Filipino Airport Screeners

Filipino Airport Screeners

By: Mel Orpilla

Date: December 5, 2001

When flying out of San Francisco International (SFO) or Oakland International Airport, it has always been comforting for me to see Filipino guards at the security checkpoints and x-ray machines. I guess they remind me of family, and because of that I feel safe. I’ve always known that most likely, they were recent immigrants who took the airport job out of necessity to provide for their families. Like other recent Filipino immigrants working in jobs around the Bay Area, they took whatever jobs were available to them.

Today, their jobs are in jeopardy because of the September 11 attacks. A new federal law, signed by George Bush in November, requires that all airport security workers be federal employees and that they also be U.S. citizens. According to Service Employees International Union 790, more than 80 percent of SFO’s 1200 security screeners are Filipinos who are not U.S. citizens. This could mean that hundreds of Filipinos might lose their jobs at Bay Area airports within the next year.

The Aviation Security Legislation prevents legal immigrant workers with green cards from working as security screeners. The citizenship requirement unfairly punishes all of the hard-working, tax-paying immigrant workers. Some of these workers have been on their jobs over 10 years. These Filipino workers have already endured low pay and difficult working conditions, and now this.

This is not the first time Filipinos or for that matter legal immigrants have been unfairly targeted. During the depression years, Filipinos who were not citizens also experienced economic hardships. They were excluded from many federal job programs. In 1938, M.C. Manzon wrote that Filipinos were bewildered because of their uncertain citizenship status. Many Filipinos lost federal jobs. As the depression deepened, others were denied employment in private business because citizens were given hiring priority. Filipinos confronted economic discrimination throughout California. This practice relegated Filipinos to the most menial of jobs in America.

More recently, some Filipino immigrants are still finding it hard to make ends meet in America. For most of their lives in the Philippines, their goal was to immigrate to America with the thought that life would be easier. Many find that life in America is not exactly like the images they saw in movies and television shows from America. They find that their education and experience from the Philippines is not transferable to employment here in America. It is not uncommon to find former businessmen, government officials, attorneys and medical personnel, working in jobs far below their experience and potential.

The hundreds of Filipino airport security screeners are part of this recent group of Filipino immigrants. They came to America for the same reasons Filipinos came in the 1920’s and 1930’s – for a better life. Even with their low pay, many of them still support families back in the Philippines by sending whatever extra money they have. This is done with much sacrifice to themselves.

When the first groups of Filipino WWII veterans began arriving at SFO in the early nineties, it was these very same Filipino security screeners that the “Veteranos� met in America. Without any family or resources, the Filipino airport screeners brought the “Veteranos� to homeless shelters and showed them where to get free meals at Glide Memorial Church or St. Anthony’s Dining Room until their Social Security checks arrived. Without them, many of those “Veteranos� would have been on the streets.

Not all hope is lost however. Mayor Willie Brown and the SFO airport manager are in negotiations with U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Norm Mineta, to give SFO some flexibility in allowing the security screeners, who are a few months away from obtaining their citizenship, to stay on their jobs. The Bush administration needs to amend the law to make provisions for existing airport staff who are not yet citizens.

Citizenship should not be a criterion for employment as an airport screener. I can appreciate that we need safer and more secure airports. But is hiring only U.S. citizens the answer? After all, the Chicago airport screeners that allowed a man with 8 knives to pass through security was a U.S. citizen. The screeners at Logan Airport that allowed the terrorists to board with boxcutters were also U.S. citizens. The criteria should be stronger security policies, more stringent training of employees and more thorough background checks. I have never heard of any security breeches at SFO or Oakland due to lapses in security by Filipino screeners.

It seems unfair that airline pilots, flight attendants, and jet mechanics don’t have to be U.S. citizens while the security screeners do. Which positions are more of a security threat to the public? What about the 50,000 members of our U.S. military who are non-citizens and fighting to keep our country safe? Where do we draw the line? Will requiring security screeners to be U.S. citizens guarantee that our airports will be safer?

America needs stronger security at its airports. I for one feel safer now than I ever have when flying. The presence of armed National Guard soldiers, though unnerving at first, provide a sense of security that no security screener, regardless of citizenship, can provide. The sight of Filipino security screeners whenever I return from a long trip, is always a warm reminder that I’m finally home. They deserve to keep their jobs.

Mel Orpilla can be reached by email at mel9661 [at] pacbell.net