Now that the Senate has passed an immigration bill, Filipinos in the US are not backing down on an intensified call for full rights and unconditional legalization for undocumented immigrants, more popularly known in the Filipino community as TNT's.
The Justice 4 Immigrants Filipino Coalition (J4I), a local and national network of Filipino organizations and concerned individuals uniting towards genuinely pro-people, just and humane immigration reforms in the US are calling on all Filipinos to participate in another heightened national day of action on Saturday, July 10th, in cities across the US, including New York City.
"The struggle is clearly not over. Injustice still prevails in the presence of the passage of HR 4437 and now SB 2611. The people must continue to apply massive pressure on legislators," states Henry Soliveres, spokesperson for J4I.
The first chapter of J4I was developed in Queens and Jersey City out of public denunciation of the now infamous House Resolution 4437, also known as the Sensenbrenner-King Bill. Among the basic calls for J4I are full and unconditional legalization for all, no to the criminalization of undocumented persons, and swifter family reunification measures, including faster family visa processing and more family visa made available for applicants from the Philippines.
The passage of both HR 4437 and SB 2611, however, continue to strike alarm and, according to the coalition, stand to devastate the entire Filipino community in the US.
The newly-passed Senate bill proposes a 3-tiered categorization of undocumented persons based on length of time they can prove they have been in the US. While a slight few may be granted legalization, the majority of the 12 million undocumented people in the US would still face deportation. This has many in the immigrant rights movement, including Filipinos, outraged and indignant.
"It is still an unjust bill that stands to violate basic civil liberties and rights of immigrants in the US. Placing arbitrary judgment on who deserves legalization and who doesn't is akin to the racism African-Americans were battling during the Black Civil Rights Movement over 40 years ago. It is like deciding who amongst the millions of oppressed and exploited deserves freedom. As Filipinos--people of color, poeple forced to migrate primarily to escape massive poverty--we cannot accept this," Soliveres cotinued.
According to J4I, the Arroyo government boasted exporting a record 1 million more Filipinos overseas in 2006. The United States is still amongst the most-landed destinations for overseas Filipinos, with more than 60, 000 entering each year. Over 70% of Filipinos enter the US through the family sponsorship, yet the wait time for Filipinos given by immigration services is the longest--23 years--due to the high volume of applicants.
"It is a terriblereality that as 3000 Filipinos leave the Philippines each day, at least 3000 families are torn apart. The two bills introduced by both Congressional bodies stand to create more difficult lives for more than 4 million Filipinos in the US and the 12 million they support back home. These bills will push us further into the shadows of marginalization, rather than improve our lives," stated New York J4I organizer Farida Ali.
The reason is that while Filipino immigrants literally hang on the helm of any US immigration law introduced, so does the entire state of the Philippine economy, which would simply crumble into pieces without the intake of remittances from US Filipinos annually. A record high of $6 billion was remitted to the Philippines in 2005 from Filipinos in the US out of a total $11 billion in overall overseas remittances.
The creation of J4I, now a national network of Filipino groups with chapters in Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, was founded under the framework of Filipinos already spearheading a legacy of social change in the United States.
It has since grown into one of the most visible and vocal national Filipino formations that has courageously asserted itself on behalf of the third largest immigrant group in the US, with one of the largest undocumented populations. J4I leadership in voicing out the struggles from one of the largest labor-sending countries in the world has also exposed the criminal negligence of the Philippine government in ensuring the welfare of its so-called "modern-day heroes" with the lack of protection programs for those suffering from inhumane immigration crackdown in countries abroad.
"The broken US immigration system was a challenge faced by Carlos Bulosan, Philip Vera Cruz, Chris Mensalvas and all others in our migration history who struggled to advance the rights and welfare of Filipinos and all immigrants in the US. What we face now is the same beast in different forms. We must learn from our hard-won victories born out of peoples struggle in the past that genuine change is at the grasp of those who fight for it, and that must come from the common people on the streets, not those in Congress," Ali added.
As a convenor of the May 1 Coalition that drew in nearly one million on the streets of downtown Manhattan, the largest demonstration in New York City history, J4I has been a beacon in uplifting Filipino presence in the national immigration debate. With over 5 immigration townhall meetings between Queens and Jersey City, J4I was also the first to mobilize a march along Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights/Woodside, an area known as perhaps the most diverse immigrant community in the world. Since then the coalition has also mobilized growing Filipino contingents on April 10th and May 1st.
Now that the Senate has passed an immigration bill, Filipinos in the US are not backing down on an intensified call for full rights and unconditional legalization for undocumented immigrants, more popularly known in the Filipino community as TNT's.