- Avenues for regularization
still open for undocumented Filipinos
- But fear, procrastination,
fatalism are obstacles
- Undocumented must rely on
accredited nonprofits and professionals in order to avoid scams
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|
Robert Yabes, Catholic Relief Services
of Santa Clara County. ASIA.WIDMI.COM PHOTO |
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, California
– Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County recently briefed the news media on
the potential benefits available for undocumented Filipinos, despite delays in
Comprehensive Immigration Reform and US approval of a Temporary Protected
Status (TPS) designation for the Philippines.
Undocumented Filipinos still
have other avenues to try, said Immigration Legal Services Program Director
Robert Yabes and his team of Board of Immigration Appeals (IBA)-certified team.
Yabes decried the low number of
Filipinos willing to do something about their being out of status. “In Santa
Clara County, 70 to 80 percent of our clients are Latinos. Asians, just 10 to
20 per cent. The rest are from the Middle-East, Africa and other countries.”
“Out of 1.7 million qualified
for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival or DACA (signed by President Obama in
June 2012 for qualified youth, granting them a two-year work permit and a
guarantee that they will not be deported), only 537,000 applied (as of July
2013). Only four percent of these were Asians. Of these, less than one percent
or 0.7 were Filipinos. There are about 22,000 eligible Filipinos but only 18
per cent or 4,000 applied.”
Yabes offered the manana
(procrastination) and bahala na (leave it to God) attitudes among Filipinos as
the culprits.
But according to San Jose Peace
& Justice Center, the $456 cost of application and the $550 fee for
assistance puts DACA beyond most young people’s reach. And only a fourth of
these could produce the required documents.Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Yet, apparently, the fear
factor among many Filipinos “who fear being criminalized” is the biggest
obstacle. Many fear that the collateral information gathered from the
application will be used against their relatives and friends.
Yabes told FilAm Star, “Even
people applying for US Citizenship need to disclose their spouse’s immigration
status. But the DHS does not go after (those undocumented as revealed in the
application) even if they have the same address and contact information as the
applicant.”
“Homeland Security’s top
priority is to go after people with criminal records or people who have been in
the immigration court system and did not follow the judge’s order (like those
still in the US despite a voluntary departure order).There are too many undocumented
immigrants in the US and it is impossible to go after all of them.”
“Logic dictates, why would the
government provide a benefit like DACA, encourage the undocumented to apply and
then destroy all of it by arresting relatives of the applicants? It does not
make sense.”
The DHS website for DACA
confirms that the said information will not be disclosed to US Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) unless there
is a matter of national security, fraud or criminal offenses.
Although Question number 10
(addressing this concern) contains the waiver: “This policy, which may be
modified, superseded or rescinded at any time without notice, is not intended
to, does not, and may not be relied upon to create any right or benefit,
substantive or procedural, enforceable by law by any party in administration,
civil or criminal matter.”
Also invited to the media
briefing were staff from Catholic Charities’ sister organizations in San
Francisco and San Mateo who were mostly Latino. And here the complex issue of
immigration reform reared its complex head, with different ethnic groups
differing in their needs and reactions. The Latinos have been struggling with
it for a while and have learned to work the system and practically shook the
Filipinos from their paralyzing fear.
One stood up to point out that
although TPS for El Salvador was extended for some other reason in 2001,
“nothing happened to the people who stopped applying (for TPS). It won’t be
good politics for the US to deny these benefits to Filipinos. Anyway, it’s
better to have something than nothing. Even if it’s just the peace of mind of
having a social security number and a driver license.”
BIA-accredited Representative
Juan Gil Garcia from Santa Clara County chimed in, “DHS usually prioritizes who
is a high risk for removal or deportation. The court would send the case to ICE
because they are shorthanded. It is possible that deportation might happen. But
so long as the petition is based on humanitarian reasons, there are other
possibilities.”
“I’ve never seen a positive
outcome from fear-based decisions. Those people who’ve been afraid all these
years have been doing so needlessly.”
They said that those who took
advantage of TPS have “bought houses, raised their children and put them
through school.”
Garcia added, “Once TPS is
granted but extension does not happen (after about two years), ICE will not go
to their homes. If somebody has acquired deportation notice, maybe. But each
case is unique. There is always judicial process. Worst case scenario, (if
deportation occurs), you can ask for voluntary deportation within 120 days.
Then there are other possibilities.”
Yabes said, “If TPS is granted
to the Philippines, it will be the first time that the US will grant it to an
Asian country. (Current TPS designated countries include: El Salvador, Haiti,
Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia and more recently, Sudan, South Sudan and Syria.)
When Indonesia was struck by a tsunami, there was no TPS. In my experience, you
don’t reject any benefit because it leads to permanency.”
Also from Santa Clara County,
BIA-accredited Representative Roela Vazquez presented “some things good that
may come out of bad things:” the T Visa (granted to victims of human
trafficking such as the Filipino teachers in El Paso, Texas and Baltimore) who
were preyed upon by unscrupulous recruiters, the U Visa (granted to victims of
crimes like torture, rape, domestic violence, assault, prostitution, being held
hostage, abduction, slave trade, kidnapping, etc.), the self-petitioning
Violence Against Women Act or VAWA (often invoked for abused spouses of US
citizens) and the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status or SIJ (provided for alien
juvenile in state juvenile court systems who were abused, abandoned or
neglected.
Source: globalnation.inquirer.net
