Exclusive to the Filipino Reporter
Almost all his life, Miguel Gulfin called the United States home.
He was only seven when his parents brought him to the U.S. in 1991.
He completed grade school and high school in New Jersey and at one point pursued a college degree in communications, where he was on the Dean’s List.
Until recently, he served as president of the Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) and regularly participated in its mission trips to as far as Florida to do evangelization work among students.
But Miguel, now 27, is undocumented and, through no fault of his own, the U.S. Government wants him out of the country.
Worse, it also wants his parents, Carmelo and Aurelia Gulfin of Tinton Falls, N.J., out for overstaying.
They have a final deportation order and were given until the end of September to pack up and leave.
Miguel is not alone.
Thousands out there, who were brought to the U.S. as kids, were unaware of their immigration status until years later.
And many, like Miguel, are now coming out one by one speaking about their difficult plight as they lobby for the passage of DREAM Act, which was reintroduced in the U.S. Congress on May 11.
In December 2010, the controversial bill — Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act — which would allow undocumented children who came to the U.S. before their 16th birthday to become U.S. citizens if they spend two years in college or the military and meet certain other requirements — passed the then-Democratic-controlled House of Representatives but fell just five votes shy of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
The bill is said to be facing rougher waters since the Republicans, which voted against it last year, have taken control of the House, and the Senate has grown more conservative.
With President Barack Obama himself lobbying for the bill and urging Congress to pass it into law, Miguel and his parents are hopeful it will happen sooner than later.
Total surrender to God
“We really don’t know what awaits us,” Miguel told the Filipino Reporter in an exclusive interview.
“For us, it’s a total surrender to God.”
The Gulfins’ story has been an open book to all their relatives, colleagues and friends, who have been providing them moral, and sometimes financial, support in their legal woes.
And like Miguel, his parents have their own religious connections as active leaders of the Couples for Christ Ministry, giving seminars and talks across the U.S. East Coast on Christian life and marriage enrichment for multi-racial groups.
The Gulfins have recently found legal support from the Filipino American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. (FALDEF), which took their case pro bono.
Through FALDEF’s head, JT Mallonga, this national legal defense group has filed on behalf of the Gulfins urgent applications for “deferred action status/stay of removal” with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in Newark, N.J.
The requests cited “compelling humanitarian circumstances” and “harsh consequences” of deporting the Gulfins, according to Mallonga, who is a partner at the Abad, Constancio & Mallonga, a prominent New York-based law firm.
For Carmelo and Aurelia Gulfin, should their order of removal is lifted by the USCIS court, they are eligible for immediate immigration relief.
Carmelo is the beneficiary of an approved petition filed by his American citizen brother in 1982, with Aurelia covered in the petition as the spouse of the principal beneficiary.
But the visas became available only 22 years later in December 2004, at which time their final order of deportation for overstaying had already been issued and had rendered them ineligible for the visas.
Clearly, if the deportation order is lifted, the couple qualifies for adjustment of status under the Legal Immigration Family Equity (LIFE Act of 2000), which allows certain eligible people to become permanent residents without leaving the U.S.
Thus, the couple had filed numerous appeals to have their deportation order lifted.
All their appeals, however, were denied.
They also have a U.S. citizen daughter who can petition them should it be necessary, FALDEF said.
No relief
Unfortunately for Miguel, the youngest of three siblings, he does not have any immigration relief available as no pending petition was filed on his behalf by his U.S. citizen sister.
“I have apologized repeatedly to my son for bringing him to the U.S. at a young age and without telling him our status until later,” said Aurelia, who worked as a medical coder until her immigration troubles prevented her from ever working again.
“But my son kept telling me, ‘you don’t have to apologize mom, I know you and Dad only want the best for me,’” she confided.
“He said we all know that God allows everything to happen for a reason and we should just continue to believe that He will help us find the solution.”
“It’s really been a humbling but spiritually rewarding experience for all of us,” Aurelia also said.
“We have been able to overcome difficulties and survive the worst only by God's grace."
The humbling experience included a six-month incarceration some five years ago at the immigration detention center in Elizabeth, N.J., on the basis of a 1999 order of an immigration judge granting them “voluntary departure in lieu of removal to the Philippines.”
The Gulfins didn’t leave and instead moved to have their case reopened and their final order of deportation lifted through appeals before the Board of Immigration Appeals which resulted in denial and led to their detention in October 2005.
Fortunately, while in detention, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals allowed them to be released on bond while awaiting the Court's decision.
The family exhausted all legal means until finding themselves “at a dead end,” according to Atty. Mallonga.
“You could see they did everything they could," Mallonga said.
In its requests for stay of removal, FALDEF presented before USCIS various humanitarian concerns, particularly strong immediate family ties.
“Miguel’s deportation will separate him from his own siblings, not to mention his circle of friends, and would make his adjustment to life in the Philippines more difficult,” Mallonga noted.
“As he came to the U.S. at the young age of 7, he considers himself more American than Filipino.”
“Mr. (Carmelo) Gulfin, if forced to leave, will leave behind his ailing 88-year-old mother, his two other children and a grandchild, all his five siblings, as well as Mrs. Gulfin’s two siblings," the lawyer also said.
"And they will also be subject to a 10-year bar to re-entry once they leave the U.S.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Gulfin, at their age, would also be unemployable in the Philippines,” Mallonga added.
“Mr. Gulfin would also be hard put to restart his auto maintenance business.”
Before Carmelo and Aurelia left their U.P. Village home in 1991, they were producers and composers of several popular radio-TV advertisement jingles.
Among their most noted works included the San Miguel Beer "Bilmoko" and "Sh-Boom" jingles and all other San Miguel jingles that featured the late Fernando Poe Jr., and the Johnson's Baby Powder jingles.
Attached to FALDEF's stay of removal requests are signatures of some 1,000 people vouching for the credibility and moral integrity of the Gulfin family.
Pillars of community
“We emphasized to the USCIS that the Gulfins have no criminal record, they filed their income taxes, and were never wards of the state,” Mallonga said.
“They are all pillars of their community in South Jersey, with strong leadership roles through which they have rendered assistance to countless number of families throughout their 20 years living in the United States.”
“This is a model family...basically the epitome of what an immigrant family should be,” Mallonga added.
“FALDEF strongly believes this family deserves compassion and a chance to lead a normal, productive life in the U.S.”
Miguel was formerly a communications major in film and was on the Dean’s List prior to his immigration nightmare.
He was initially crushed after finding out the truth, but immediately found solace in God’s grace, according to his mother.
He later decided to shift to automotive mechanics at Brookdale Community College so that he could help in his father’s auto repair business.
He graduated from that two-year associate degree course on May 15 and intends to complete his college degree if situation allows him.
“My son is not angry at anyone,” Aurelia assured.
“He’s just very sad to leave the only country he knows as his home.”
“It’s painful for him to leave his brother and sister here, his young nieces, his grandparents, his uncles and aunts, his cousins, all his friends,” added Aurelia, whose legal plight barred her over the years from flying home to attend the funerals of both her parents and a sibling in the Philippines.
‘Stop deporting them’
Meanwhile, leading Senate Democrats, including Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, have recently urged Mr. Obama to stop deporting undocumented young people who grew up in the U.S.
Twenty-two Senate Democrats sent the U.S. President a letter signed by all of them asking Mr. Obama to use his executive authority to prevent deportation of young people who would have benefited from the DREAM Act.
“Current law unfairly punishes thousands of young people who grew up here and know only America as their home, holding them back from making a contribution to our country’s military and economy,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said in a statement within the message to Obama.
“These young people deserve better.”
Fellow New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the leading Democrat on immigration, sent a separate letter to the White House with a similar thrust.
The White House has pledged support for the bill.
But the administration has been unreceptive to requests to block DREAM Act-eligible young people from deportation.
The letter from Senate Democrats calls for the President to grant “deferred action” to young people who meet the requirements that would allow them to avoid deportation under the bill.
“We strongly believe that DREAM Act students should not be removed from the United States,” the letter reads, “because they have great potential to contribute to our country and children should not be punished for their parents’ mistakes.”
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder also expressed strong support to defer the deportation of those who are covered by the DREAM Act.