Advocates urge Asian American permanent residents to pursue citizenship as executive orders stall

LOS ANGELES – President Barack Obama’s executive orders on immigration may be on hold for now, but Asian Americans Advancing Justice LA says that they believe the president acted within his authority and they remain confident that immigrant communities will ultimately prevail. 

As they wait for the orders to go through the judicial system, they are continuing to reach out to immigrant communities, whether documented or not. 

“We feel that the time is now to apply for citizenship if we can we think people should come forward now to get the help that they need,” said AAAJ LA Executive Director Stuart Kwoh.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice has recently opened a community center in Montery Park, east of downtown Los Angeles. The San Gabriel Valley area is home to about half a million Asian Americans, including Filipinos . Their outreach includes English and citizenship classes.

“So we hope Filipinos that want to improve their English or their civics understanding will join either our English conversation class or our civic and English class,” explained Kwoh.

Fil-Am community member Joe Bernardo who works for the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, says the city continues to prepare residents as they wait for the possibilities of the presidents executive order as well as comprehensive immigration reform.

But with those initiatives still going through legal and legislative processes, Bernardo is encouraging residents to take the available steps.

“There’s defiftely a need for citizenship,” he encouraged, also urging undocumented residents to “to take advantage in AB60 the new state drivers licenses for the undocumented. So there’s a lot of programs out there for the Filipino community to take advantage of that helps them economically and socially.”

You can contact Steve Angeles at steve_angeles@abs-cbn.com for more information.