LESS than 20 undocumented Filipinos in the United States are now in detention amid the Trump administration’s anti-immigration drive.
Donna Rodriguez, the Consul General at the Philippine Embassy in Washington, said most of the Filipinos detained under the custody of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement are set to be deported to Manila.
“They are not more than 20. That’s about the number,” she told radio DZBB, adding that some of the detained Filipinos are facing cases even before Trump assumed the presidency last January.
“The others were detained under the Trump administration, so the situation is quite fluid,” she said.
Rodriguez said the embassy and consulates in the US are coordinating with the ICE and other US government agencies to ensure that the welfare and rights of the detained Filipinos are protected.
She said there are legal steps already being taken to ensure that due process is accorded to the detained undocumented migrants in the US.
Labor group Migrante USA previously called on the Philippine government to leverage diplomatic channels for the release of the detained Filipinos.
The group said this includes a green card holder, Lewelyn Dixon, a 64-year-old laboratory technician at the University of Washington Medical Center who has lived in the US for five decades but was taken into custody by ICE agents after she returned from a visit to Manila last month.
Last January, Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez said two dozen Filipinos who were allegedly involved in illegal activities were deported to Manila
Romualdez, however, did not say when the Filipinos were flown out of the US. He added that they were involved in illegal activities, but not serious criminal acts.
He said another Filipino was deported last January 30 but said “it was a case ongoing since last year.”
Romualdez also said his office is coordinating with Filipino-American lawyers from the Filipino American Legal Defense and Education Fund to provide pro bono legal assistance to any Filipino who might be affected by the anti-immigration drive of the Trump administration.
He also advised Filipinos illegally staying in the US to return to Manila and not to wait to be deported by US authorities or work to legalize their stay in the country.
He said that once they are deported, there is a big chance they won’t be able to return to the US.
American authorities have said there are at least 300,000 Filipinos illegally staying in the US, making them the fifth-largest group of undocumented immigrants.
There are over 4.6 million Filipinos in the US, according to records.
Trump has designated illegal immigration as a national emergency and directed the Pentagon to aid broader security in the country’s borders, particularly the one with Mexico.
