Tag: obama

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Global Pinoy

What Hinders Relatives of Filipino Veterans from Filing Parole?

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In a special message during last month’s Filipino American History Month, President Obama recognized the contributions of Filipino Americans especially the Filipino soldiers who fought under the U.S. flag in World War II.

Under the Obama administration, a program called the Filipino World War II Veterans Parole Program (FWVP) was launched in June 2016. Under this program, certain family members of Filipino veterans may travel, live and work in the United States while awaiting for their immigrant visas to become available. The goal of this program is to allow loved ones to provide support and care for elderly veterans and their spouses.

There is no question that relatives of the Filipino veterans are enthusiastic to travel to the United States to be with their elderly parents.

Mr. Santos, 88 year old, has been residing in the United States since 1993 after he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen based on his being a Filipino World War II veteran. He was not able to petition his children until 1997. In the meantime, his spouse, whom he petitioned, arrived in the United States in 1998 but passed away in 2002. He had always wanted to be reunited with his children and waited for many years now for the petitions to be current for visa processing.

In the last few years, Mr. Santos has been feeling really weak and sickly. He could not travel back to the Philippines because of his medical condition. He heard about the Filipino Veterans Parole Program during the summer and applied for parole for his adult children. Last month, he got an approval of his parole applications. His children are now awaiting for an interview before the U.S. Embassy for the issuance of their parole documents. Hopefully, they can be reunited by this coming Christmas season.

Not a lot of veterans or surviving spouses are as fortunate as Mr. Santos in the application for parole for their adult children in the Philippines. There are obvious barriers that applicants should overcome in filing for parole. Among the issues that are being faced by the veterans are:

  1. inability to find sponsors for their Affidavits of Support;
  2. no streamlined process for FWVP expedite processing of I-130;
  3. inability of elderly veterans residing in the Philippines to travel back to the U.S. because of illness;
  4. complicated process of obtaining humanitarian reinstatement of revoked petitions.

The filing fee of $360 per application is too expensive for the veterans. But while these fees may be waived for the veteran or surviving spouse, not a lot of applicants are aware of the process. When the veteran has passed away, the surviving spouse must show that there is an approved petition from the veteran and that this petition must be reinstated. Obtaining approval of a request for humanitarian reinstatement is a complicated process for the surviving spouse or beneficiaries.

In addition, the lack of outreach programs regarding the FWVP and available service providers remain major challenges to the prospective beneficiaries. With an altruistic program such as FWVP, there must be resolutions to the issues presented to attain the goal of family unity for our Filipino veterans family.

(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, tancinco.weareph.com/old or 1 888 930 0808)

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Global Pinoy

Will Obama’s immigration executive actions prevail?

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More than 4,000 immigrants and advocates gathered outside the highest court of the United States while the justices heard the case of United.States. v. Texas. Among those who were present were immigrant families who are undocumented and who have a stake in the result of the litigation.

Certainly, there were Filipino Americans advocates and families who also joined the rally and were very vocal about their support for the programs. The 4 million individuals who have a stake in this litigation include numerous Filipino families who will benefit from the Obama’s executive actions. The most pressing question after the hearing is, What is the likelihood of a decision in favor of the Obama’s DACA/DAPA executive actions?

United States v. Texas is a lawsuit initiated by 26 States questioning the legality of Obama’s Executive Actions on DAPA and the DACA extension. DAPA refers to Deferred Action for Parental Accountability where deferred action will be granted to undocumented parents of U.S citizens.

The DACA expanded program will allow more undocumented children to apply for deferred action. If deferred action is granted, employment authorizations will be issued to qualified applicants while it does not confer any other immigration benefit such as a pathway to legal resident status.

An estimated 4 million individuals who are currently undocumented are expected to benefit from these DACA and DAPA programs. Implementation of these programs were stalled by court injunction. The case ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court and legal arguments were heard by the justices on April 18, 2016.

The issues on standing and the merits of the executive actions were argued well by the U.S. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. in favor of the DACA/DAPA programs. Verrilli emphasized that the States do not have the standing or legal capacity to bring the lawsuit.

The nature of the controversy was more of a political disagreement with the Federal government rather than a legal dispute. Considering that it is it a political disagreement on federal enforcement, to render a decision in favor of standing will open a floodgate of cases where states may, at anytime, sue the federal government for any political disagreement.

Most of the legal arguments centered on the issue of standing. As to the merits of the DACA/DAPA, the lawyer for the Respondent States, Texas Solicitor General Scott A. Keller wrongly argued that these executive actions confer legal status. This argument was met by the Verrilli’s rebuttal that deferred action does not confer legal status but rather a tolerated presence by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The decision will be rendered sometime in June 2016. With very compelling and convincing arguments raised during the hearing by Verrilli, a favorable outcome in favor the DAPA/DACA Executive Actions, with at least a 5-3 vote, is hoped for by thousands of families who will be affected by the Supreme Court decision. Unfortunately, with one vacancy in the U.S. Supreme Court, there are only 8 justices. If the justices are divided 4-4, then the injunctions on the executive actions will remain.

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Updates

3 million US work permits, work visas and green cards issued

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Over 3 million foreign nationals were issued with US work permits, working visas [including L-1A and L-1B visas and H-1B visas] and green cards [including EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3] according to the most recent data available, published by the Congressional Research Service for 2013.

In 2013, Mexican, Chinese and Indian nationals were granted most of the 3 million work permits, working visas and green cards issued that year. 2014 numbers are yet to be disclosed, but the 2013 statistics highlight that US work permits and visas continued to be granted in record numbers according to congressional sources and figures provided to the Washington Free Beacon – a right wing online newspaper.

Numbers are inclusive of 1 million green cards which allows you to stay in the US permanently and work, 1 million employment based non-immigrant visas for foreign workers [such as the L-1 visa, and E-1 and E-2], plus 1.2 million work permit authorizations for foreign nationals. Tightening immigration restrictions.

The emergence of figures showing a continuous increase in the number of L-1, E-1 and E-2 visas and green cards being granted comes at a time when a debate is taking place within Congress about tightening immigration laws due to security concerns. In the aftermath of recent terror attacks the debate has intensified.

As of 2014, figures published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, show that the overall number of foreign workers in the US reached 26 million.

All Green Card Holders can work

An excerpt from a Congressional Research memo states: “All foreign nationals who gain lawful permanent resident status in the United States are eligible to work, regardless of what preference category or class they entered through.”

Obama Immigration Reforms and Refugees

The Obama administration wishes to make reforms to work permits and visas, as well as allowing approximately 10,000 Syrian refugees to relocate to the US.

US Senator Jeff Sessions, who is opposed to the resettling of refugees in the US, says that ‘the costs associated with resettling refugees and granting them welfare benefits have not been offset.’ However this may actually be wrong. Studies in Denmark and in a number of other Countries suggest that in the long term refugees are frequently beneficial to the economy of a Country. In many cases they create jobs and have a positive effect on local wage rates. The US has benefitted greatly in the past by accepting refugees.

Half of Americans want reduction in US immigrant population

Studies carried out by the Pew Research Center – an impartial US think-tank based in Washington – revealed that about half of Americans want a reduction in immigration.

We note that some “right wing” publications may have exaggerated the percentage of Americans who are anti-immigration. We have tried to be accurate. We hope we do a better job at reporting immigration related news stories than many of the other news sites.

Most immigrant workers are Hispanics or Asians

According to the most recent labor statistics, US work permits are mostly granted to Hispanics and Asians who account for the largest percentage of foreign nationals in the US workforce. 48.3 per cent of the foreign-born labor force in 2014 consisted of Hispanics, while 24.1% was made up by Asians.

Get help with US work visas

If you would like to apply for a US work visa – including L-1 visas, E-1 and E-2 visas, and H-1B visas – WorkPermit.com can help. WorkPermit.com is a specialist visa consultancy with over twenty-seven years of experience dealing with visa applications. We can help with a wide range of visa applications to your country of choice. Please feel free to contact us for further details.