Empathy for the Cuevas family

THE ESTIMATED half a million daily readers of the San Francisco Chronicle have taken the Cuevas family to their collective hearts, thanks to a dozen articles that have been written about them in the past year by reporter Cicero Estrella. Through his articles, Chronicle readers learned of the pain and anguish that Delfin and Lily Cuevas, and their kids, have undergone in their 19-year struggle to legalize their family's immigration status in the US.

But, as Chronicle readers have sadly learned, the US Department of Homeland Security just would not be moved. Delfin and Lily Cuevas, and their three Philippine-born but US-raised kids -- Donna, 24, Dale, 23, and
Dominique, 21 -- were finally deported from the US on June 30.

Reader Vicky Gray from Vallejo wrote the Chronicle the following day after the deportation to say that she feels "so much safer now that the Cuevas family has been deported to the Philippines ("Exiles of the American Dream," July 1, 2004). Yes, that is what I want my Department of Homeland Security to do: Rid my country of illegal immigrants such as these. You know the kind. They work two jobs to make ends meet, buy a home, contribute to the local economy, sacrifice vacations for their children's education and raise children who become college-educated, productive members of society. Whew. What a relief. With the Cuevas family out of the country, surely I will sleep at night, secure in the knowledge that the Department of Homeland Security is watching out for me."

Reader Laura Bradley from Petaluma found it "very sad to read the story of the Cuevas family deported to the Philippines. However, my sadness did not come from the fact that they were deported, but rather that this country still continues to deport the wrong people. Here is a family who has made something of themselves. Meanwhile, we have the other side of the illegal immigration coin with dependency on taxpayers and government programs. The majority of the time, blinders go up and nothing is done about this population."

Reader T.M. Pesutich from San Mateo expressed regrets that the Cuevas family's struggle ended in failure. "How sad, indeed, that an "American" family, who strived for the American dream replete with successful measurements such as a home in the suburbs, fine children and decent jobs, paid taxes to support the very government that rewarded them with
deportation. How sad, indeed, that had it not been for the federal government's support of the corrupt Marcos regime, the Cuevas family might not have had to leave the Philippines in the first place. Perhaps a more fitting name for the department responsible for these deportations should be Department of Homeland Insecurity."

Reader Mikeal Levi from San Francisco wrote that "Donna Sue Cuevas received her bachelor's degree in psychology from CSU-Hayward on June 12. She listened as speaker after speaker told the graduates that they are the future of California. This week, she was deported to the Philippines, a country she left 19 years ago at age 6. This did not need to
happen. The Dream Act (S1545), which now has 48 sponsors and co-sponsors in the US Senate, would allow young people who grew up in this country, stayed out of trouble and are now in college, to earn legal status here.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has been stalling the Dream Act for seven long months, despite the fact that the bill was written by fellow Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, and despite the resounding 16-3 approval of the bill by the Judiciary Committee. In a year solely in need of bipartisan cooperation, the Dream Act provides a rare
chance for Congress to set aside political rancor and focus on making a major difference in the lives of students across our country. Let's hope they don't let this opportunity slip away."

Delfin and Lily Cuevas and their three young kids came to the US as tourists in 1985. If they had been placed in deportation proceedings in 1992, they would have been eligible to apply for Suspension of Deportation, which would have given them all permanent resident visas ("green cards"). All they had to show was that they had lived continuously in the US for at least seven years, were of "good moral character" during that period, and that they would suffer "extreme hardship" if they were deported to the Philippines.

But the law changed on April 1, 1997 with the passage of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) which increased the residence requirement to 10 years and the bar to "exceptional
and extremely unusual hardship" to a US citizen or immigrant immediate relative. As all the Cuevas children were born in the Philippines, the family had no "qualifying relative."

By the time the Cuevas family members were placed in "removal proceedings" (the new term), IIRAIRA was the law and they just did not qualify for relief. The immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals and the Ninth Circuit Court of appeals all ruled against the Cuevas family and thousands of others like them who applied for similar relief.

The Cuevas family's last chance was to secure a private bill in the US Congress that would grant the family permanent residence. But neither of California's senators, Dianne Feinstein or Barbara Boxer, was willing to sponsor such a bill as they were doubtful of its success in this anti-immigrant political climate.

The Filipino community rallied to support them, however, as the Support Committee for the Cuevas Family was formed early this year with 70 local and national Filipino, immigrant advocacy, labor, civil rights, student and teacher organizations endorsing the family. The San Francisco Immigrant Rights Commission even passed a resolution of support for them.

"It's the first time anybody's made a public appeal," Robyn Rodriguez, fellow at the Center for Comparative Immigration at UC San Diego who co-founded the Support the Cuevas Family Committee, told the Chronicle's
Estrella. "A lot of people demonize this issue, but all of a sudden, the Cuevas family put faces and names to it. They're a middle-class family, own a house, the kids go to college. They seem to be the all-American family."

But the US Department of Homeland Security would only grant this "all-American family" a three month extension. On June 30, they boarded what would be a 20 hour flight back to Cebu City.

Please lobby your senators and representatives to support the Dream (Development, Relief, Education for Alien Minors) Act which already has 48 sponsors in the US Senate (just three more are needed). Let's work so that the American Dream can be a reality at least for the thousands of "alien minors," who like the Cuevas kids once, live in daily dread that they too would one day be deported.

Send comments to Rodel50@aol.com.