WHY TPS MATTERS TO US ALL

They are often referred to, half-jokingly, as TNTs, the Tagalog acronym for Tago ng Tago (hiding and hiding) or Takot na Takot (very afraid). But it is no laughing matter to be a Filipino out of lawful immigration status in the U.S., constantly hiding from immigration authorities and always anxiously fearful of being deported back to the Philippines. They often work for the lowest wages as domestic servants or caregivers, and reside with their employers or in cheap, overcrowded housing. Despite their abject living conditions, they still somehow manage to remit money back to their relatives in the Philippines.
They had pinned their hopes for legalization on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill backed by Pres. Obama which passed the U.S. Senate (S. 744) on June 27, 2013 by a vote of 68-32. It would have offered legal status and a “path to citizenship” to them and the rest of the 11 million “illegals” in the U.S. But the immigration reform bill has languished in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives because of Republican fears that the bill’s beneficiaries would vote for Democrats once they become U.S. citizens, a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The only hope now for the TNTs is TPS – Temporary Protected Status – a humanitarian provision of U.S. immigration law that allows the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – without the approval of Congress – to designate the citizens of a particular country, who are already in the U.S., for special benefits because of a natural or civil calamity in their home country. The benefits include protection from deportation, employment authorization and permission to visit their home country for emergency travel.
In the last decade alone, the U.S. has granted TPS to Honduras, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Syria.
Despite all the natural calamities that have struck the Philippines in recent years, TPS was never requested until Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda struck on November 8, 2013, the deadliest Philippine typhoon on record, killing at least 6,300 people. It was the strongest storm ever recorded at landfall with the strongest wind speed in recorded history (195MPH). The storm surge caused catastrophic destruction in the Visayas, particularly in Samar and Leyte. According to UN officials, about 11 million people were affected – many left homeless.
The first call for the DHS to designate the Philippines for TPS came from the Washington DC-based Migrant Heritage Commission (MHC) which sent a letter to Pres. Obama on November 11, 2013 when the magnitude of the Super Typhoon’s damage was just beginning to emerge with photos of Tacloban eerily similar to those of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the atom bombs were dropped on those cities.
As scenes of Haiyan’s catastrophic devastation flashed on TV screens throughout the US, a bipartisan group of 20 US Senators led by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) joined the call for TPS to be granted to the Philippines. In their letter to Pres. Obama, they wrote:
“Victims of Typhoon Haiyan clearly meet the eligibility requirements for TPS, and we urge you to extend this designation as soon as possible. The United States has demonstrated its commitment to assisting the Philippines with the recovery effort through foreign aid, military assistance and relief supplies, but we must also assist the victims’ families in whatever way possible.”
On November 21, 2013, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) introduced H.R. 3602, the Filipino Temporary Protected Status Act of 2013, to express “the sense of Congress that the extraordinary and temporary conditions caused by flooding and other catastrophic damage wrought by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines qualifies the Philippines for designation under section 244 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, pursuant to which nationals of the Philippines would be eligible for temporary protected status in the United States”.
Over 200 Filipino American community organizations throughout the US endorsed the call for TPS for the Philippines including the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), US Pinoys for Good Governance, the National Alliance of Filipino Concerns (NAFCON), the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), the Pilipino Workers Center and the Relief2Recovery Alliance. Fil-Am Republicans and Democrats set aside their partisan differences to support TPS for the Philippines.
Just consider the economics of TPS: if 200,000 Filipino TNTs, who were already remitting $200 a month to the Philippines despite working poorly paid jobs, were to be granted employment authorization and able to work for the minimum wage of $9.00 an hour in California ($10.50 in San Francisco), they could easily remit at least $500 more a month to the Philippines. This would translate to $100 million a month or $1.2 billion a year. If there are 300,000 TNTs, as the DHS suspects, then the amount would rise to $150 million a month or $1.8 billion a year. It would be a gift that would keep on giving.
In his memorandum submitted to the DHS, J.T. Mallonga of the Filipino American Legal Defense and Education Fund (FALDEF) explained that “remittances sent home by migrants to developing countries,” according to a study of the World Bank, “are equivalent to more than three times the size of official development assistance.” These remittances would add significantly to the $47.4 million of humanitarian aid pledged by the United States. With a U.N. Humanitarian Action Plan request of $301 million from the global community to rebuild the areas affected by Haiyan, remittances will contribute significantly to rebuilding efforts.”
On December 13, 2013, Ambassador Jose L. Cuisia Jr. formally conveyed to Rand Beers, then acting Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, Pres. Aquino’s formal request for TPS to be granted to the Philippines.
[To be concluded next week].
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