for renewal. This means that beginning March 6, 2018, there will be DACA recipients who will be deprived of their protected status and will be reverted to their unlawful status.

Will DACA recipients be deported?

It was clearly mentioned during the announcement by Attorney General Jeff Sessions that the DACA recipients are not considered priority for enforcement. While this may sound favorable, there is no guarantee that ICE will not issue Notices to Appear for removal hearings. The USCIS confirmed that it will not share information obtained through DACA applications with the ICE agents. However, it is important to note that unless ICE is requesting that information based on certain factors like national security, public safety and fraud, the information may still be shared for enforcement. It will still be best for this DACA recipients to be vigilant about their situation and to be familiar with their rights especially their rights to a hearing and their right to counsel.

Congressional action

Terminating the DACA program within 6 months will afford the U.S. Congress time to enact a law benefitting the DACA recipients. At present there are two bills pending, the Dream Act (S.1615) before the Senate and the American Hope Act (H.R.3591) before the House of Representatives.

If these bills are passed into law, it will provide permanent solutions to protect DACA recipients and give them a pathway to lawful status. These young immigrants will have to take steps to ensure that they are safe from removal.

We also encourage compassionate members of our community, who believe that DACA recipients deserve a chance to build their lives in the country they call home, to work together towards the passage of the Dream Act by contacting their representatives in Congress.

(Atty. Lourdes S. Tancinco is a San Francisco based immigration lawyer and immigrant’s right advocate. She may be reached at law@tancinco.com, facebook.com/tancincolaw, or 1 888 930 0808)

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Global Pinoy

Trump’s bid to restrict legal immigration will harm Filipino families

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There are almost 400,000 family petitions already filed by Filipino immigrants waiting for visa availability. These immigrants and their families play by the rules and are patiently waiting for their priority date to become current. With the proposed changes approved by President Donald Trump to eliminate these visa petitions, many will lose out on their opportunity to be with their families in the United States. While there is a grandfather provision that will create exceptions; this will not be enough as it will only cover a limited number of petitions.

If passed into law, the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy (RAISE) Act introduced by Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arizona) and David Perdue (R-Georgia) and endorsed by President Trump will substitute the current immigration policy based on family unity into a rigid merit-based system.

Proposed changes
The current immigration system is broken and outdated. Family immigration petitions for adult children and siblings take decades before visas become available. There are also increasing backlogs in employment petitions.

In response to the call for comprehensive immigration reform, Republican Senators Cotton and Perdue came up with a proposed legislation that does not resolve any of the outdated immigration provisions of the law; instead it worsens the current state of family-based immigration.

The RAISE Act proposes to cut immigration by at least half from current levels. It eliminates family-based immigration preference categories by restricting ability of U.S. citizens and permanent residents to petition for family members. Only spouses and minor children can be petitioned. Parents, siblings and adult children will be eliminated as beneficiaries of petitions.

Trump’s reason for supporting the RAISE Act was to demonstrate “compassion for struggling American families” who deserve “an immigration system that puts their needs first and puts America first.” This rationale is based on the premise, rightly or wrongly, that immigrants take jobs away from Americans.

Immigrants continue to build strong communities that foster business development or local businesses. In Silicon Valley, many innovators of big businesses were started by immigrants who came to the country through family-based immigration.

There is also a study published by the Immigration Policy Center showing that family-based immigrants contribute to the well-being of the current and future labor force. The value of extended families in US households, with members who take care of grandchildren or seniors needing care, is overlooked as adults work or are engaged in their businesses outside their homes. Filipino immigrant households find it common to have their lolos (grandfathers) or lolas (grandmothers) around to help take care of their children or do household chores. It is the family unit that inspires every worker or businessman to strive towards success and leads them to positively contribute to the growth of the US economy.

To deny the ability of a US citizen to petition for a parent is a direct attack on a right of a US citizen. Besides, if the goal is to attract the best and highly skilled workers, who would want to immigrate to a nation that does not welcome their family?

The RAISE Act was just introduced, and the debate on its merits just started. We still have time to send out the right messages to our legislators and emphasize the value of family. The merit-based system and the family-based petition system can go hand-in-hand as they can surely complement each other so long as the number of visa allocations are not reduced.

(Atty. Lourdes S. Tancinco is a San Francisco based immigration lawyer and immigrant’s right advocate. She may be reached at law@tancinco.com, facebook.com/tancincolaw, or 1 888 930 0808.)

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Global Pinoy

Love of Family Is their Underlying Reason for Staying

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A significant number of Filipino immigrants have thrived and have become productive U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. Yet, there are categories of immigrants who, despite having resided in the U.S. for many years could not find ways to obtain legal status. The immigration system is dysfunctional and that there is no pathway to obtaining legal status.

Angela was able to enter the U.S. on an H1B visa but worked only for a year. Her U.S. employer suffered financial setbacks during the recession in 2008 and Angela was laid off from her job. When this happened, she was pregnant. His son who was born in the U.S. with a congenital heart problem that requires regular medical attention. The U.S.citizen father of the child abandoned Angela. She continued to work in the U.S. but only as a caregiver to be able to provide for the support of her child. Angela admits that it was wrong to stay without legal status but her decision to stay was motivated by her desire to ensure her son’s well being. She knows that she will not be able to afford medical treatment in the Philippines. Angela has no history of arrest or any criminal arrest. She takes care of elderly patients. With the new immigration policy, she fears that she will be arrested and be deported. She fears that her son’s health condition will worsen if she is sent back to the Philippines.

Amando is a son of a Filipino World War II veteran. Many Filipino veterans immigrated without family members and lived in isolation. Amando was able to come to the United States on a B2 visa. He took care of his father and was present at his father’s deathbed. Unfortunately, Amando’s B2 visa expired during the time he was taking care of his father. If he returns to the Philippines, it will take more than 10 years before he could return to the United States because of the 3-10 year bar rule. He is taking care now of his aging mother who likewise needs his presence and support just like his late father. Amanda has an approved petition but unfortunately, the visa petition will take more than 15 years for the visa to become available. Amando decided to stay in the United States to care for his mom. With Trump’s policy, Amando is at risk of being arrested and removed.

Angela and Amando are profiles of undocumented immigrants whose future in the United States is uncertain with the current political climate. The Department of Homeland Security stated that they will prioritize for removal those who poses threat to national security and public safety. But the recent DHS rules do not reflect such priority. The 11 million undocumented are at risk of being removed if they are caught by ICE without the proper legal documents to stay. This will include those who have same cases as Angela, and Amando who are neither threat to national security or public safety. Their only intention of continued stay is to be with their families, their U.S. citizen children or parents.

Hopefully, the present administration will desist from stereotyping unauthorized immigrants and look at the lives of these ordinary family-loving people through a different lens.

(Atty. Lourdes S. Tancinco is a partner at Tancinco Law Offices, a San Francisco based law firm and may be reached at law@tancinco.com, facebook.com/tancincolaw, or 1 888 930 0808)

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Updates

Trump calling PH a ‘terrorist nation’ is absurd

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At a campaign rally in Portland, Maine earlier this month, Presidential candidate Donald Trump discussed his plans to suspend the entry of nationals from terrorist nations into the United States because it’s too difficult to vet terrorists. In his speech, Mr. Trump listed the Philippines as one of the terrorist nations whose immigrants, or in Mr. Trump’s words – “animals”, have been arrested in the United States for terrorism-related offenses. Not only is Mr. Trump’s inclusion of the Philippines offensive considering the historical relationship between the Philippines and the United States, but it sends the wrong message to Filipino immigrants in the US and future immigrants from the Philippines.

The U.S. Department of State designates only three countries as states sponsoring terrorism – Iran, Syria and Sudan – and the Philippines is not one of them.

The United States and the Philippines have strong historical ties as allies. We were allies in the fight against fascism during World War II. During the cold war, the U.S. military bases were present in the Philippines for more than half a century. In the present war on terror, the Philippines entered into an agreement with the U.S. to allow U.S. soldiers to be stationed in some areas in the Philippines to train local forces on counter terror operations. So how can the Philippines be on the list as a terrorist nation? Was Mr. Trump referring to a dangerous terrorist group called Abu Sayyaf in Southern Philippines? This extremist group has been designated as a terrorist group even by the Philippine government together with other nations, like UK, Canada, Australia and the United States, among others. How can a terrorist group not be distinguished from a terrorist nation?

Filipinos have been coming to America for over 100 years. Filipino immigrants are one of the largest foreign-born groups in the United States. Latest census indicates that there are 3.4 million Filipinos (native- and foreign-born) which is the second largest Asian ethnic group in the United States.

Studies show that the median income of Filipino households headed by an immigrant was $82,370 as of 2013, far above the $53,000 of United States-born households.

Filipino Americans (most of whom are voters) have family members who are in the Philippines and a significant number of these Filipinos have pending petitions for their family members. Currently, there is a pending backlog of 400,000 petitions where applicants for visas have been patiently waiting for visa availability. Instead of barring admission based on assumptions, Presidential candidates should consider supporting federal legislative reforms that will eliminate the visa backlogs and create a more efficient immigration system for family members of U.S. citizens and residents. The changes must reflect policies that promote family unification, facilitate immigrant assimilation and boost economic growth.

Lawful Filipino immigrants who have played by the rules and who have contributed to the growth of this nation must be recognized.

In this war on terror, the Philippines and the United States are allies as they have been historically. On the immigration policy of admitting immigrants, both permanent and temporary, the vetting procedures for those who wish to enter the United States is quite extensive. The various levels of security checks that a person undergoes before being issued a temporary and permanent resident visa are comprehensive enough to determine who are threats to national security. If, in fact, the current vetting policy is not enough, the solution is certainly not to bar admission of nationals of a country who have always been an ally of the United States.

(Atty. Lourdes Santos Tancinco, Esq. is an immigration attorney with the Tancinco Law Offices, a San Francisco CA based law firm. She may be reached at 1 888 930 0808, law@tancinco.com, facebook.com/tancincolaw, or through her website tancinco.weareph.com/old)

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Global Pinoy

5 reasons Filipino immigrants apply for U.S. citizenship

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Immigrants who have resided in the United States for an extended period of time aspire to become US citizens for different reasons.

For the more than 4 million Filipinos who decided to live and make the US their adopted land, the following are some of their motivations for seeking naturalization.

1. Family unity
Green card holders or non-US citizens who are permanent residents may petition their unmarried children as well as their spouses. However, unlike US citizens, they are not allowed to petition their parents, their married children and their siblings.

Being a US citizen provides them the ability to petition more family members including their future spouses or fiancées. Also, US citizens may petition their minor children and spouses faster (about 12 months) as compared to green card holder petitioners.

Filipino immigrants who are family-oriented would prefer to be naturalized as US citizens rather than wait to be reunited with their family members.

2. Avoiding separation
Once a green card holder migrates, the permanent resident status is not really “permanent” in the sense that it may be revoked for cause by the US Department of Homeland Security.

This happens when an immigrant is convicted of a removable/deportable offense even if family members are all US citizens.

This happened to a longtime Filipino immigrant who was arrested for a traffic violation but was later found to have a criminal history. The criminal convictions he had were deportable offenses and resulted in his deportation from the United States and consequently was separated from his US citizen spouse and children. This situation could have been avoided if the immigrant was a naturalized US citizen at the time of conviction.

To prevent any unintended immigration consequence, it would be best to apply for US citizenship as soon as the immigrant meets the eligibility for naturalization.

3. Civic engagement
Filipinos are the second highest growing minority group and integration to the adopted land becomes critical. Naturalized US citizens are given access to voting, political rights and can seek equal protection of the law.

A naturalized US citizen may hold elected positions that will not only protect the interests of their constituents but also their community.

4. Federal employment
A naturalized US citizen may be afforded opportunities for federal employment with better benefits.

Many Filipinos have joined the US military and become US citizens giving them the ability to petition family members and enjoy military benefits.

5. Ease of travel
This is probably the least important in terms of the reasons for becoming a US citizen but interestingly, some Filipinos carry pride in holding US passport in traveling to other countries.

Certainly, there are more than these five reasons to apply for US citizenship. The motivation may be toward immigration integration but it does not take out the “Filipino” in the immigrant. In the United States, a Filipino who is a US citizen is still perceived as part of the Filipino minority group.

In success or failure, the Filipino naturalized US citizen will still be perceived as a Filipino in his adopted land.

(The author may be reached at law@tancinco.com, facebook.com/tancincolaw, tancinco.weareph.com/old or [02] 721-1963)