(The Philippine Star) - WASHINGTON DC - The plan of the White House to scrap immigrant petitions that many Filipinos with close relatives in the United States now have to wait from five up to 20 years to push through has triggered a howl of protest from the immigrant community in the United States.
United States President George W. Bush is reportedly moving to eliminate of all family-based immigrant visas as part of measures to reform the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA).
This stand of the White House clashes directly with US House Resolution 1645, which provides for comprehensive US immigration reforms.
The measure aims, among others, to eliminate the backlog in family-based visa applications, especially for spouses and unmarried children of legal residents, or the green card holders, 21 years old and younger.
Jon Melegrito, executive director of the National Alliance for Filipino Veterans Equity (NAFVE), warns the White House move will have severe repercussions for the Filipino-American community and their families in the Philippines.
Stephen Legomsky of the Washington University School of Law told a hearing of the US House subcommittee on immigration, citizenship, refugees, border security and international law Thursday afternoon, "these separations virtually invite illegal immigration".
Melegrito accuses Bush of "playing politics" with the proposed immigration reform package by offering to scrap family-based visas. Many see it as old-fashioned DC horse-trading to prod hard-line Republicans to support the reforms.
Curiously, much of the Bush package such as a guest worker program and allowing undocumented workers to stay in the US after paying fines, have drawn wider support from Democrats than from his own party.
Republicans have taken the tack that prevention and intensified enforcement - like building a wall across the Mexican border - was the way to go. There's an estimated 250,000 undocumented Filipinos in the US and they would obviously be anxious about any fresh crackdown on illegal aliens.
Muzzaffar Chishti, Director of the Migration Policy Institute, testified, "With very few options for entering legally through employment-based visa categories, intending immigrants could try to enter through the family-based categories...but the wait list for many of these categories are prohibitively long."
"In the absence of legal channels, immigrants entering our labor market have come to rely on illegal channels," Chishti told the solons.
The pressure is only sure to mount as so-called Baby Boomers near retirement. This and a combination of normal attrition and economic expansion are expected to create 65 million new jobs by the end of the decade, a demand the local workforce can barely fill.
Filipino-American groups are joining a large immigration rally on May 1, dubbed the "Great American Boycott."
Organizers are asking protesters to stay off work and shopping malls and march on the streets of D.C. The divergent immigrant groups are driven by their own agenda and priorities.
For the Fil-Am community, protecting their right to bring spouses and children here is top on their list.
"Families should be together as soon as possible, and they should shorten the time between applying for the visa and getting it here," explained Rozita Lee, vice chairperson of the umbrella National Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFAA).
On the other hand, migrant workers group Migrante International opposed the move saying it is the right of a person to travel and migrate to US and other parts of the world.
Migrante International regional coordinator Ritchie Nellas said that the move might have to do with the September 11 attack for the US to control and monitor the people who are migrating to the country.
"It might be part of their anti-terror war for them to control and know who are entering their country," he said.
Nellas said that eight to ten millin Filipinos have migrated to the different parts of the world and the biggest part of the number went to the US.
At present, he said that there are some 2.5 million Filipino migrants in the US, which makes them the third biggest foreign nationality in number there.
At present, about 60,000 new Filipino immigrants enter the United States annually, making Filipinos the largest immigrant group from the Asia-Pacific region.
Nellas said that many anti-government and anti-Bush groups from other countries have also entered the US.
He cited Bagong Alyansang Makabayan or Bayan, which has also formed a chapter in the US.
"Many groups are against the US policies. Bush wants to restrict the entry of foreign nationals to their country not only to prevent entry of terrorists groups but also other legitimate groups," he said. - Wenna A. Berondo with abs-cbn.com / NLQ
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