The Immigration Reform

by Dr. Arcelita Imasa

What is going on with immigration reform?
– Reader

Dear Reader,

Thank you for your question!

Did you know that about 80% of all undocumented immigrants in the United States have lived here for more than a decade, building families and lives in this country, working hard and paying taxes, yet continuously are forced to live, and work, in the shadows without legal protections?

This includes roughly 500,000 Filipino immigrants who have no legal path to work permits or citizenship as no path exists at this time. We all know that the waiting time for most Filipinos to possibly get a visa to the US is more than 20 years.

Our immigration system is outdated and broken. Some politicians have vilified immigrants both legal and those without documents and unjustly and unfairly blamed for things such as taking jobs from citizens, committing high rates of crime, and being a burden on taxpayers.

While none of these charges are true, immigrants are once again being weaponized by some politicians and are used as scapegoats for many of society’s ills.

As the presidential elections grow nearer, we expect the demonizing of immigrants will only worsen.

This means there will likely be no meaningful efforts to fix our outdated and broken immigration system. It also likely means that hate crimes committed against immigrants will continue to rise.

Recently two Filipino families in Southern California were victims of hate crimes.

In one case, the family was harassed while in their car in the drive-through line at McDonalds. The harassment escalated and the father of the family was physically assaulted.

In another incident, a Filipino man was physically attacked and seriously injured while taking pictures near the California Capitol in Sacramento.

While we must stand up to hate crimes we must also continue to push for just and humane immigration reform.

The Hawaii Workers Center is part of a national effort calling on President Biden to use his executive authority to grant work permits through advance parole to long-term undocumented workers and workers of mixed immigration status who have been positive contributors and part of our communities for decades.

This would be a powerful motivation to inspire eligible naturalized immigrant voters, and their allies to turn out to vote in November and ensure that we defeat a fascist alternative that will set our struggle for worker justice and immigrant justice back for many years.

Hope that was helpful.

Thank you,
Hawaii Workers Center

DR. ARCELITA IMASA is a practicing family physician and the secretary of the Hawaii Workers Center’s Executive Committee of the Board. She grew up in the Philippines before migrating to Hawaii with her family more than a decade ago.