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Labor Dep’t sues Filipino care home owners for wage theft SAN FRANCISCO—Having exhausted all attempts to reach a settlement, the US Department of Labor on Friday, Dec. 4, sued a Filipino-owned Silicon Valley residential care provider charging the owners with gross violations of federal wage and hour regulations. The department’s Solicitor’s Office filed the lawsuit in US District Court in Northern California against the owners of San Miguel Homes for the Elderly, LLC, who operate three residential care facilities for the elderly in Union City. Listed as defendants in the lawsuit are Precilla San Miguel and her two sons, Teofilo Cris Sanque and Ryan San Miguel. Precilla San Miguel resides in Union City, California, and is president and 60-percent owner and a manager of San Miguel Homes for the Elderly, LLC.
Before approximately June 2014, she owned the facilities and Quality In Home Care as a sole proprietorship and operated them with her two sons, co-defendants Teofilo Cris Sanque and Ryan San Miguel. The Department of Labor is seeking to recover the back wages and damages owed to 22 employees for the substantial hours worked at substandard pay. All the employees are Filipino. The department accuses the defendants of having either paid the workers for only eight hours of work per day, or paid them a flat daily rate that did not account for all hours worked. As a result, the workers’ hourly rate has been less than the federal minimum wage. Specifically, the workers employed in the facilities routinely work and have worked more than 40 hours per week, but de-
fendants have not compensated them at time and one-half the regular rate at which they were employed for all hours worked in excess of 40. In many work weeks, defendants failed to keep any records at all of the hours worked by the workers employed in the facilities. In other work weeks, defendants failed to keep accurate and complete records of the hours worked by those employees. The department’s Wage and Hour Division continues to see problems in the residential care field, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area. Earlier this year, the department announced that it had returned more than $6.8 million in overtime and minimum wage back wages and damages to Bay Area residential care workers from 2011 through 2014. (Inquirer.net)
PAGE A1 Constitution,” Gascon said in an interview which aired over ABSCBN News Channel (ANC). The human rights chair issued the statement after Duterte said on Wednesday that he has killed “many” criminals during his stint as Davao City mayor. In an interview on radio dzMM, Duterte said that he has killed three criminals and maintained that it was not a human rights violation, as the crime was committed in his presence. Meanwhile, Gascon said that allegations of crime committed by the tough-talking mayor should be investigated.
“We think that claims of a crime having been committed, even if it is against lawless elements or criminals, must be held to account [and] must be investigated. Because we are, after all, a society of rule of law and not of men,” he said. The human rights chair said that the CHR is willing to cooperate with the justice department “to get to the bottom of this.” In closing, Gascon said that “abuse of authority” by any person, including the president, is inexcusable in a society which upholds rule of law. “History shows that the Filipino people has stood up to their
Obama: ‘Threat from terrorism is real... PAGE A2 House and Senate versions of the bill concerns which countries are affected. While the House bill also blocks visa-free travel for those who admit to visiting Iran and Sudan, with several exceptions for citizens involved with government or the military, Feinstein’s bill in the Senate restricts those who have gone to Syria and Iraq, and gives the DHS the ability to add countries to the restricted list, with no exceptions for any travelers. “Sen. Feinstein is encouraged by the consensus on strengthening the security of the visawaiver program and will work with her colleagues to get something signed into law,” said a Feinstein aide. Critics of the Senate proposal say that overseas facilities are not staffed up to handle the expected onslaught of thousands of visitors who would need extra prescreening. Some also argue that the new restrictions might create problems for innocent citizens, such as Iranian or Iraqi immigrants who have settled in Europe and visited their home countries in recent years. The American Civil Liberties Union, arguing that the measure passed Tuesday was too arbitrary and does not make exceptions for aid workers and dual citizens, said in a letter to lawmakers: “We urge Congress to exercise caution and to avoid passing legislation that would broadly scapegoat groups based on nationality, and would fan the flames of discriminatory exclusion, both here and abroad.” The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee also raised concerns, pointing to another feature of the bill that it found troubling: the exclusion from the visa waiver program of people who have traveled to Iraq or Syria since March 2011, when the conflict in Syria began. That provision could
target people who do humanitarian work in those countries, the group said, according to Politico. “There are other avenues to strengthen security other than placing blanket exclusion on all countries designated under this bill and groups of people based on their national origin,” the group stated. As the Obama administration works to address such concerns, the DHS will also look at pilot programs for collecting biometric information, such as travelers’ fingerprints, the White House said in a statement. The visa-waiver changes are among the most substantial ever made to the 30-year-old program. A task force in the House of Representatives is meeting to discuss details of the program, and hopes to craft legislation to pass “by the end of the year,” said House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy
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Fil-Am dep’t head was at X’mas party an hour before San Bernardino massacre
SAN FRANCISCO—The Filipino American chief of San Bernardino County, California’s health department was at the Christmas party of her department’s Environmental Health Services division an hour before the December 2 massacre that killed 14 people, 12 of whom were county employees. Trudy Raymundo, director of the county’s public health department, had been at the party held at the Inland Regional Center where the attackers– Syed Rizwan Farook, a division employee, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik — opened fire at the revelers. “They were upbeat, they were happy, they were learning from each other, which is indicative of what this group has always been,” Raymundo told news media. Raymundo said she arrived to a party filled with camaraderights. We need to assert that we rie and good spirits. “I want to are building a society of law and make it clear that this is a very that abuse of authority must be dealt with regardless of who is in power,” he said. In another interview last Tuesday, Duterte dismissed a warn- PAGE A1 ing from international human rights group Amnesty Interna- have a special understanding of tional regarding his ascension to how generations of immigrants the presidency due to his human have contributed to the foundarights record. tion of our cities and the strength The feisty mayor said that he of our nation,” said Garcetti in killed not only 700 people but a statement. “Partisan politics 1,700 people. should not stand in the way of Duterte is said to be running doing what is right for families with an anti-criminality, anti- who simply want to stay together. corruption and pro-poor plat- These are true American values, form. and it is our obligation to do all we can to preserve and protect family bonds.” In November, the Obama administration announced that it would seek the Supreme Court’s (R-Calif.) last week. review of the President’s execu“The House bill’s more limited tive actions on immigration, folapproach [would bring] thoughtlowing a federal appeals court’s ful solutions that will enhance ruling that the plans must remain America’s security,” said US Travel blocked. Assn. President Roger Dow in a Obama, in November 2014, statement, also warning against announced a series of actions “knee-jerk restrictions that could that would shield up to 5 million harm tourism to the US.” undocumented immigrants from Around 20 million visitors a deportation. Texas v. United year—roughly 59 percent of all States -- a lawsuit brought on by overseas visitors—have traveled of 26 states -- seeks to ban two key on the current waiver program, provisions of the plan: Deferred which grants 90-day stays in Action for Parents of Americans the US, and is vital to America’s (DAPA) and an expanded version tourism economy, says the travel of the Deferred Action on Childassociation. hood Arrivals (DACA). The visa-waiver program measure will now move to the Senate, and is likely to be attached to a must-pass spending bill to fund federal operations in Congress. Despite unresolved bipartisan differences, the Senate is expected to have approved the bill by the end of the week to avoid a government shutdown.
CHR to Duterte: ‘Don’t take law into...
OC/IE ASIAN JOURNAL • dECEmbER 11-17, 2015
tight, close-knit group. They have always supported each other. They are beyond co-workers. They are friends and they are family. They are tight and we are holding onto each other right now.” Raymundo thanked law enforcement and medical personnel who responded to the emergency and asked the public to join in mourning “the loss of our colleagues, of our friends, of our families and our loved ones.” she said. “I ask that you come together and hold each other strong, because it is this strength that will help us heal. And I want you to every day be grateful for those of us that were spared.” Ironically, a year ago, employees of the county’s Environmental Health Services division attended an “active-shooter training” in the very room at the Inland Regional Center where the bloody terrorist attack took place.
San Bernardino California health department chief Trudy Raymundo speaking to news media about the December 2 shootings that killed 14 people, 12 of whom were county health employees.
Staff members in Farook’s division will return to work next week, but other county departments reopened Monday, December 7. County officials pledged to ramp up security measures. (Inquirer.net)
Garcetti leads coalition for Supreme Court... Under DAPA, parents of US citizens or lawful permanent residents could be spared from deportation if they meet certain criteria, including continuous residency in the US since Jan. 1, 2010 and a clean record free of any criminal offenses. Meanwhile, the amended version of DACA was slated to include children brought to the United States before Jan. 1, 2010, notwithstanding their current age, and would have provided three years of relief. The original version of DACA, which was introduced in 2012, remains intact and untouched by the lawsuit. The program is reserved for those who were born after 1981. Texas and 25 other states filed a lawsuit back in February, stating that the creation of DAPA and expansion of DACA go against the President’s executive power and would have negative effects on each state’s economy. Texas asserted that the “lawful presence” of the immigrants would require the state to issue “statesubsidized driver’s licenses” and other aid programs. Garcetti’s coalition contin-
ues on his administration’s commitment to immigration issues. Similarly on Friday, over 210 congressional Democrats -- including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) -- announced that they filed an amicus brief supporting the Department of Justice’s appeal for the high court’s review of the federal appeals court’s decision. “We are confident that the Supreme Court will support President Obama’s decision to use the authority granted by Congress to set enforcement priorities and focus our limited resources on threats to national security and public safety, not hard-working families,” Reid and Pelosi said in a statement. “President Obama took executive action after extensive legal analysis by the Department of Justice and only after Republicans refused to address our broken immigration system.” If the Supreme Court decides to hear the immigration case, a decision could come by June, before the term ends. (AJPress)