Trump to unveil immigration, visa restrictions — reports

President Donald Trump will sign executive orders starting Wednesday restricting refugees, visas and immigration, making good on his signature campaign pledges, US media reported.

Trump is due to speak Wednesday to employees at the Department of Homeland Security — which handles immigration — and sign orders there on refugees and national security, according to The Washington Post and CNN.

“Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow. Among many other things, we will build the wall!” Trump tweeted late Tuesday.

Trump launched his presidential campaign with a promise to build a wall along America’s long — and porous — southern border with Mexico, coupled with a tough immigration stance.

He also called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” until authorities can better screen those who come into the country.

What remains unclear is how the orders would be implemented by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, who told his confirmation hearing that the border wall might not “be built anytime soon.”

On Thursday, Trump is expected to sign executive orders on immigration and on so-called sanctuary cities, where local officials refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities on such things as handing over illegal immigrants for deportation.

The orders would restrict immigration and access to the United States for refugees and visa holders from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, according to the Post, which noted that citizens from many of these countries already face big obstacles in obtaining US visas.

Immigration experts told the newspaper that the orders would stop all admissions of refugees for 120 days, including those seeking shelter from Syria’s brutal civil war, and a 30-day halt to issuing immigrant and non-immigrant visas to people from some countries with Muslim majorities.

The Post cited people familiar with the matter as saying that Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon, his attorney general pick Jeff Sessions and other senior advisers were heavily involved in discussions about the orders.

Trump has also controversially vowed to scrap the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which his predecessor Barack Obama instituted in 2012.

The program allows more than 750,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the country as young children to live and work in the United States without fear of deportation.

But whether, and how, Trump addresses DACA this week was unclear.

“Many options are being worked through on DACA,” the Post quoted a White House official as saying.

In addition to the border wall, Trump also wants to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, warning last week that he would abandon the pact unless the United States gets “a fair deal.”

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto vowed on Monday that there would be “neither confrontation nor submission” in the negotiations, which will include trade, immigration and other issues.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Trump vows to immediately deport up to three million immigrants

WASHINGTON, United States — Donald Trump will keep his vow to deport millions of undocumented migrants from the United States, he said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday, saying as many as three million could be removed after he takes office.

“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million — we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate,” Trump said in an excerpt released ahead of broadcast by CBS’s 60 Minutes program.

The billionaire real estate baron made security at the US-Mexico border a central plank of his insurgent presidential campaign, which resulted in last Tuesday’s shock election victory against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump added that the barrier to be erected on the US border with Mexico may not consist entirely of brick and mortar, but that fencing could be used in some areas.

“There could be some fencing,” Trump says in his first primetime interview since being elected president last week.

“But (for) certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. I’m very good at this, it’s called construction,” he tells CBS. CBB

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

50 years after King's speech, economic equality remains elusive - Fil-Ams

Fifty years ago, civil rights activist Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. intoned how race continued to separate Americans, how black men and white men remained unequal and how the “Negro is still not free.”

But he had a dream.

His hopeful dream was that one day his four little children “will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” and that every American is equal before society and the law.

Last week, tens of thousands of people gathered in the nation’s capital to reflect on his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech and commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington where he ruminated about his “dream.” Filipino Americans who were out at National Mall or watched the event on television said King’s message remains relevant to this day. Like many other minorities, they said FilAms are still struggling to achieve economic justice, and equal opportunities in jobs and education.

Marita Etcubanez
Director of Programs
Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC

We had a sizable contingent of Filipino Americans for the 50th Anniversary March. Several of us marched representing the advocacy organizations we work for. We know that the pursuit of justice is ongoing. There is so much work that remains to be done: voting rights must be protected; we must end racial profiling; and, since immigrants’ rights are inextricably bound up with civil rights, we must reform our broken immigration system.

Our Filipino American community is one of the most impacted by our current system. We cannot leave it to others to fight for the immigration reform that we need, reform that will help immigrant families and allow the millions who are undocumented to come out of the shadows and begin working toward citizenship. Our community must answer the call and get involved.
No one group can do this alone. This was one of the messages of Dr. King’s speech 50 years ago. So I was heartened to see such diversity among the participants in the 50th Anniversary March.

Erwin de Leon,
Research Associate
Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy

Last week’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington is and should be relevant to Filipino Americans because the civil rights movement, at its core, is about fulfilling the promise of equality for all Americans.

As people of color, FilAms and other Asians also experienced discrimination and abuse. Recall the anti-Chinese movement in the 1800s which saw the lynching and murder of Chinese immigrants and resulted in the Chinese Exclusion Act. Learn about the anti-Filipino movement during the late 1920s. Do not forget the Japanese internment in the U.S. mainland during WW II or the Rescission Act of 1946 which broke the promise of veteran benefits to 250,000 Filipinos who had fought bravely for America.

Today, FilAms and other Asian Americans, while perceived as the “model minority,” share the same concerns of other people of color. Many of us are poor, unemployed, and on a daily basis, experience discrimination. Fifty years ago, Asians marched alongside African Americans. We should continue marching shoulder to shoulder with our African American, Latino and Native American sisters and brothers until the American promise if fulfilled.

Jon Melegrito
Communications Director
National Federation of Filipino American Associations

We need to empower ourselves politically so we can have a stronger voice in public policy especially on issues that affect the elderly, gays, the disabled and the millions of undocumented immigrants.

We must also recognize our role in advancing race relations by ridding ourselves of biases and fighting for equal treatment for all regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation, nationality or religion. – The FilAm

source: gmanetwork.com