US court blocks another Trump immigration initiative

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump has suffered a new legal setback after a federal judge temporarily blocked a measure that would have required immigrants to prove they had health insurance or could afford medical care.

US District Judge Michael Simon issued a 28-day restraining order during a rare Saturday session in his courtroom in Portland, Oregon, according to a copy of the decision seen by AFP. 

The new health-coverage requirement had been set to take effect on Monday.

The immigration-defense groups that had sought the injunction said the new US requirement would have been particularly onerous for low-income migrants and would unfairly favor others from wealthier countries.

The White House decried the ruling.

"It is wrong and unfair for a single district court judge to thwart the policies that the President determined would best protect the United States health care system," press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement. 

The presidential proclamation of October 4 said that only immigrants who would not "financially burden the United States health care system" would be granted visas. 

The fight against illegal immigration has been a key pillar of Trump's policies.

Several of his immigration decisions have been blocked in court. 

The Republican administration has regularly appealed adverse decisions to the Supreme Court, which twice this summer found in Trump's favor. 

But Judge Simon's 18-page ruling seemed to leave the administration with limited room to craft a dissent. 

He listed at least 5 reasons that an individual's health insurance status could not be used as the sole determiner of a person's admissibility.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Getting US green card to get tougher for Pinoy immigrants

NEW JERSEY, United States—For many Filipino immigrants, applying for a US permanent residency is tough as it is.

With a recent policy change under the administration of President Donald Trump, obtaining a green card or permanent residency just got tougher for those who may be deemed a public charge or public liability.

Immigration lawyer Michael Gurfinkel said applicants for permanent visas who fail to meet income standards or applicants who received public assistance could be rejected.

"Public charge means if a person receives certain public benefits during a 12 month period within the past three years, the Trump administration also expanded the list of benefits that a person applies for or received would make them a public charge," he said.

Among the items considered as public benefit in the Department of Homeland Security's revised definition of public charge are supplemental security income, temporary assistance to needy families, food stamps from the federal SNAP program, government-run health program Medicaid and subsidized housing.

"In the past, if a person had applied for and received those benefits they would not have been considered a public charge, now they may which would disqualify them from receiving a green card, possibly," Gurfinkel added.

For some Filipinos in New Jersey, they believed this policy change is at the center of Trump's efforts to reduce family-based legal immigration, especially for applicants coming from poor countries.

"It’s difficult enough to just come into the US and to give another aspect of difficulty to that policy eh 'di kawawa naman talaga for Filipinos who come to the US," said Lorena Mcrae of Migrante International, a global alliance of Filipino workers overseas.

Jersey City council president Rolando Lavarro said elderly Filipinos, especially war veterans applying for green card, are among those likely affected by the new policy.

"Now we’re saying, if you’re too poor, you’re not welcome here... A lot of immigrants have come here to this country, including Filipinos, through the process of family reunification," he said.

"We’ve never had a litmus test around the idea whether you’re able to pay your own way. It basically allows only the richest be able to come," he added.

If not in challenged in court, this policy change will take effect October 15.

Read more on Balitang America.

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US launches small-scale immigration raids as families hide

US authorities launched small-scale operations to arrest undocumented families over the weekend in a start to President Donald Trump's plan to deport thousands of immigrants.

The multi-day operation was expected to target around 2,000 recently-arrived families in about 10 cities who have been ordered deported by an immigration judge.

The removal operations are meant to deter a surge in Central American families fleeing poverty and gang violence in their home countries, with many seeking asylum in the United States.

Immigrants and their advocates were on standby for mass arrests, but by early evening there were reports of only a few low-profile operations in cities including New York, Denver and Miami.

"We are doing targeted enforcement actions against specific individuals who have had their day in immigration court and have been ordered removed by an immigration judge," Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Matt Albence told Fox News when asked for an update.

Mary Bauer at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said there were no confirmed operations in large southern cities such as Atlanta.

Nor were there reports of mass arrests from the American Immigration Council, which has lawyers on standby to help people taken to the country's largest family detention center in Dilley, Texas.

"Immigrants and immigrant communities all over the country are in hiding and people are living in these terrified, terrorized ways, because that is the point of this whole action, whether enforcement actions take place or not," said Bauer, the SPLC's deputy legal director.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said there were three ICE operations in his city on Saturday, with no reported arrests. He said there was no ICE activity in New York on Sunday.

In Denver, the Colorado Rapid Response Network of immigration activists said there were unconfirmed reports of ICE or police detaining 3 people on Sunday in the Potter Highlands area.

The Miami-based Florida Immigrant Coalition said immigrants were sheltering at home after ICE agents were seen in the area of the city's international airport. No arrests were reported.

"They've been stocking up on groceries and making plans to stay in their homes with the lights off and the blinds down," the group posted on Facebook. "Some are staying home from work."

An ICE spokeswoman declined to comment on operations, citing the safety of the agency's personnel.

Albence told Fox News that enforcement operations would target families who entered the country illegally then mostly failed to attend court hearings to pursue an asylum claim.

Immigration rights activists have said that in many cases immigrants do not receive proper notice of their court dates.

Democratic officials have told immigrants they have the right not to open their doors to ICE agents, unless presented with a warrant signed by a judge.

The Trump administration faces widespread criticism for housing immigrants in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions and there are concerns about migrant children being separated from adults by US authorities.

Amid protests outside many such facilities, a 69-year-old gunman was shot dead by police early on Saturday after he attacked an immigration detention center in Tacoma, Washington and set fire to at least one vehicle outside.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Washington; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Rosalba O'Brien and Susan Thomas)

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New York latest state to approve driver's licenses for illegal immigrants

Illegal immigrants to the United States will be able to obtain driver's licenses in New York under a bill passed by the state legislature on Monday and signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The state Senate in Albany voted 33-29 to approve the legislation, which previously passed in the Assembly. Democrats control both chambers of the legislature.

New York will join at least a dozen other states that allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, becoming the second most populous state after California to take that step.

Many Republicans in New York opposed the measure, which was passed after Republican President Donald Trump moved to crack down on illegal immigration on several fronts.

New York Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy in a statement said the bill was one of several measures demonstrating the state's Democrats "are in lockstep with leftist radicals and could care less about the priorities of taxpaying New Yorkers."

Cuomo, a Democrat, had expressed concern that if the bill was enacted it would create a database of undocumented immigrants that federal authorities could use to deport them.

But the New York state attorney general has declared the bill had safeguards against that, Cuomo's legal counsel, Alphonso David, said in a statement.

Cuomo signed the bill on Monday night, his spokesman Peter Ajemian said in an email. It will take effect before the end of the year, according to the text of the measure.

New York state Senator Luis Sepúlveda, the measure's Democratic sponsor, said in a statement it will benefit the children of illegal immigrants by allowing their parents to drive them to school.

"In a time when immigrants' rights and livelihoods are being severely threatened, the Green Light Bill is a clear message that we New Yorkers will always choose to lead with courage and love and to fight for everyone's right to the American Dream," Sepúlveda said.

He also said it will improve safety on the roads.

In California, hit-and-run accidents decreased after illegal immigrants were granted driver's licenses beginning in 2015, according to a study by Stanford University researchers that was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2017.

The authors of the study suggested that, before the law took effect, illegal immigrants were more likely to flee the scene of an accident because their vehicles were unregistered and they feared having them impounded.

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US ends practice that gave some immigrants reprieves from deportation

NEW YORK - US Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday barred immigration judges from a once-common practice of shelving deportation cases involving some immigrants with deep ties to the United States.

The practice known as administrative closure allowed judges to clear low-priority cases off their dockets, effectively letting some immigrants remain indefinitely in the United States despite their lack of legal status.

Under President Barack Obama there had been an effort to administratively close certain cases as a way of allowing judges to focus on higher-priority matters and reduce the immigration court backlog. More than 200,000 cases were closed during the last six years of his presidency.

The closures were routinely used for people without criminal backgrounds who had lived for many years in the United States, often with U.S. citizen children or spouses. In many cases, the immigrants became eligible for work permits.

The administration of President Donald Trump has taken a sharply different tack on immigration, declaring that all those in the country illegally, whether or not they pose a threat to public safety, are subject to deportation.

Since immigration courts fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice, the attorney general can issue opinions in immigration cases to establish legal precedent for judges across the country and the Board of Immigration Appeals.

On Thursday, Sessions issued such an order in a case in which a judge had granted administrative closure for an unaccompanied minor from Guatemala.

Before Sessions' ruling, the government or an immigrant could ask a judge to close a case. The attorney general ruled that judges "do not have the general authority to suspend indefinitely immigration proceedings by administrative closure." He said exceptions could be made in some cases, including when an immigrant has certain forms of legal status pending.

Sessions had already quietly been instituting the policy even before this announcement. Reuters reported last June that government prosecutors were moving to put cases that had been previously closed back on the court calendar.

Sessions acknowledged in the order, however, that recalendaring all cases that had been closed "would likely overwhelm the immigration courts." Immigration attorneys and advocates quickly criticized Sessions' decision. The ruling was intended "to reduce immigration judges to deportation machines," said Chuck Roth of the National Immigrant Justice Center.

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'Thanks, but no thanks': Norwegians reject Trump's immigration offer

OSLO - Many Norwegians rejected on Friday a suggestion by U.S. President Donald Trump that they would be more welcome to move to the United States than immigrants from "s***hole countries" such as Haiti or African nations.

The Nordic country, one of the richest in the world by GDP per capita, was last year named the happiest nation on the planet and is known for a cradle-to-grave welfare state funded in part by large reserves of oil and natural gas.

Trump mentioned Norway in derogatory comments about other countries of migration as U.S. senators briefed him on Thursday on a newly drafted bipartisan immigration bill, according to two sources who asked not to be identified.

One of the sources who was briefed on the conversation quoted him as saying: "Why do we want all these people from Africa here? They're s***hole countries ... We should have more people from Norway."

In one of several Twitter posts on Friday, Trump defended his stance on a bipartisan Senate immigration deal, but denied using the vulgar language ascribed to him.

"The language used by me at the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) meeting was tough, but this was not the language used," he said. He also later denied using derogatory language about Haitians.

"On behalf of Norway: Thanks, but no thanks," tweeted Torbjoern Saetre, a politician representing Norway's Conservative Party in a municipality near Oslo.

Others condemned the U.S. president's comments as inappropriate or racist.

"We are not coming. Cheers from Norway," one woman wrote.

While hundreds of thousands of Norwegians emigrated to the U.S. in the 19th century, just 502 out of a population of 5.3 million people moved there in 2016, down 59 from the previous year, according to Statistics Norway.

"Will there be more now?" the statistics agency asked in a tweet.

Government officials, seeking to deflect attention, turned down a chance to comment. "We respectfully decline the opportunity," one government official said when contacted by Reuters.

The reference to Norway may have been prompted by Prime Minister Erna Solberg who visited the White House on Wednesday when the president praised Norway for running a trade deficit with the United States and for buying U.S. military equipment.

Christian Christensen, an American professor of journalism at Stockholm University in neighboring Sweden, tweeted:

"Of course people from #Norway would love to move to a country where people are far more likely to be shot, live in poverty, get no healthcare because they're poor, get no paid parental leave or subsidized daycare and see fewer women in political power."

Before the "s***hole" controversy, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt tweeted that, judging by Solberg's visit, "keys to success with Trump is personal charm, a solid trade deficit with the U.S. and buying tons of U.S. military hardware."

Solberg, whose office also declined to comment on Trump's remarks, is expected to announce soon an expansion of her cabinet to include Norway's Liberal Party, a centrist group that favors strong environmental policies and more immigration.

"The first point of order in the new government declaration: Norway will still not be a s***hole country," tweeted Kjetil Alstadheim, the political editor of financial daily Dagens Naeringsliv.

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DACA scrapping affects 5,000 Filipino 'dreamers' in U.S.

The legal fight has begun for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals with more than a dozen states suing the Trump administration over its decision to end the Obama-era immigration policy. As Annalisa Burgos tells us, it's a battle that may decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, including Filipinos. – The World Tonight, ANC, September 7, 2017

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A Day Without Immigrants: Thousands skip work, school in anti-Trump protest

DETROIT/SAN DIEGO - Businesses shut their doors, students skipped class and thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in cities across the United States on Thursday to protest President Donald Trump's immigration policies.

Activists called "A Day Without Immigrants" to highlight the importance of the foreign-born, who account for 13 percent of the U.S. population, or more than 40 million naturalized American citizens.

Trump campaigned against the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, playing on fears of violent crime while promising to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and stop potential terrorists from entering the country.

While the number of participants in Thursday's protests could not be determined, many sympathetic business owners closed shop and working-class immigrants forwent pay for the day.

"I told my English teacher that I wasn't going to school, and she said she understood," said Rosa Castro, a 13-year-old U.S. citizen in Detroit, who marched with her 26-year-old sister, one of several undocumented family members whose future she is concerned about.

Since taking office last month, the Republican president has signed an executive order temporarily banning entry to the United States by travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries and all refugees. That order was put on hold by federal courts.

Immigrant rights groups have also expressed alarm after federal raids last week rounded up more than 680 people suspected of being in the country illegally.

In San Diego's Logan Heights neighborhood, a 44-year-old undocumented business owner who identified herself only as Lucia for fear of deportation told Reuters she closed her nutrition shop for the day, costing her $200.

"Our community is frightened and cannot speak out," she said. "Things are very bad for us with the new president."

 Advocates have called attention to cases such as one in El Paso, Texas, where federal agents arrested a transgender woman as she left a courthouse where she was seeking a protective order for domestic violence.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe wrote Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to express concern over immigration enforcement in his state, citing an NBC Washington report that agents arrested people outside a church that operates as a shelter from the cold.

Sympathy marches and rallies were held in cities including Raleigh, North Carolina, and Austin, Texas. Thousands joined demonstrations in Chicago and Detroit.

In the Los Angeles Fashion District - comprising some 4,000 apparel outlets, showrooms and manufacturers covering about 100 blocks of downtown - about half the shops in the area's retail core were closed, along with about 40 percent of one of the large flower markets in the area, said district spokeswoman Ariana Gomez.

A Southern California grocery chain, Northgate Gonzalez Markets, said it gave employees at 41 stores and the corporate headquarters permission to use paid personal time off to participate.

In Washington, more than 50 restaurants were closed, including high-end eateries.

"As far as I'm aware, all of our immigrant employees chose to take the day off," said Ruth Gresser, 57, who owns four pizza restaurants in the District of Columbia area. "We have three relative novices and an old lady making pizza," she said, referring to herself.

At the Pentagon, about half a dozen food outlets were forced to close after staff members joined the protest, a Defense Department spokesman said.

The National Restaurant Association criticized the walkouts, saying in a statement that the organizers "disrupt the workplaces of hard-working Americans who are trying to provide for their families."

In Austin, hundreds chanting "Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here" marched from City Hall to the State Capitol, where lawmakers in the Republican-controlled body are considering a measure to punish sanctuary cities that shield immigrants from federal agents.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Over 680 arrested in US immigration raids

WASHINGTON - US immigration officers have arrested more than 680 people in recent operations, 75 percent of whom have criminal records, the homeland security chief said on Monday of actions that have alarmed immigrant rights groups.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said the operations were routine and consistent with regular operations carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Immigration rights advocates say agents are deporting migrants indiscriminately and that the operations, which they describe as raids, do not take into account an immigrant's threat level or family ties to the United States.

Kelly said in a statement that crimes committed by the illegal immigrants ranged from homicide to driving under the influence of alcohol.

Some of the immigrants arrested had ignored final orders of deportation, according to ICE, the agency responsible for immigrant arrests and deportations. The agency did not specify its reasoning for a handful of immigrants other than that they were in the country illegally.

Former Democratic President Barack Obama was criticized for being the "deporter in chief" after he deported over 400,000 people in 2012, more than any president in a single year.

In 2014, Obama's homeland security chief issued a memo directing agents to focus on deporting a narrow slice of immigrants, namely those who had recently entered the country or committed serious felonies. Immigrants who were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, for example, were treated as lower priorities for deportation.

President Donald Trump promised to deport 2 million to 3 million migrants with criminal records on taking office.

At a news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday, Trump said his administration had "really done a great job" in its recent arrests of immigrants.

"We're actually taking people that are criminals, very, very, hardened criminals in some cases with a tremendous track record of abuse and problems," Trump said.

ICE said in a statement on Monday that the operations targeted immigrants in the Midwest, Los Angeles, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and San Antonio.

Not every immigrant arrested had a criminal record or prior order to leave the country, according to the data released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In Los Angeles, for example, 151 out of the 161 immigrants arrested had criminal records, but the agency did not give a reason for the arrests of the 10 migrants with no criminal record.

The immigrants' arrests followed Trump's Jan. 27 executive order temporarily banning people from seven predominantly Muslim countries and all refugees from entering the United States. That order was suspended by a U.S. district judge, in a ruling upheld by a federal appeals court.

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Trump: U.S. will win appeal of judge's travel ban order

WASHINGTON/PALM BEACH, Fla - U.S. President Donald Trump said the Justice Department will win an appeal filed late Saturday of a judge's order lifting a travel ban he had imposed on citizens of seven mainly Muslim countries.

"We'll win. For the safety of the country, we'll win," he told reporters at his private Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, shortly after the Justice Department filed a notice that it intends to appeal the order.

Trump's personal attack on U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle went too far for some who said the president was undermining an institution designed to check the power of the White House and Congress.

"The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!" Trump said on Twitter early on Saturday.

Trump has said "extreme vetting" of refugees and immigrants is needed to prevent terrorist attacks.

Throughout the day, Trump continued to criticize the decision in tweets. Late Saturday, Trump showed no signs of backing down.

"The judge opens up our country to potential terrorists and others that do not have our best interests at heart. Bad people are very happy!" he tweeted.

As the ban lifted, refugees and thousands of travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen who had been stopped in their tracks last weekend by Trump's executive order scrambled to get flights to quickly enter the United States.

The Justice Department did not say when it would file its appeal with the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of the ruling made by Robart late on Friday that also lifted Trump's temporary ban imposed on refugee admissions.

The judge appointed by former Republican President George W. Bush questioned the constitutionality of Trump's order.

The three-judge panel that will decide whether to immediately block the ruling includes appointees of George W. Bush and two former Democratic presidents, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.

Trump's tweets criticizing the judge's decision could make it tougher for Justice Department attorneys as they seek to defend the executive order in Washington state and other courts, said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, adding that presidents are usually circumspect about commenting on government litigation.

"It's hard for the president to demand that courts respect his inherent authority when he is disrespecting the inherent authority of the judiciary. That certainly tends to poison the well for litigation," Turley said.

U.S. immigration advocacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and International Refugee Assistance Project on Saturday in a joint statement urged those with now valid visas from the seven nations "to consider rebooking travel to the United States immediately" because the ruling could be overturned or put on hold. A U.S. State Department email reviewed by Reuters said the department is working to begin admitting refugees including Syrians as soon as Monday.

SEPARATION OF POWERS

It is unusual for a president to attack a member of the judiciary, which the U.S. Constitution designates as a check to the power of the executive branch and Congress. Reached by email Saturday, Robart declined comment on Trump's tweets.

Democratic U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont said in a statement Saturday that Trump's "hostility toward the rule of law is not just embarrassing, it is dangerous. He seems intent on precipitating a constitutional crisis."

"Read the 'so-called' Constitution," tweeted Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence committee.

In an interview with ABC scheduled to air on Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence said he did not think that Trump's criticisms of the judge undermined the separation of powers.

"I think the American people are very accustomed to this president speaking his mind and speaking very straight with them," Pence said, according to an excerpt of the interview.

The court ruling was the first move in what could be months of legal challenges to Trump's push to clamp down on immigration. His order set off chaos last week at airports across the United States where travelers were stranded and thousands of people gathered to protest.

Americans are divided over Trump's order. A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week showed 49 percent favored it while 41 percent did not.

Wes Parker, a retiree from Long Beach, California, held a sign saying "Trump is love" at the Los Angeles International Airport, and said he supported the tighter measures.

"We just have to support the travel pause," said Parker, 62.

"If you were a new president coming in, wouldn't you want what you feel safe with?"

Rights groups, Democrats and U.S. allies have condemned the travel ban as discriminatory. On Saturday, there were protests against the immigrant curb in Washington, New York, Los Angeles and other cities.

At the White House, hundreds of protesters chanted "Donald, Donald can't you see? You're not welcome in D.C."

TRAVELERS MOVE WITH HASTE

The sudden reversal of the ban catapulted would-be immigrants back to airports, with uncertainty over how long the window to enter the United States will remain open.

In Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, Fuad Sharef and his family prepared to fly on Saturday to Istanbul and then New York before starting a new life in Nashville, Tennessee.

"I am very happy that we are going to travel today. Finally, we made it," said Sharef, who was stopped from boarding a New York-bound flight last week.

The Department of Homeland Security said on Saturday it would return to its normal procedures for screening travelers but that the Justice Department would file for an emergency stay of the order "at the earliest possible time."

Some travelers told Reuters they were cautious about the sudden change.

"I will not say if I have hope or not. I wait, watch and then I build my hopes," said Josephine Abu Assaleh, 60, who was stopped from entering the United States after landing in Philadelphia last week with five members of her family.

"We left the matter with the lawyers. When they tell us the decision has been canceled, we will decide whether to go back or not," she told Reuters in Damascus, speaking by telephone.

Virtually all refugees also were barred by Trump's order, upending the lives of thousands of people who have spent years seeking asylum in the United States.

Friday night's court decision sent refugee advocacy and resettlement agencies scrambling to help people in the pipeline.

Iraqi refugee Nizar al-Qassab, 52, told Reuters in Lebanon that his family had been due to travel to the United States for resettlement on Jan. 31. The trip was canceled two days before that and he was now waiting for a phone call from U.N. officials overseeing their case.

"It's in God's hands," he said.

(Additional reporting by Issam Abdullah in Beirut, Dan Levine in Seattle, Alana Wise in New York, Robert Chiarito and Nathan Layne in Chicago, Daina Beth Solomon in Los Angeles, and Julia Edwards Ainsley in Washington; Writing by Roberta Rampton and David Shepardson; Editing by Bill Trott, Mary Milliken, Diane Craft and Nick Macfie)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Mexico moves to help migrants after Trump win

MEXICO - Mexico is scrambling to ready its diplomats in the United States to handle millions of undocumented migrants' potential needs following Donald Trump's election, its foreign ministry said Sunday.

The ministry's North American team huddled with Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu Saturday to "analyze the results of the US election and discuss concrete actions concerning the future of the bilateral relationship" between the two countries, according to a statement.

The meeting follows the Republican billionaire's victory last Tuesday in a campaign which saw him call illegal Mexican migrants "rapists" and pledge to build a wall along the southern US border.

Not only has Trump vowed to make Mexico pay for the wall, but he has also threatened to renegotiate the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, the United States and Canada.

Ruiz Massieu urged diplomats to get ready for a possible surge in consular assistance.

This includes help "avoiding provocations, as well as protecting against fraud," the Foreign Ministry statement said, referring to the potential for crime rings to prey on migrants by selling fake documents, for example.

The US president-elect on Sunday told CBS television that as many as three million undocumented immigrants with criminal records would be deported or incarcerated.

The United States has an estimated 11-12 million undocumented migrants, mostly of Mexican origin.

"The rights of Mexicans, inside and outside their country, are not negotiable," the Foreign Ministry stressed.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

In America's birthplace, pope gives pep talk to immigrants

PHILADELPHIA - Pope Francis, speaking in America's birthplace on Saturday, offered stout words of support to Hispanic and other immigrants in the United States, telling them not to be discouraged at a time when some prominent politicians are directing hostility toward them.

The 78-year-old Argentine pontiff toured Independence Hall in Philadelphia before addressing a crowd estimated at more than 40,000 outside the 18th century red brick building where basic American liberties were proclaimed and where independence from Britain was declared.

"Do not be discouraged by whatever challenges and hardships you face," the pope told the many Hispanics and other recent immigrants to the United States in the crowd, adding that he felt "particular affection" toward them.

During his first visit to the United States, the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics on Thursday had urged Americans in a historic speech to Congress to reject "a mindset of hostility" toward immigrants. He expanded on that issue in his Philadelphia speech, delivered in Spanish.

Francis said immigrants "bring many gifts" to their new nation.

"You should never be ashamed of your traditions," Francis said to a round of applause. "I repeat, do not be ashamed of what is part of you."

Francis noted that U.S. history includes ending slavery in the 1860s and "the gradual effort to eliminate every kind of racism and prejudice directed at successive waves of new Americans."

"Remembrance saves a people's soul from whatever or whoever would attempt to dominate it or use it for their interests," he said.

Harsh rhetoric toward illegal immigrants has featured heavily in the race for the Republican nomination for the November 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Republican front-runner Donald Trump has called for deporting all 11 million illegal immigrants, most of whom are from Latin America like the pope, and has accused Mexico of sending rapists and other criminals across the border. He and many other Republicans also are calling for the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter told the crowd before the pope's speech, "We are all immigrants. Whether we arrived 10 generations ago or 10 minutes ago, we cannot let the xenophobia and racism of some to carry the day."

The pope spoke from the lectern used by President Abraham Lincoln for his famed 1863 Gettysburg Address after the bloodiest battle of the U.S. Civil War that declared that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."

In unscripted remarks on a separate subject, the pope also said globalization is good if it does not destroy the riches and distinctiveness of peoples. He said real globalization must respect different cultures equally.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

The pope also promoted religious freedom.

"In a world where various forms of modern tyranny seek to suppress religious freedom, or try to reduce it to a subculture without right to a voice in the public square, or to use religion as a pretext for hatred and brutality, it is imperative that the followers of the various religions join their voices in calling for peace, tolerance and respect for the dignity and rights of others," the pope said.

Outside Independence Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra welcomed the pope with the thunderous timpani and soaring brass of Aaron Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" on the penultimate day of his six-day U.S. trip.

The pope traveled to Philadelphia from New York, where he flew over the Statue of Liberty and the former immigration station of Ellis Island aboard a helicopter in an unscheduled detour that gave him nostalgia for his home town Buenos Aires.

"You could see he was very, very moved," New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan told reporters. "And he said 'You know, Buenos Aires was a city of immigrants too,'" Dolan said.

Francis, the first Latin American pope, has taken up the plight of immigrants a main issue of his papacy, along with climate change, economic equality and religious freedom.

The biggest crowds of the pope's U.S. visit are expected in Philadelphia, where some 1.5 million people are set to attend a Mass led by the pontiff on Sunday before he flies back to Rome that night.

In a homily at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, Francis said the Church should give a greater role to lay members, especially women.

Although he does not support ordaining female priests, Francis urged the Church to value "the immense contribution which women, lay and religious, have made and continue to make, to the life of our communities."

(Additional reporting by Ian Simpson, Laila Kearney and Sebastien Malo; Writing by Will Dunham and Alistair Bell; Editing by Mary Milliken and Meredith Mazzilli)

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Advocates offer Ash Wednesday for detained immigrants

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - A group of Christian and immigrant rights advocates gathered near the Statue of Liberty in New Jersey on Ash Wednesday.

Kathy O’Leary of Catholic organization Pax Christi, New Jersey said, “Ellis Island is a tremendous symbol of this myth that our country is a country that welcomes immigrants and that we celebrate our immigrant heritage. And yet within a five minute drive we have over a thousand immigrants in detention.”

Ash Wednesday is a Christian feast day that marks the beginning of the season of Lent.

As they receive the blessed ashes on their foreheads as a sign of penance and repentance, they are protesting the reported inhumane treatment and deaths of undocumented immigrants inside detention facilities.

They are also praying for release of these detained immigrants.

“An immigrant who got caught living here without proper documentation — we’re filling up our jails with people who really should not be punished. People we don’t need to lock up, they’re not a threat to society,” said O’leary.

Immigrant rights advocate Bea Sabino said privately-owned detention facilities are benefiting from the arrest of undocumented immigrants.

“The federal government has contracts with the private prison corporations and how they make money of it is the way they have to fill a certain number of beds and they get reimbursed by the federal government,” said Sabino.

Meantime, immigrant rights advocates are also protesting against the Texas ruling to defer President Obama’s expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that officially starts receiving applications today.

"We’re here to stand in solidarity with prisoners, the inmates, especially the immigrants. We’re also thinking about our political prisoners in the Philippines, making sure that their rights remain intact," Sabino said.

Read more from Balitang America.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Undocumented immigrants urged to sign up for health insurance

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – As the February 15 deadline approaches to sign up for affordable health care in California, certified counselors encourage families of mixed immigration statuses to apply.

Covered California counselors have found that many families are discouraged from applying due to fear of exposing members who are undocumented.

“The family can still apply for health insurance or see what programs they qualify for and they should have no fear of their immigration status being used against them in any way,” said Covered CA certified counselor Fatima Bustos. “Everything is confidential.”

Bustos said undocumented parents with children of legal status should still apply so at least their children can be covered and receive free preventive care.

While the undocumented cannot benefit from the Affordable Health Care Act, there still is a form of insurance they can apply for.

“We do have emergency Medi-Cal which wouldn’t be full scope Medi-Cal but it would be something you need to sign up for and again we wouldn’t share anyone’s immigration status with any other agency,” said Bustos.

One undocumented Filipino, who chooses to remain anonymous, applied to take care of his family and to avoid an audit on his taxes.

“I don’t blame a lot of people like me,” he said. “They’re scared. Just give it a try. At least it’s going to benefit you in the future especially with the executive order.”

Filipino counselors are on hand to make kababayans more comfortable sharing their information, especially their immigration status.

To find the nearest certified Covered California counselor or events in your community, you can visit www.coveredca.com.

Read more on Balitang America.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Crackdown on illegal workers felt in Saudi

RIYADH - Stores in a usually bustling district of the Saudi capital were closed, construction work at some sites slowed and bakeries around the country shuttered Tuesday, amid a clampdown on illegal workers.

On Monday, authorities began arresting people overstayers who had failed to take advantage of a months-long grace period to leave or legalise their status, and detentions were continuing on Tuesday.

Residents in Riyadh said stores were closed in the popular Al-Batha commercial hub, a cheap market that employs low-paid Asian vendors.

At the same time, residents said work had slowed at a construction site in Thumamama, north of Riyadh.

And Fahd Al-Salman, chairman of the National Committee for Bakeries at the Council of Saudi Chambers, told the Arab News daily that the labour shortage had led to the closure of many bakeries in the kingdom.

Meanwhile, private schools that had closed on Monday re-opened following reassurances that expat teachers, working illegally, could remain until the end of the first school semester in December, residents said.

Nearly 4,000 people have so far been arrested in Jeddah alone, the kingdom's commercial capital, said local police spokesman Lieutenant Nawaf al-Bouq.

In the capital Riyadh, 818 illegal immigrants, including two women, were arrested on Tuesday, the police spokesman there General Nasser al-Qahtani told AFP.

In the southwestern Jazan province, border guards have arrested more than 8,000 people of various nationalities trying to cross the border to Yemen in the past 24 hours, the official SPA news agency quoted a spokesman there as saying Tuesday.

Three thousand of these have been deported as authorities are still finalising deportation procedures for the remainder, the spokesman said.

Hundreds of expatriates have also been arrested in other areas across the kingdom, according to local media.

Nearly a million Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Indians, Nepalis, Pakistanis and Yemenis, among others, took advantage of the amnesty announced on April 3 and then extended for four months, and have left the country.

Another roughly four million have legalised their situation by finding employers to sponsor them, a must to reside in most Gulf monarchies.

On Monday, illegal Indonesian workers staged a protest in the port city to protest their consulate's slow pace in handling administrative procedures needed to organise their departure, local press reported.

In the past, foreigners desperate to work in the country were willing to pay for sponsorship, and sponsoring expatriates became a lucrative business for some Saudis.

But under the new rules, workers may be employed only by their own sponsors, banning the practise of working independently or for non-sponsors.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, is seen as a goldmine for millions of people from Asia and elsewhere in the Arab world, who find work as common labourers, drivers, porters and house maids.

Expatriates account for around nine million of the country's 27-million-population.

Saudi Arabia has the Arab world's largest economy, but the unemployment rate among natives is above 12.5 percent, a figure the government is aiming to reduce.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Paying taxes may help undocumented workers get legal stay in US

CERRITOS, California - For most of the year, a personal chef who goes by the name violet, lives in the shadows.

She's been living in the US for 8 years, despite having her petition denied.

Even though she has no legal status, she comes out once a year to file her taxes.

“When we arrived here in the states we started to file our papers but unfortunately, we have a problem. But I have a good job offer so sayang din, we have a family back home, kailangan talaga mag trabaho, so our responsibility, we have to follow here, we have to pay our taxes for the government,” said Violet.

With lawmakers considering a pathway to legalization for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US, immigration advocate lawyers believe that one of the keys to a legal stay may come during tax season.

Attorney Joyce Noche of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) advises undocumented workers to file taxes as proof of residency and good moral standing.

“Tax returns are usually good evidence to show that someone's been living here in the United States, and if anything, if legalization or amnesty is passed, people will need to provide documentation of their presence in the United States, possibly going back to 5 or 7 or even 10 years, so tax returns could prove that,” said Noche.

Undocumented workers can file taxes by using a Tax ID number or TIN. To get a Tax ID Number, a tax payer needs to fill out an application on the Internal revenue service's website at irs.gov, or can get one through an accountant.

Accountant Manny Legaspi explains, the TIN is typically used by foreign investors, as well as guest workers, and employers. He says the IRS will not reveal a taxpayer's legal status to immigration officials and the use of a TIN number does not affect the amount of taxes someone would pay or refunds they would receive.

“The IRS doesn't really care, if you are a resident alien or illegal alien as long as you file your taxes. You're good,” said Legaspi.

Violet says she's filed for the past 8 years since she arrived in the US. She remains optimistic that her tax records could help prove her stay in the US, but she's also hopeful that some of her tax refunds can pay for a plane ticket for a vacation back to the Philippines, if her stay gets legalized.

The deadline to file taxes or request an extension this year is April 15 (Monday).

source: abs-cbnnews.com

Alabama's Tough Law On Immigration

MONTGOMERY, Alabama, United States (AP) — Hundreds of people packed the Alabama Statehouse courtyard on Tuesday to rally against the state's tough immigration law, with organizers saying they chose to send a message on Val-entine's Day that lawmakers need to love and respect immigrants.

People bused in from across the state to demand repeal of the law that aims to be tough on those in the country illegally.

Protesters carried signs reading, "Gov. Bentley, don't you have a heart?'' and "Una Familia, Una Alabama.'' They chanted in Spanish and English, "No more HB56'' (the bill that became the law) and "One family, one Alabama.'' They delivered lollipops and Valentines to lawmakers, urging them to strike down the law.

Legislative leaders have said they plan to introduce a bill in the coming weeks to make subtle changes to the law. However, House Majority Leader Micky Hammon, one of the sponsors of the immigration bill, said the proposal will not make major changes and is not aimed at softening the law.

Rally organizers said the changes aren't enough, and a full repeal is needed.

"Tweaks are only temporary Band-Aids, not a permanent solution,'' said Zayne Smith, a coordinator with the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice.

The wide-ranging law requires police to determine citizenship status during traffic stops and requires government offices to verify legal residency for everyday transactions like obtaining a car license, enrolling a child in school, getting a job or renewing a business license

Opponents say they'll spend more days at the Legislature lobbying against the law, parts of which have been blocked by federal courts. The law, which was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Robert Bentley, took effect in the fall. Opponents say it's hurting the state's economy and image; supporters say it's providing jobs for legal residents.

Carmen Espinoza, 17, a high school student at Montgomery Catholic, moved to the state from California last year. An immigrant from Mexico, she is in the country legally, but some friends and family members are not. She moved to live with her aunt because her family was worried about gangs and violence in southern California, she said.

"In California, there was a big Hispanic community _ we never had to deal with racism,'' Espinoza said. "Now here, when people see me, the first thing they ask is, `Do you have papers?' It's not fair. We're all equal.''

Espinoza said she saw the trailer park where she lives with her aunt and two cousins clear out almost overnight after legislators passed the law. She said illegal immigrants left 80 trailers behind with all of their possessions still inside.

Teachers have made racist comments to her cousins, calling one a "hood Mexican,'' she said. She lives in constant fear for her friends and family who are in the country illegally.

"It's a fear we all live with _ our family could be stopped because of our appearance,'' Espinoza said. ``It's horrible to live in fear.''

Her aunt, Irma Alvarez, 39, moved to Montgomery in 2008 because it was quieter than California and she thought it would be a good place to raise her two sons. She has a hard time understanding why lawmakers are targeting immigrants, she said.

source: mb.com.ph