Sunday Read: Trump wants to eliminate program allowing green cards for families of FIlipino WWII vets

WHITE HOUSE ARCHIVE

Filipino WWII veterans have fought for decades for recognition and benefits.

In the Trump administration's apparent drive to erase any vestige of President Obama's tenure, it will end a three-year-old program that allowed family members of Filipino World War II veterans to stay in the US while waiting for their green cards to be approved, a process that can take decades.

On Friday (July 2) , the US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would terminate the Haitian Family Reunification Parole program and Filipino World War II Veterans Parole program based on an executive order from President Donald Trump.

Sen. Mazie Hirono, who authored the bill allowing the parole program, noted that in some cases it could take up to 20 years for someone to get their green card, meaning many veterans would die before having the opportunity to be reunited with their family members. 

Hirono said the USCIS’s decision was just the latest in Trump’s “pathological need to treat immigrants as cruelly as possible, and to undo any program ever created by Barack Obama.”

“The depths of Donald Trump’s inhumanity where immigrants are concerned knows no bottom, but not even the most loyal of his supporters can be in favor of disrespecting the brave and distinguished service of veterans who fought alongside Americans and helped us win the war,” Hirono said in a statement

In a press release, USCIS Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli explained that the decision was based on fairness.

“Under these categorical parole programs, individuals have been able to skip the line and bypass the proper channels established by Congress,” Cuccinelli said.

“With the termination of these programs, these individuals will no longer be permitted to wait in the United States for their family-based green card to become available, consistent with the rules that apply to the rest of the world.”

An angry Hirono responded: “There is no purpose to keeping the families of the quickly diminishing number of Filipino World War II veterans separated.”

“They have been ignored and disrespected by this country for decades. They deserve our thanks, not spite from their unhinged president.”

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What's up, 2019?: Trump's immigration proposal strikes at the heart of Asian American families

NO OTHER ISSUE strikes at the heart of Asian values more than immigration. The proposals offered by the Trump administration attacks families by separating children from their parents and grandparents from grandchildren. 

In most Asian countries, there is no distinction between "immediate" family and  "extended" family. There is just family. For Asians, the traditional family unit includes parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and older siblings. Often, all the relatives  live in a compound or occupy apartments in the same building.

The immigration policies put forth by the Republican administration -- especially placing a limit on what Republicans call "chain migration" -- may be the key factors in Asian Americans moving towards the Democrats and away from the GOP's apparent xenophobia, exemplified in the extreme, by the white nationalists movement, which has embraced Trump's policies.

EDITOR'S NOTE: What's Up, 2019: is part of series of posts about issues facing the AAPI community in the coming year. 

• Trump wants to deport public benefit recipients
• Immigration reform strikes at heart of Asian America

The administration's treatment of asylum seekers from Central America hits a chord with Asian Americans who sought refuge in the U.S. after fleeing authoritarian regimes or religious persecution in Asia. In the case of thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodians who fled their war-torn countries at the height of the Vietnam War, they can sympathize with the Latin refugees flocking to the U.S. southern border to ask for asylum.

H-1B visas that has brought over thousands of Asian workers is become more difficult to obtain. Through a series of initiatives, the Department of Homeland Security has increased the number of denials for this sought after "golden ticket." In addition, the requirements for obtaining the visa has slowed down the processing.

From the perspective of both foreigners and international students, the uncertainty of such U.S. policies and denials, can be overwhelming," reports Forbes.

"These U.S. restrictions impact Indian and Chinese nationals most because they account for the vast majority of these visas. For example, they accounted for 82 per cent of H-1B visas in 2016. Indian workers specifically are known to specialize in IT-related jobs, helping fill the gaps in the tech industry," according to Forbes.

In addition, the administration is looking to forbid the spouses of H-1B visa holders from working in the U.S., which could be an additional burden for famlies living in high-cost areas such as the San Francisco Bay Area, home of Silicon Valley.

The fate of hundreds of thousands of young people whose parents brought them into this country illegally when they were children is still up in the air. In 2017, Trump called for the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program  which allowed DACA recipients to stay in this country legally.

Of the 1.2 million immigrants who were eligible for DACA, 120,000 were Asian. These immigrants are from all parts of Asia, with significant numbers from Korea, China, and India.

For these reasons, Asian American civil rights organizations have focused on urging Congress to pass the DREAM Act as soon as possible.

Of great concern to the AAPI community is Trump's immigration reform plan to reduce legal immigration by 50%. It would impact would-be immigrants from countries like the Philippines, which has a waiting period of up to 20 years just to obtain a visa to the U.S.

Several of issues are winding their way through the courts in suits brought forth by civil rights advocates. Some of them will likely be resolved this year in the U.S. Supreme Court.

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George Takei On U.S. government holding kids In camps...

SCREEN CAPTURE

George Takei: 'It is the most incompetent admnnistration...'

STAR TREK star George Takei was asked to recall his experience as a 5-year old when he and his family were detained during World War II.

Appearing last night (July 31) on MSNBC's Lawarence O'Donnel show, The Last Word, the 81-year old Japanese American actor recalled the soldiers, with bayonets drawn, pounding on the front door, his parents packing, his mother crying. Takei said, "I will never be able to forget that scary, horrible morning" when his family were taken from their home and placed in an internment camp.

Takei was discussing how traumatic events impact young children in relation to the children being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.

(Donald Trump) "has reached a new historical low," said Takei. "This notion of taking children from their parents, ... then incarcerating them in cages, then scattering them across the country," said Takei, best known for his role as Mr. Sulu in the original television series Star Trek that launched a megahit franchise with a fanatically loyal fanbase.

"It is the most incompetent administration. a new low in cruelty and inhumanity. It makes Americans ashamed," Takei told the host.

Takei's interview starts around the 3:40 mark in the video below:

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Hold federal officials responsible for chaotic family separation policy

ACLU GRAPHIC

ANALYSIS

IT'S OFFICIAL: The Trump administration has failed to meet the July 26 deadline to reunite the families it separated at the border. Hundreds of children are still locked up in detention centers, and the government has deported hundreds of parents without their children.

More than 700 children forcibly removed from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border still have not been reunited with their families, U.S. officials said today (July 26).

Federal authorities called the remaining children as "ineligible" for reunification, as if it was their fault or the fault of their parents. Most of the parents were deported without their children and the U.S. doesn't have any plan to reunite the parents, who might be in Central America already, with their children, still detained in the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw, who is overseeing the reunification of some 2,500 immigrant children with their parents has given the Trump administration until Wednesday (August 1) to provide information to locate hundreds of parents, after the federal government failed to meet a July 26 deadline to reunite all families.

The ACLU, meanwhile, claims that dozens of immigrant parents were duped or coerced into waiving their reunification rights. In a 120-page filing submitted last week, attorneys for the civil rights group recounted dozens of stories of parents who were misled into waiving their rights and agreeing to deportation.

Sabraw had earlier ordered all kids under 5 to be reunited with their parents by July 10, and those from ages five to 17 to be reunited by July 26. But the government’s efforts have been marked by chaos; agencies were only able to reunite about half of young children by the first deadline. Forty-six children under age 5 still have not been reunited.

We need to hold the officials responsible for this crisis accountable: Attorney General Jeff Sessions devised the "zero tolerance" immigration policy that created this nightmare, and Kirstjen Nielsen and Kevin McAleenan head the agencies – Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection – that are doing the dirty work of tearing families apart at the border. And now they're out of time to reunite the families they've torn apart.

This isn't the first time the government missed a court-ordered deadline – they already failed to reunite children under age five with their families. Almost 1,000 children – including many under age five – are still missing their parents. And with reports that hundreds of parents have already been deported, it's tragically unlikely that many of those children will see their parents anytime soon.

Share this graphic to to shame Sessions, Nielsen, and McAleenan for the cruel family separation crisis that they have failed to fix.

Trump wants to end immigration rule reuniting families

WHILE NERVES are still raw from a failed terrorist act, Donald Trump is using the actions of the man who tried to set off a bomb in a New York subway as the reason for curtailing a crucial immigration policy that reunited families.

"It is shameful to use moments of tragedy to scapegoat all immigrants and push for unrelated policies that would drastically harm immigrant communities while doing nothing for improving national security," said a statement from Asian Americans Advancing Justice. "We condemn the attack and extend sympathies to the people injured yesterday."

Akayed Ullah, who tried to set off a home-made bomb in the subway, relocated to the U.S. from Bangladesh in 2011. The bomb went off but did far less damage than he expected. The most injured three nearby commuters but severely injured Ullah. 

The federal government Monday charged Ullah with trying to use a bomb to commit a terrorist act.

RELATED: GOP immigration plans part of 'white nativist' agenda

Trump  wants to revise the country's chain migration policy, popular with Asian immigrants because it allows immigrants to sponsor other close relatives' entry into the U.S.

"Today's terror suspect entered our country through extended-family chain migration, which is incompatible with national security," he said in a White House statement on Monday (Dec. 11).

Two-thirds of Asian/Americans and Pacific Islanders are immigrants, and 92 percent of Asian/Americans are immigrants or the children of immigrants. The majority of Asian immigrants entered the U.S. through the family-based immigration system, and many Asian immigrants that come on employment-based (so called “merit-based”) visas are invested in their jobs and communities because they are able to use the family-based system to reunite with their family members.

"The administration’s attempt to use the attack is a blatant attempt to undermine immigrant families and communities. The more than 43 million immigrants living in the U.S., including their families, enrich our economy and society," stated AAAJ. 

"We call on Congress to reject the administration’s scapegoating of immigrant families and to swiftly pass the clean DREAM Act.”

Akayed Ullah, who tried to set off a home-made bomb in the subway, relocated to the US from Bangladesh in 2011. The bomb went off but did far less damage than he expected. The most severely injured was Ullah himself and he injured three others. The federal government charged Ullah with trying to us a bomb to commit a terrorist act.

According to authorities, 27-year old Ullah entered the U.S. on an F43 visa issued on the basis he has a family connection to an American citizen. He is a legal permanent resident, a step towards full citizenship.

Law enforcement officials have not announced a motive for Ullah's act but the investigation continues.

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