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For the past 17 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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This website includes selected articles from this week's edition of the Filipino Express. Not all the stories published in the printed version appear on this site.
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Washington, D.C. --- The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Monday, March 27, to legalize the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants and ultimately to grant them citizenship, provided that they hold jobs, pass criminal background checks, learn English and pay fines and back taxes.
The panel also voted to create a vast temporary worker program that would allow roughly 400,000 foreigners to come to the United States to work each year and would put them on a path to citizenship as well, the Associated Press reported.
The legislation, which the committee sent to the full Senate on a 12-to-6 vote, represents the most sweeping effort by Congress in decades to grant legal status to illegal immigrants.
If passed, it would create the largest guest worker program since the bracero program brought 4.6 million Mexican agricultural workers into the country between 1942 and 1960.
Any legislation that passes the Senate will have to be reconciled with the tough border security bill passed in December by the Republican-controlled House, which defied President Bush’s call for a temporary worker plan.
The Senate panel’s plan, which also includes provisions to strengthen border security, was quickly hailed by Democrats, a handful of Republicans and business leaders, as well as by the immigrant advocacy organizations and church groups that have sent tens of thousands of supporters of immigrant rights into the streets of a number of cities to push for such legislation in recent days.
But even as hundreds of religious leaders and others rallied on the grounds of the Capitol on Monday, chanting “Let our people stay!,” the plan was fiercely attacked by conservative Republicans who called it nothing more than an offer of amnesty for lawbreakers.
Only 4 of the 10 Republicans on the committee supported the bill. They were the committee chairman, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mike DeWine of Ohio and Sam Brownback of Kansas. All eight Democrats on the committee voted in favor of the legislation.
Senator Specter said he believed that the legislation would ultimately pass the Senate and would encourage the millions of illegal immigrants to come out of the shadows.
“We do not want to create a fugitive class in America,” Mr. Specter said after the vote. “We do not want to create an underclass in America.”
“I think this represents a reasonable accommodation,” he said.
Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said Monday night that President Bush was “pleased to see the Senate moving forward on legislation.” Mr. Bush has repeatedly called for a temporary worker program that would legalize the nation’s illegal immigrants, though he has said such a plan must not include amnesty.
Lawmakers central to the immigration debate acknowledged that the televised images of tens of thousands of demonstrators, waving flags and fliers, marching in opposition to tough immigration legislation helped persuade the panel to find a bipartisan compromise.
“All of those people who were demonstrating were not necessarily here illegally,” said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who sponsored the legalization measures with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts. Mr. Kennedy described the people who would benefit from the bill as “our neighbors,” adding: “They’re churchgoers. They’re the shop ownersdown the street. They’re the people we know.”
The protesters were rallying in opposition to the security bill passed by the House. The House bill would, among other things, make it a federal crime to live in this country illegally, turning the millions of illegal immigrants here into felons, ineligible to win any legal status. (Currently, living in this country without authorization is a violation of civil immigration law, not criminal law.)
The legislation passed by the Judiciary Committee on Monday also emphasized border security but it also softened some of the tougher elements in the House legislation.
Addressing one of the most contentious issues, the panel voted to eliminate the provisions that would criminalize immigrants for living here illegally and made an amendment to protect groups and individuals from being prosecuted for offering humanitarian assistance to illegal immigrants.
Under the proposal, participants in the temporary worker program would have to work for six years before they could apply for a green card. Any worker who remained unemployed for 60 days or longer during those six years would be forced to leave the country.
Employers could petition for permanent residency on behalf of their employees six months after the worker entered into the program.
The legalization plan for the nation’s illegal immigrants would require those without documents to work in the United States for six years before they could apply for permanent residency. They could apply for citizenship five years after that. Immigrants would have to pay a fine, back taxes and learn English. Mr. Graham called it an 11-year journey to citizenship.
“To me that’s not amnesty,” he said. “That is working for the right over an 11-year period to become a citizen. It is not a blanket pardon.”
“The president believes and most of us here believe that the 11 million undocumented people are also workers,” Mr. Graham said. “We couldn’t get by as a nation without those workers and without those people.”
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WE HAVE A CARDINAL. Msgr. Gaudencio B. Rosales, archbishop of Manila, Philippines, is congratulated by Pope Benedict XVI after receiving the red biretta hat, in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Friday, March 24, 2006.
(MNSwirephoto)
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VATICAN --- Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Borbon Rosales became a member of the elite College of Cardinals on Friday, March 24, joining 14 others from around the world, including two other Asians, as the new “princes” of the Church who will be advisers to Pope Benedict XVI and choose his successor.
From this point on, the soft-spoken Rosales, 73, will have the title “Cardinal” between his first and last names.
The Philippines’ only active cardinal is Ricardo Cardinal Vidal. Jose Cardinal Sanchez, 86, retired in 1996 although he is still based in the Roman Curia where he had served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy.
Rosales, who heads Asia’s biggest diocese, the Metropolitan See of Manila, identified “the evangelization of Asia” as “the challenge of our times.”
He told the Catholic Asianews agency it was thus significant that the Pope had chosen to elevate himself and two other Asians—Archbishop Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk of Seoul and Hong Kong Bishop Joseph Zen, an outspoken campaigner for religious freedom and critic of China.
He said that the decision by Benedict to name three new Asian cardinals showed that Asia was important to the Church, home to two-thirds of the world’s population as well as economic powerhouses.
“I thank God because we are being acknowledged in the whole world,” he said. “The Philippines was considered to be the only Catholic country in Asia, but it is not any more. Now smaller countries are too, like Timor and Korea.”
Decked out for the first time in their crimson robes, the beaming new cardinals processed onto the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican to applause from a crowd of thousands in the square below. Security was tight around the square, with uniformed and plainclothes police ringing the area.
The Pope opened the colorful ceremony, known as a consistory, by reading out each of the new cardinals’ names in Latin, drawing applause after he pronounced each one.
He then proceeded to hand over to them the symbols of their high office. The newly elevated cardinals knelt before the Pope for his blessing, and received a red zucchetto, or skull cap, and the three-cornered scarlet hat called a biretta to wear over it.
Cardinals traditionally wear red to show that they are ready to shed their blood in defense of the faith.
The new cardinals received their rings of office and were named titular head of a church in Rome in special Mass concelebrated by the Pope with the new cardinals at the St. Peter’s Basilica.
Being cardinal cannot be easy for Rosales who is 17 months away from reaching the canonical retirement age of 75.
Cardinals are always on call whenever the Pope decides to call an “extraordinary consistory,” or the gathering of cardinals to advise him on specific issues confronting the Church. The ordinary consistory happens when new cardinals are appointed.
Rosales, who is quietly active in poverty alleviation programs in his vast diocese, is also likely to receive more assignments at the Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy.
“You enter into a special relationship with the chief shepherd of the universal Church as a companion, cooperator, assistant and counselor,” he told reporters before leaving for Rome last week.
Rosales has been heading the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ Episcopal Commission on the Clergy for many years.
“Thank God I have bishops helping me,” he said. “We have clinics, seminars, all kinds of things for the sake of our brother priests.” (MNS)
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NEW YORK --- The campaign for a comprehensive, pro-immigrant bill appears to be galvanizing the Filipino American community to unite.
The Justice for Immigrants (J4I) Filipino Coalition said they hope that the seemingly new-found unity within the community will be on display anew on Sunday, April 2, with the holding of the “Pagtitipon para sa Legalisasyon” on Roosevelt Avenue between 69th and 70th Streets, in Jackson Heights in Queens.
No less than Consul General Cecilia Rebong of the Philippine Consulate General in New York urged Filipinos in the U.S. “to stand together and register their opposition” to pending House bills that seek to criminalize undocumented immigrants and those who provide them assistance.
At least four Filipino restaurants in Jackson Heights in Queens have expressed support for the ongoing campaign of Filipino advocates to push for a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
Henry Soliveres, spokesman of the J4I, said the restaurants agreed to support the April 2 “Pagtitipon”.
He identified these establishments as Perlas Ng Silangan, Ihawan, Krystal’s, and Renee’s Kitchenette.
The April 2 event, which will be from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm, is projected to be a festive affair.
The fiesta-like community gathering will feature the traditional Kapihan, a discussion forum over a cup of coffee, an outdoor public gathering, a noise barrage, street singing and dancing and a small salo-salo.
Immigration lawyers will give an update on immigration reform bills in Congress and analyze the recent one hammered out by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Members of J4I include the Philippine Forum, NY Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, Anakbayan Filipino Youth, Kinding Sindaw Cultural Troupe, Migrante International, Movement for a Free Philippines, Sandiwa Filipino Youth, and the Critical Filipino/Filipina Studies Collective.
On Thursday, March 23, the Philippine Consulate sponsored a forum at the Philippine Center in New York.
Rebong even wrote a report to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) office in Manila about the forum.
“For the first time in US immigration history, the bill also seeks to criminalize immigration offenses, making it legal for any federal, state, or city law enforcement official to arrest and detain aliens without proper papers,” Rebong said in her report.
J4I is a campaign to demand for earned legalization, swift family reunification and an end to criminalization and deportation of immigrants.
The J4I has also scheduled a sign-making party to prepare for the Roosevelt gathering is scheduled on Friday, March 31st, at 5:00 pm at the Philippine Forum Office at 54-05 Seabury Street in Elmhurst, Queens.
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By Rita Villadiego and Merpu Roa
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NEW YORK --- Despite a sweeping immigration reform bill passed by Senate Judiciary Committee that provides a path toward legalizing 11 million undocumented immigrants, immigration lawyers and advocates said the battle for genuine immigration reforms is not yet over.
They urged the Filipino American community to “stay vigilant” in the face of raging debates in Congress on immigration reform.
Reuben Seguritan, legal counsel of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) said that although the Judiciary Committee bill was “ a relatively good one, it did not contain all that we want.”
“We cannot overemphasize the importance of sustaining the mass actions in support of comprehensive immigration reform,” Seguritan said. “The restrictionists have been overwhelming the Senate with negative comments on the bill submitted by the Judiciary Committee, and this might affect Senate voting on this issue.”
“Whatever bill comes out of the Senate would still have to be reconciled with the House of Representatives’ H.R. 4437. So we need to sustain our efforts for immigration reform,” he added.
For Henry Soliveres, spokesman of the Justice for Immigrants (J4I) Filipino Coalition, the immigration bill passed by the Senate committee only proved the power of concerted actions.
“Legislators have no choice but to heed the tremendous pressure coming from the movement of immigrants and their supporters on the streets, as exemplified by the massive turn-out of protest actions in Los Angeles, Chicago, Wisconsin, and Washington DC.”
“Now is the critical time to keep the pressure from the streets strong as ever as the legislative process continues through the Senate vote to the White House,” Soliveres said.
Analisa Caballes, coordinator of Damayan Workers Center vowed to continue pushing for legalization of immigrants.
“For the Filipino community, we see a need to continue educating, organizing and mobilizing with our allies so that we can continue to push for an immigration platform that recognizes the rights and dignity of undocumented immigrants. We need to continue to assert our demands for justice, a clear path towards legalization, family reunification, and protection of immigrants,” she added.
There are those who said the Senate committee’s bill was a welcome development.
Florencia Rivera (not her real name), expressed hope that her three-year stay now in America as an illegal alien would change.
Rivera, now in her late 40s, who came to New York with a six-month tourist visa and worked since then as a house helper, is among the hundreds of thousands undocumented Filipino immigrants working in different parts of America.
“I really hope Congress will approve the guest worker program proposal so I can now come out in the open, and probably be allowed to go home from time to time,” said Rivera, a former bank manager.
Glen Castillo, East Coast Manager of Century Properties, a large property development corporation in the Philippines, said the path to legalization augurs well for many Filipinos who are here illegally, many of whom have to make do with below minimum wages.
”Their being illegal do not provide them the leverage to ask for a just compensation, but with the guest worker program, they can now receive what’s really due them,” Castillo said.
Ligaya Grace Fabe, a public school teacher, expressed optimism that an immigration reform law that recognizes the positive contribution of undocumented immigrants to the US economy would ultimately be passed. “It would just be right and proper for the government to provide them with the appropriate legalization path.”
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