Chess champion Wesley So becomes a US citizen
SUPER Grandmaster Wesley So is now a United States citizen. The 27-year-old U.S. chess champion was sworn-in as a citizen on Feb. 26, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)…
Category: Dateline USA
Covering the week’s most noteworthy news stories impacting the lives of the Filipino-American community in the United States of America.
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GoFundMe launches #StopAsianHate initiative to benefit community organizations
WITH the rise in violence against Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), GoFundMe this week launched the #StopAsianHate initiative, a centralized hub of fundraisers that will benefit the community. The…
What Biden’s US Citizenship Act of 2021 will do for family immigration
WHEN Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Rep. Linda Sanchez of California first introduced the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 in Congress on Feb. 18, the general consensus…
After House approval, US Senate prepares to take up $1.9 trillion bill later this week
AMERICANS may be closer to receiving the long-awaited first COVID-19 stimulus checks of the new administration as the U.S. Senate moves forward on making a decision on President Joe Biden’s…
PH Embassy: Fil-Ams advised to exercise ‘utmost caution’ amid hate, attacks vs Asians
THE Philippine Embassy in Washington is urging Filipinos in the United States to exercise “utmost caution” following the recent string of attacks on Asian Americans. In its statement released on…
US tops 500K COVID deaths
HALF a million people in the United States have lost their lives to the novel coronavirus. According to a Reuters tally of public health data, the country logged more than…
USCIS reverts to 2008 version of citizenship test
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it will be reverting to the 2008 version of the naturalization civics test beginning March 1, 2021. The agency on…
Lawmakers denounce spike in anti-Asian hate, call for more government action
DEMOCRATIC lawmakers on Friday, February 19 denounced the recent slew of attacks against Asian Americans and pushed for more action from the Department of Justice to prevent future incidents. The…
House Dems formally introduce sweeping immigration legislation
The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 includes an 8-year pathway to citizenship for millions of eligible undocumented individuals Nearly a month after President Joe Biden introduced a sprawling immigration proposal,…
Biden admin urged to reestablish White House Initiative on AAPIs
AMID the surge in hate crimes and other issues the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community continues to face during the pandemic, a grassroots organization is calling on the…
The ACA marketplace is open again for insurance sign-ups. Here’s what you need to know
by Michelle Andrews FOR people who’ve been without health insurance during the pandemic, relief is in sight. In January, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to open up the…
Biden, Democrats’ immigration reform bill: A slow start toward pro-immigrant policy, experts say
IMMIGRATION reform, a term that has become synonymous with political gridlock and ideological barriers to entry, may finally be on the horizon after decades of unsuccessful attempts from both Democrats…
AAPI groups demand action amid recent anti-Asian assaults, discrimination
AS the Lunar New Year kicks off, the atmosphere among the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community is hardly a celebratory one. A disturbing string of recent violent assaults…
‘Safety should be the priority’: Fil-Am teachers respond to calls to reopen schools without vaccinations
AS COVID-19 vaccinations continue to be distributed across the country, the debate over whether schools should reopen came to a head this week when the head of the Centers of…
Indian Fil-Am millennial joins VP Harris’ team as policy advisor
As the Biden-Harris administration pledges diverse staffing to reflect the country, several individuals of Filipino descent have been named to key roles to help shape policies across the federal government….
AAPI community celebrates new admin with virtual gala
THE Biden-Harris administration is well underway with putting its policies into place, but celebrations of the new leadership and record voter turnout in the 2020 election haven’t stopped. The Asian…
FUN-USA aims to promote Filipino pride and dignity
THE Filipino United Network-USA (FUN-USA), a United States humanitarian foundation, is expanding its network from the East to Las Vegas as it continues to pursue its objective of saving the…
Biden signs executive order eliminating Trump-era barriers to legal immigration
UNITED States President Joe Biden signed a trio of executive orders on Tuesday, Feb. 2 that aim to undo former President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, including addressing family separation…
PH lauds United States for rejoining Paris climate deal
THE Philippine Department of Finance has welcomed the United States’ decision to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. Reentering the international treaty on climate change was one of U.S. President Joe…
Fil-Am journalist Jose Antonio Vargas unveils new book exploring racial identity
The book will follow his best-selling 2018 memoir ‘Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen’ At a time when the world is working to undo traditionally destructive and exclusionary perspectives…
Biden signs executive order denouncing anti-Asian racism, hate amid COVID
PRESIDENT Joe Biden signed four executive orders on Tuesday, January 26 aimed at pushing racial equity, including one to combat xenophobia and racism against Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs),…
Biden admin appoints Fil-Ams to key roles
SHORTLY after taking his oath of office on January 20, President Joe Biden appointed acting heads of federal and development agencies, and among them is Gloria Steele who will serve…
‘They’re more unified by what they’re against than what they’re actually for’: Breaking down the growing influence of QAnon, far-right conspiracies
FOLLOWING the violent insurrection at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, concern over the impact of far-right and radical groups on American democracy became an urgent issue. Hundreds of…
US imposes travel restrictions on several countries with virus variant
UNITED STATES President Joe Biden has reinstated travel restrictions on most non-U.S. citizens who have been in Britain, Brazil, Ireland and much of Europe to slow the transmission of the…
Vaccine ramp-up squeezes COVID testing and tracing
By Bernard Wolfson / California Healthline California Gov. Gavin Newsom, under growing pressure to jump-start a faltering COVID-19 vaccine rollout, jetted to Los Angeles on Jan. 15 to unveil a massive…
Fil-Am appointed White House liaison for Office of Personnel Management
FILIPINO American millennial Jason Tengco has been tapped to be the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s White House liaison, the Biden-Harris administration announced on Monday, January 25. The OPM serves…
Immigration reform among Pres. Biden’s first directives
The word ‘alien’ to be removed from immigration laws, Congress directed to provide pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients AFTER the historic inauguration on Jan. 20, President Joe Biden followed…
Amb. Romualdez: PH-US relations to run smoothly under Biden administration
Duterte extends ‘warmest greetings’ to new leadership THE relations between the Philippines and the United States will continue to run smoothly under the administration of newly sworn-in President Joe Biden,…
‘Democracy has prevailed’: Biden becomes president of the United States, Harris breaks barriers as VP
Harris is the first woman, Black and Asian American in nation’s second-highest office SHORTLY before noon on Wednesday, January 20, Joe Biden became the 46th president of the United States…
Relieved, but still cautious: Fil-Am health care workers get second dose of COVID-19 vaccine
LAST month, Eva Teniola kicked off Sacramento, California’s vaccination campaign as she became the city’s first health care worker to receive a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Three weeks later,…