WESTWOOD – Acclaimed journalist and spokesperson for undocumented peoples Jose Antonio Vargas said the voices of Filipinos are missing in the comprehensive immigration reform debate and it’s time to be heard.
“Is the Filipino-American community as awake as they should be when it comes to this? I don’t think they are,” said Vargas during a youth immigration conference at UCLA on Saturday, June 1.
“I don’t think we’re as civically and politically involved as we should be and that is a real shame, a real tragedy,” he said.
Vargas spoke to more than 1,000 undocumented students during The Immigrant Youth Empowerment Conference last Saturday, June 1, at the University of California Los Angeles.
Hosted by IDEAS, the undocumented student group at UCLA, the Filipino Pulitzer Prize winner was the keynote speaker for the conference. The symposium provides undocumented youth education and resources available to them that weren’t accessible before, said Vargas.
“Can you imagine if you had more clinics like this where you can have undocumented college students coming together?,” Vargas asked.
More events like this would encourage undocumented students to attend college and inform their parents that resources are available to them, he said specifically targeting the Filipino community.
Vargas said the Filipino community has to rid itself of the shame of having undocumented people within the community.
“What do Filipinos call undocumented Filipinos? Tago ng tago or TNT. People like me should be in hiding,” he said. “The community has to get rid of that shame.”
Vargas points out that the comprehensive immigration reform bill (if passed, as is) will have serious consequences to many members of the community.
The bill eliminates family-based visas for siblings and the adult children of US citizens.
The Migration Policy Institute found 87 percent of Filipino-born lawful permanent residents in 2011 obtained green cards through family-based petitions.
“Half of my family wouldn’t be here without the sibling category,” said Vargas. “And now it’s going to be gone.”
The MPI American Community Survey in 2011 found about 65 percent of Filipino immigrants were naturalized US citizens. That statistic is significantly greater than the estimated share among all immigrants, which was about 45 percent.
“I think this is the time for our community to empower and organize ourselves, and talk to each other,” Vargas said.
“Immigration is the most fundamentally misunderstood issue in America today. Are Filipino parents and grandparents talking to their kids about how they got here? Do we even know how we got here?
“That I think is important. I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or Republican, I’m not privileged enough to be one. I can’t vote. I have no papers.”
“I just want you to be involved, as you can possibly b,e because silence is no longer enough. Being Filipnio in America is more than just buying a nice house and driving a nice car and sending balikbayan boxes and watching TFC.”
“It means being involved, engaged, voting, honoring this privilege in America and having papers. I think those are things people in our community have taken for granted,” Vargas added.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend June 8-11, 2013 Sec. A pg.1)