LOS ANGELES – Filipino community and immigrant rights groups gathered outside the Philippine Consulate General (PCG) in Los Angeles on Tuesday, December 10, for a candlelight vigil, to commemorate International Human Rights Day by remembering the Typhoon Haiyan victims and appealing for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for undocumented Filipino immigrants.

Community members and leaders held a moment of silent prayer with a candlelight vigil, followed by the signing a Relief 2 Recovery petition for granting TPS.

During the candlelight vigil, undocumented caregiver Martin (not his real name), shared his sentiments about his family in Tacloban and about TPS.

“My family in Tacloban lost everything. They are currently helpless. I didn’t expect the massive storm came to our city. I hope the US government [would] grant TPS to undocumented Pinoys like me. I came here in 2001 and haven’t gone back to the Philippines because of my immigration status,” Martin said.

Anthony Ng, policy advocate under human rights unit from Asian American Advancing Justice-LA), says that there are 1.3 million undocumented Asians in the US, with Filipinos in the top five among undocumented immigrant groups.

“All Philippine consul generals in the US went to the Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. for a meeting on Temporary Protected Status. They are finding ways on how to convince the Philippine government to send formal request to the Obama administration to grant Filipino nationals for TPS,” Ng said.

The candlelight vigil was sponsored by Pilipino Workers Center (PWC), Asian-Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles (Advancing Justice-LA), Filipino Migrant Center (FMC), Association of Filipino Workers (AFW) and Los Angeles Workers In Action.

(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend December 21-24, 2013 Sec A pg.5)