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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. --- U.S. Senate leaders announced a breakthrough on Thursday, April 6, on a long-sought overhaul of immigration law, clearing the way for possible approval of a bill that would give millions of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.
Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada told reporters some details had to be worked out, but that they expected the Senate to pass a comprehensive reform package before lawmakers leave for a two-week break, scheduled to begin this weekend.
“We’ve had a huge breakthrough ... that will lead us to the conclusion of passing a very important bill,” Frist said at a news conference with Reid and about a dozen other Republicans and Democrats.
The deal centers on a compromise offered by Republicans that included a temporary worker program backed by President George W. Bush. It also would allow illegal immigrants who have been in the United States more than five years a chance to become citizens if they meet a series of requirements and pay a fine.
But a New York-based Filipino immigration lawyer said the compromise bill is not enough.
Bush, who has been pushing for comprehensive changes, said he was encouraged by the breakthrough and urged quick passage of the legislation that has sparked protests and anger.
The new bill came after the Senate rejected by a decisive margin a plan to advance a bill approved by Judiciary Committee. This cleared the way to begin deliberations on the Republican plan that would be more restrictive on granting citizenship than the Judiciary Committee’s approach.
The bipartisan bill approved by the Judiciary Committee, which would have put nearly all of the nation’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants on a path toward citizenship, a provision that has been denounced by its opponents as offering “amnesty,” failed to gain the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster if it were to be brought to the floor by a wide margin — 60 no votes to 39 in favor.
Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader said the Senate would then take up the new compromise, reached late Wednesday night by a group of Republicans.
The measure still faced opposition from some Republicans who said the bill would give amnesty to people who broke the law.
“We still have some obstacles,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican.
The Senate compromise would also allow illegal immigrants who had been in the United States less than five years but more than two years to apply for a work visa. But they would have to travel to a U.S. port of entry and step outside the country to get it.
Lawyer Cristina Godinez, immigrant rights coordinator of the Philippine Forum, said the Senate must come up with an earned legalization program for all 12 million undocumented immigrants, not just some of them.
“They must decide on that bill now, otherwise, all we would have left is H.R. 4437,” she said.
“While the compromise bill appears to be a well-meaning attempt to gather broad support among lawmakers, it may actually be intended to diffuse the massive public clamor for earned legalization that has rocked the country recently,” she said.
Godinez said that with the promise of legalization, long-term TNTs may not be inclined to support the overall effort to obtain earned legalization for all TNTs, including the new arrivals.
She urged the public to remain vigilant. “Until President Bush signs a comprehensive immigration reform bill, all we have is a broken immigration system, and the problems of the immigrant community could only get worse.”
Any Senate bill would have to be merged with legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that focuses only on border security and enforcement of immigration laws. That bill would make it a crime, instead of a civil offense, to be in the country illegally and calls for construction of a fence along parts of the U.S. border with Mexico.
That bill angered immigrant communities and their supporters and sparked protests around the country. Nationwide demonstrations also were planned for Monday, April 10.
The compromise bill would place illegal immigrants in three categories:- Those who have lived in the country at least five years would be put on a path toward guaranteed citizenship, provided that they remained employed, paid fines and back taxes, and learned English. Mr. Frist said this group accounted for about 60 percent of the roughly 11 million illegal immigrants believed to be living here.
- Those who have lived here for two to five years, said to number about three million, would have to leave the country briefly before reporting to an American port of entry, where they would be classified as temporary workers. They would be allowed to apply for citizenship but would have no guarantee of obtaining it. Those who did not would have to leave after participating in the temporary worker program for six years.
- The remaining one million or so, those who have lived in the country less than two years, would be required to leave. They could apply for temporary worker status but would not be guaranteed it.
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Christopher Cabaldon |
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West Sacramento, CALIFORNIA --- A Filipino American mayor in California has anxiously kept his sexual orientation a secret his entire political career.
On Wednesday, March 29, West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon broke his silence on the subject at the annual State of the City dinner at West Sacramento City Hall.
“The pressure and the stigma and sometimes the all too casual bigotry in this town made it painfully clear when I first ran for office that I could either serve this community or I could be a gay man. But I could not be both,” Cabaldon said.
His disclosure - planned well in advance - concluded a speech focusing on levees, “walkable” communities and schools. After celebrating the accomplishments of the city and discussing the future, he disclosed that he was gay.
Cabaldon said he decided to disclose he’s gay to make it easier for other gays and lesbians wrestling with making their sexual orientation public.
In an interview this week, Cabaldon said when he began his political career, he thought he couldn’t disclose the matter. So rather than lead a double life or a secret life, Cabaldon said he decided he couldn’t have a personal life.
“Nobody could really out me before because I wasn’t dating,” said Cabaldon. “I’m still not dating or anything like that.”
His heartfelt address Wednesday night brought the crowd of 150 developers, business and political leaders to a standing ovation, some with tears in their eyes.
Developer Bryan Taylor said, “We couldn’t be more proud of our mayor.”
The 41-year-old mayor’s unusual “coming out” will be carried in documentary form on an MTV Networks cable channel featuring gay-themed programming. A crew working for the Logo channel has been shadowing Cabaldon for the better part of a week. The program is expected to air in July.
It’s not every day a sitting elected official tells the public: “I’m gay.”
Cabaldon becomes the state’s fourth elected openly gay mayor currently in office, according to Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund in Washington, D.C.
When the Victory Fund was formed 1991 there were 49 openly gay elected officials nationwide; that number is now up to 356, said Robin Brand, the group’s senior vice president.
Cabaldon said he told his father he was gay two years ago.
Through high school and college, Cabaldon, a Los Angeles native, said he tried to be straight - dating women, never men. Sometime after finishing his master’s degree in public policy, Cabaldon said he came to terms with his sexuality.
But by that time he was already active in politics and in his mind being in politics meant you weren’t openly gay.
“I was resistant to the idea that I could be gay because it would have such ramifications on what I wanted to do with my life,” Cabaldon said.
So Cabaldon poured himself into his work.
He was first elected to West Sacramento’s City Council in 1996, becoming mayor in 1998.
Cabaldon said voters know what he stands for.
“I haven’t changed,” Cabaldon said. “I’m just telling them one more thing about me.”
Cabaldon, born in 1965, is a former treasurer of the National Filipino American Youth Association, Cabaldon is the youngest person to be honored for outstanding historical contribution by the valley chapters of the Filipino American National Historical Society. He has also been recognized as Executive of the Year by the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce.
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Washington, D.C. --- Twenty-seven New York-based Filipino nurses and one physical therapist filed a class suit against the recruiter who brought them to the United States and their employers here for not paying them the stipulated salary, fraud and misrepresentation.
The class suit was filed before the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
Named respondents to the suit were Bent Philipson, Francis Luyun, and 11 nursing homes of which Philipson is the chief operating officer. Luyun is the chief executive officer of Sentosa Recruitment Agency, one of those cited in the suit.
The complainants are represented by New York immigration lawyer Felix Vinluan.
The nurses said they were recruited to work as immigrant workers, while the physical therapist said he was recruited to work as H-1B non-immigrant workers by Sentosa Recruitment Agency.
In their complaint, they said that Philipson and the companies he represented promised the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to pay them the prevailing wage rates and other employment benefits.
Upon arriving in the United States, the complainant said they were not made to work for the employers who petitioned for them. Instead they were made to work for the companies controlled by Philipson.
This, they said, is “a violation of the undertakings, attestations, promises, as well as documents submitted by Philipson to the USCIS, the Department of Labor, and the United States Consulate in Manila.”
The complainants claimed that they are not being paid the prevailing wage rates and are not being given the sufficient number of working hours per week as agreed upon.
In their complaint, they accuse Philipson and his companies of not paying them the proper overtime pay, night shift differentials, and holiday pay.
They said their employers have not been providing with promised employment benefits, such as dental and medical health insurance coverage, proper orientation and training, and professional malpractice insurance coverage, among others.
They also said Philipson and his companies have prohibited them from working for any other employer, even though all of them, except the H-1B worker, are green card holders and are allowed by law to work for other employers, even on a part-time or per diem basis.
Vinluan said more nurses and physical therapists will join the class suit in the coming weeks.
The Filipino health care professionals asked the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to:- Require that Philipson and his companies to pay them their back wages;
- Allow them to severe their employment relations with their petitioning employers and with their actual employers, without being held liable under the pre-termination clause of their respective employment agreements or under any other agreement, whether written or verbal;
- Award them the appropriate attorney’s fees;
- Award them the appropriate exemplary and punitive damages;
- Enjoin Philipson and his companies from engaging in their discriminatory practices;
- Revoke the recruitment license of Philipson and his companies in order to prevent them from exploiting other nurses and migrant workers; and
- Bar respondents from ever sponsoring foreign employees, whether as immigrant workers or as H-1B non-immigrant workers.
Aside from Philipson and Luyun, named respondents were: Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation Center; Bayview Nursing & Rehabilitation Center; Brookhaven Rehabilitation & Health Care Center; Franklin Center For Rehabilitation & Nursing; Garden Care Center; Immediate Home Care, Inc, New Surfside Nursing Home; Prompt Nursing Employment Agency, LLC; Sentosa Care, LLC; Sentosa Recruitment Agency; Sentosa Services; Split Rock Multi Care Center; and Woodmere Rehabilitation and Health Care Center.
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