Group says Fil-Ams should use clout for immigration law reforms

By Jose Katigbak, STAR Washington Bureau
The Philippine Star

WASHINGTON — Filipino immigrants have considerable political and economic clout in the United States and they should use this influence to lobby for immigration reforms that would substantially reduce the time it takes to petition immediate family members, immigration reform advocates said.

"Filipinos suffer from some of the worst immigration backlogs in the world," said Jon Melegrito, founding executive director of the Washington-based National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA).

"A US citizen parent petitioning for an adult son or daughter from the Philippines must wait for 14 years before he or she can immigrate to the US. Petitioning for a brother or sister takes longer — as much as 22 years," he said in a teleconference with reporters on Wednesday.

Due in part to this long wait, the number of undocumented Filipinos living in the United States continues to rise and is now conservatively estimated at around 200,000.

In addition, according to the US census of 2000, there are about 1.9 million Filipinos living in the country. Of the total 32 percent are US citizens by virtue of birth, 41 percent are naturalized US citizens and 26 percent are permanent residents, so-called Green Card holders.

Melegrito noted the purchasing power of Filipinos was substantial "because we love to shop."

Also, the US infrastructure would be severely compromised if Filipinos stopped working because many of them are employed in healthcare and childcare, in hotels and restaurants and in other service industries, he said.

Traci Hong, director of immigration program at the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC), at the same teleconference said FilAms were the second largest Asian American community in the country and politicians would do well to remember "not only the purchasing power of the community but also its voting power."

NaFFAA and NAPALC called for comprehensive immigration reforms to fix what they said was a broken US immigration system and to reunite Filipino American families.

"Under the current system, no matter how hard they work, no matter how much they contribute to our economy and communities, undocumented immigrants will never be fully integrated in our society," said Hong.

"We need comprehensive immigration reform to reduce the backlog and reunify Filipino families, but also provide a path to enable undocumented Filipinos to eventually become permanent residents," she said.

Hong and Melegrito said the Filipino Americans should make their voices heard loud and clear on the issue of immigration to educate Congress and the US public.

"We must dispel the myths and distortions that immigrants are mere opportunists who take advantage of the welfare system and burden America’s social services without paying taxes or contributing anything in return," Melegrito said.

"The American people are our greatest allies because most of them come from immigrant stock. If we can establish a common ground with them, they will support us," he added. 

"The best way to combat anti-immigration sentiment is to focus on the benefits that immigration brings to the country. Clearly, Filipinos have made a valuable contribution," Hong said.

With between 8 and 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the United States, clearly there is need to reform the system, he said.

How this can be done is the problem.

There are currently several reform bills pending in Congress but the one which immigrants support is the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act, introduced by Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy.

The bill introduced in May seeks to reduce the backlog in family immigration, provide a path to legal status and permanent residence for undocumented immigrants and create a new work visa program with greater protection for US and immigrant workers.

More pressing issues in Congress such as the rehabilitation of hurricane-damaged New Orleans, the Supreme Court nominations, Iraq and social security reform make it unlikely immigration will be debated anytime soon.

But advocates want to keep the immigration issue alive and are pressing supporters to keep writing their senators and congressmen, take part in town hall meetings and generally participate in the political process.