In June 2011, the New York Times published the heart touching story of Jose Antonio Vargas, (a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist), where he admits his status as an undocumented immigrant in the US. The story is moving and perhaps captures the condition of many such Filipinos, who have wanted to live the American dream and make the US their home. The story is that of a young man who is committed to being an American, but being a journalist is forced to keep his true identity in the shadows. Jose Antonio Vargas writes:
“I decided then that I could never give anyone reason to doubt I was an American. I convinced myself that if I worked enough, if I achieved enough, I would be rewarded with citizenship. I felt I could earn it. I’ve tried. Over the past 14 years, I’ve graduated from high school and college and built a career as a journalist, interviewing some of the most famous people in the country. On the surface, I’ve created a good life. I’ve lived the American dream.
But I am still an undocumented immigrant. And that means living a different kind of reality. It means going about my day in fear of being found out. It means rarely trusting people, even those closest to me, with who I really am. It means keeping my family photos in a shoebox rather than displaying them on shelves in my home, so friends don’t ask about them. It means reluctantly, even painfully, doing things I know are wrong and unlawful. And it has meant relying on a sort of 21st-century underground railroad of supporters, people who took an interest in my future and took risks for me…”
Ever since the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965, there has been a large influx of Filipinos to the US and plenty of them have settled in the Bay Area. But in spite of the number of years since the act and the free American society, the problems faced by the Filipinos (who are incidentally one of the most populous Asian groups in America) haven’t really reduced.
The Filipinos as a race face several problems related to immigration and compared to other Asian cultures and like them too, the Filipinos have their own have distinctive problems. Problems with issues such as family immigrations dealing with that of visa s for parents, marriage, visas for the fiancée, etc are regular matters of worry. The community which has a large population of nurses in the US also faces issues related to employment based immigration.
Considering the fact that migration of Filipinos to the US is rather large, their problems are crucial while some of challenges faced by these immigrants are age old, others are completely new. Problems such as increased immigration regulations, complex work environments, paperless records, new disease management concepts, are some of the specific problems faced by Filipino immigrants.
Keeping these problems in mind, the Shah Peerally law Group PC, headquartered in the Bay area, seeks to intervene on behalf of the Filipino community and help them resolve some of these issues.
Headed by Shah Peerally, attorney at law, the firm is planning to create a platform that will address the specific problems of the Filipino community and help them air their issues and problems. Shah Peerally law Group PC which have their in house radio show where you can hear Shah Peerally speak on specific issues related to Immigration problems of the immigrants. Besides this the Shah Peerally law Group PC wants to air the problems of the Filipino community and bring draw people s attention to these issues through the medium of TV and Internet services. The Shah Peerally law Group PC which has dealt with many such immigration issues, is confident that they can help out the members of this community.
For details and any advice on specific issues you can call-
Call us: (510) 742-5887 OR Email: [email protected]