Filipinos joined thousands of immigrants pushing for legalization of undocumented immigrants. They attended forums, chanted slogans and gave out leaflets, showing their visibility and making their voices heard.
It has been hard work, injustice and pains for Nora Enriquez, 61, who has been living as an illegal immigrant for 10 years.
Five years ago, a businesswoman who owns a elderly care-giving company in New York promised to sponsor her green card if she would undergo a special training. She paid over $2,000. But Ms. Enriquez and dozens of other immigrants were scammed because the company didn’t live up to their promise.
She couldn’t report her plight to the authorities because she feared being deported.
Enriquez earns $425 a week cleaning private apartments in Manhattan. She left the Philippines and came to America as a tourist and eventually worked to earn a living and to support her five children who were still in college at that time. Now, she still sends dollars to the Philippines to support and buy medicines for a son who has a brain injury.
"It’s painful that I couldn’t see my family, when my brother died a few years ago, I couldn’t be there, because if I return to the Philippines I won’t be able to come back here because I have no papers," said Enriquez.
The struggle of Ms. Enriquez and 11 million illegal immigrants represents one of the tough challenges facing America: How can the world’s greatest democracy be more compassionate to illegal immigrants yearning for a piece of the American dream?
As Congress is set to pass a comprehensive immigration reform, immigrant communities are like waking giant, rallying tens of thousands, in key cities, to protest the passage of the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act (HR 4437) that would criminalize illegal immigrants and those helping them. The bill would also build a fence on the border. It would set up infrared technology to detect illegal immigrants.
The Senate Judiciary Committee debated the comprehensive immigration reform bill, proposed by the committee chairman Arlen Specter. The bill known as the ‘Chairman’s Mark’, contained many harsh measures against illegal immigrants but it also provides a guest worker program to provide temporary legal status to take jobs that go unfilled by Americans.
"Whether you came from Peru, Pakistan or the Philippines, you came here for better lives for your community and family, and that is the history of our country, " said State Sen. John Sabine. "Activism will wake up Washington, it’s about time people get angry on streets. That’s when real change could come from," he added. Government officials who attended the immigration forum in Queens Sunday signed a pledge to advocate for immigrant rights and to support local government and law enforcement agencies in fighting deportation of illegal immigrants.
Many immigrants are supporting the bill sponsored by Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy bill, which would legalize immigrants and would grant a path to citizenship through earned legalization.
"We should not penalize those who want to be Americans. Let’s go back to real American values," said Councilman John Liu. Thousands of Hispanic participants of the forum chanted "Si, Se Puede” (It’s possible) and brandished pro-worker placards at the event.
Immigrant Communities in Action (ICA), a coalition of diverse immigrant constituencies, held a dialogue Sunday attended by city and state officials to protest punitive measures against immigrants in Congress and to push for legalization of millions of undocumented workers.
"New York City, and America, is a nation that was made great by and remains great because we are a nation of immigrants. Immigrants are hard working, big dreamers, and they have been willing to take chances to succeed," said Democratic Senator Charles Schumer whose statement was read by a staff.
Each year, hundreds seeking a better life in America die in the desert, often at the hands of smugglers. In reality, millions of these live and work in hiding, in fear and often abused. Even if they are performing back-breaking work, they are highly motivated workers. From the farms, to construction sites, stores, restaurants and homes, their labor energizes the economy. Many of them pay income and sales taxes too, despite the fact that they perform underground work.
Proponents of anti-immigration bill said undocumented workers should not be rewarded for violating laws. Those who are pushing for their deportation believe that many illegal workers and their families are a burden to the government’s health and education system.
In a separate forum last Thursday at the Philippine Consulate on Fifth Ave., Consul Maria Lourdes Legaspi said she had recently handled cases of a family, with two children, all in jail, as they faced deportation. From a 75-year-old woman arrested for immigration offense to a sick man, fighting for his life in hospital and trying to stop deportation. All of them have one dream of living a better future in America. She said 200,000 to 300,000 Filipinos in the U.S. are illegal immigrants. Squeezed by poverty, they were forced to leave their homeland. There are 3. 5 million Filipinos in the U.S.
"Forced by the need to support my family, I continued working as a domestic worker. We domestic workers earn our daily bread and pay our bills by doing long hours of underpaid domestic work. Because of our labor, our employers can do their jobs. We are very important to the economy of New York. As consumers, we pay sales taxes and income taxes. For these reasons, I think domestic workers deserve protection not criminalization," said Filipino Zelem Guerrero of the Damayan migrant workers association.
