HERE is an interesting statistic from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI): In the year 2012, “the US Department of Labor recovered $280 million in back pay for 308,000 workers. That amount – a small fraction of the total wage theft nationwide – far exceeded the total [amount of $139 million] lost to criminals in street…
ON March 4, 2013, the Final Rule on Provisional Unlawful Presence Waivers for Certain Immediate Relatives took effect. The new law provided a significant benefit to spouses, children and parents of U.S. citizens by allowing them to apply for provisional unlawful presence waivers before they leave the United States. This process allows individuals, who only…
YOU have just lost an audit and have decided to bring your case before the appeals office of the IRS. You have learned the basics of the appeals process and how to prepare for the conference from previous articles. Let me now give you 10 strategies as you face the Appeals Officer: 1. Respect the…
WITH the USICE Prosecutorial Discretion program under way, thousands of cases pending before the US Immigration Courts and Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) are ripe for review to determine whether such cases should be terminated or administratively closed and the Respondents in those proceedings should be allowed to stay and work legally in the US….
WHAT a noble trade, the sweeper’s trade. It consists of sweeping the filth we produce, of making our existence less infected. Mindless and ungrateful are those who use the word sweeper in a disparaging way, who do not understand how extraordinary and how precious the sweepers are. We would die of stench and shame and…
REMEMBERING Barbara Brown Taylor’s book, “An Altar in World,” I caught myself saying to a friend as we were driving along California coast that the world is my “tabernacle.” By these words, I was referring to my favorite form of prayer. Absolutely, I like to pray inside a church, before the Blessed Sacrament, or in…
The Save Power Day will take place July 14. Customers who are enrolled in the program can earn up to $100 in bill credits each year. You may have noticed your thermometer hitting the 90-plus degree mark the past few days, as high temperatures continue to blanket Southern California. As a result, Southern California Edison (SCE)…
The road to success has always been hurdled with enormous encumbrances and impediments to test one’s endurance and capability to survive. We’re all brought to this world destined to bear what’s in store for us. The critical challenge for continuous existence only extenuates after putting in an empowering amount of persuasive assiduousness and wholehearted dedication…
About a year ago, we discussed inadmissibility under INA 212(a)(6)(C)(i), which bars an alien from receiving a visa or admission into the U.S. if this alien has previously obtained or attempted to obtain a visa, other documentation, admission or other benefit under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), by means of fraud or by willfully…
Not a week goes by that our office receives inquiries as to whether a comprehensive immigration reform, or any type of immigration reform, is likely to happen soon. As immigration attorneys, we are hopeful that the government will come up with a workable solution for many concerned and hardworking aliens. But until such solution takes…
LOS ANGELES – Filipino groups in Los Angeles recently signed on for a letter of petition asking the US government for administrative relief to address the country’s broken immigration system. Among the things asked by the petition was the immediate designation of the Philippines with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), as way of helping the country…
Employment based EB-3 and OW also advances The August 2014 Visa Bulletin provides great news for Filipinos petitioned as single children of US citizens (F-1), as the priority date move forward from January 1, 2003 to June 1, 2004. Workers petitioned in the third preference (professional/skilled worker) and other (unskilled) worker categories, also had a…
ATTENTION girls—handsome actor, model and singer Sam Milby is available, single and still searching for the right girl. Mind you, he is not just looking for a one-night stand, or a temporary relationship. He is in fact looking for a more permanent, long-term thing. In an interview with PEP.ph last July 7, Sam admitted that…
South San Francisco—The Philippine American Press Club, U.S.A. (PAPC) proudly announced that they are now accepting submissions to the 3rd Annual Plaridel Awards excellence in Filipino American journalism. The Plaridel Awards was established in 2012 to acknowledge and celebrate the contribution of outstanding writers and publishers in the Filipino American community, as they chronicle the…
THE Philippines will not be a free and independent country that it is today if it wasn’t for the groundwork laid out by a valiant organization formed more than a century ago. On July 7 1892, Filipinos formed Katipunan or Ang Kataastaasang, Kagalanggalang, Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (KKK) ng mga anak ng Bayan…
IF YOU are active in social media, you may have already seen the video or read about the shocking incident involving a Catholic priest from Cebu, who humiliated a 17-year old mother during the solemn sacrament of baptism of her baby in front of the public to witness. Fortunately, the baby’s Lola was able to…
IF YOU haven’t heard of BUB, you will be seeing a lot of its effects in the next several months leading up to the 2016 elections — P20.1 billion worth of effects. BUB is supposed to stand for Bottom Up Budgeting, which, in turn, is supposed to mean allocating funds according to the needs of…
AS WE continue to go through turbulent economic times, a lot of people are in a state of panic and anxiety. Thousands of families are overwhelmed with the difficult choices and situations that they face. The questions that I am often asked are: “Will my family’s increasing debt load result in bankruptcy?” “What happens if…
Where fishermen tossed their rods, where women laundered cloths and washed dishes, where children jumped off a bridge—that was Pasig River. Pasig River was a major source of food and water. It was a center for livelihood which made its banks a favorite site for residences of the rich. In fact, even the government elevated…
LOS ANGELES – The jury trial for a Filipino man suspected of killing three people in an Ohio bar shooting was moved to a month later than the original schedule. On July 7, a Sandusky county judge ruled that 33-year old Igmidio Mista’s jury trial be moved from August 4 to September 8, 2014. The…
THE apple that fell far from the tree…one I could only dream of—a perfect newshen. God’s little pencil. I would have taught her to begin each work by having a real and passionate curiosity about how people behave in the infinitely various situations they find themselves in. To be aware that no art can be…
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A neurologist testified Monday that Donald Sterling likely has Alzheimer’s disease as a trial over the $2 billion Los Angeles Clippers sale finally got underway. Dr. Meril Sue Platzer testified that she was hired by Sterling’s wife, Shelly Sterling, to evaluate him and made the diagnosis based on imaging tests and…
Lack of protection and benefits, family’s continuing needs, cited as factors preventing retirement LOS ANGELES – A policy report authored by three Calfiornia-based researchers found that most Filipino elderly caregivers work past retirement age due to lack of employment protection and benefits, their inability to save up for retirement, and the continuing need to provide…
The Filipino-Americans of Northern California Organization (FANCO) honored some Filipino priests with a despedida-bienvenida party at the Ignacio Community Center in Novato last June 22. The Catholic Archdiocese of San Francdisco made some reshuffling of its Filipino personnel. From l-r: Fr. Honesto Gile Jr, former administrator of Our lady of Loretto in Novato, will go…
If there is a topic both sophisticated enough to be the talk over a hotel table or common enough to be heard along the hallways of a wet market, it would be: “Philippine’s Superstar, to be or not to be a National Artist?” If ever the circumstances permit, Nora Cabaltera Villamayor, popularly known as Nora…
I CAN never quell stirs of fascination, dread and longing when the house lights dim and the curtain parts, but the enjoyment of an opera can begin, not with the rise of the curtains, but with the first bars of the overture. To understand and enjoy the opera is the recognition of certain irreconcilable differences…
RESPONDING to the clamor for Malacanang to explain why Nora Aunor was not given the honor of being recognized as Philippine national Artist, President Noynoy Aquino explained and let me quote him in full: “Iyong first of all, for the record, iyong tatay ko isa sa mga fans ni Nora Aunor at pati ako humahanga…
IN THE last two weeks, 3 clients with state court cases in their late stages based on complaints for very large amounts arising from business transactions sought bankruptcy relief. One already had a judgment for $4.0 million. The other had a tentative judgment after trial where debtor was not represented by counsel, for $800,000, and…
INA 237(a)(1)(H), commonly known as the fraud waiver, provides relief to lawful permanent residents (LPR) and battered spouse self-petitioners in removal proceedings. To understand this waiver, we must first examine some related provisions. Under INA 212(a)(6)(C)(i), an alien is inadmissible if he has previously obtained or attempted to obtain a visa, other documentation, admission or…
AS you know, cancellation of debt income can surface from the foreclosure of your residence or any other real property. Like adding salt to an open wound, you are then faced with debt forgiveness income from the cancellation of debt on the mortgage of your property that has just been foreclosed. The bank issues a…
