Rebuild the Philippines! Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Filipinos in the US!

Nationally-coordinated actions calling for immigration relief for Filipinos

Damayan is among several Filipino organizations across the United States  leading a broad coalition of organizations to announce nationally coordinated actions to call for humanitarian immigration relief for Filipinos in the United States through Temporary Protected Status (TPS). TPS would ensure that Filipinos in the U.S. would be protected from deportation and granted work authorization to enable them to continue working.

These actions follow weeks of fundraising and relief efforts, coordinated by these same groups that have successfully raised tens of thousands of dollars for on-the-ground operations serving survivors in directly affected areas. Damayan continues to raise funds through the Sagip-Tulong sa Pilipinas (STP) Relief Campaign.

Typhoon Yolanda followed on the heels of the deadly Bohol earthquake and had devastating effects on the Philippines and upon relatives and friends of Filipinos and Filipino Americans in the U.S. This human calamity, national in scale, is only beginning to be realized. Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos have been displaced, families torn apart, children orphaned, refugees within their own country. While certain regions of the Visayas are most severely affected, the repercussions are felt throughout the entire country. For the Philippines to reabsorb thousands of its nationals currently abroad during this national emergency would only burden an already strained infrastructure.

Groups from around the country are calling upon the Aquino Administration in the Philippines to formally request TPS and other humanitarian measures of the Obama Administration, and for the Obama Administration to grant these measures immediately.

On Wednesday, December 4, coordinated press conferences will be held in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, with other cities joining the efforts and additional actions taking place the following week. A sign-on letter and petition urges President Aquino to take immediate action on the issue, and an online and social media campaign is also underway.

To sign-on, participate or get involved, please contact Aquilina Soriano Versoza in Los Angeles (aqui@pwcsc.org) or Leah Obias in New York (leah@damayanmigrants.org).