Philippine ambassador calls on unauthorized migrants to return home ahead of Trump presidency

[quote] Leave voluntarily, undocumented Filipinos in US told

MANILA – The Philippine Embassy in Washington DC on Friday urged Filipinos staying illegally in the United States to leave voluntarily ahead of the incoming Trump administration’s expected crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez said 250,000 to 300,000 Filipinos are at risk of being blacklisted or deported should President-elect Donald Trump proceed with his promise of mass deportation for undocumented immigrants.

“Some are not considered to be illegal, some already filed, but they are in limbo – meaning to say, they are waiting for their papers to pass through,” he said in a virtual briefing of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP).

“My advice to many of our of our fellowmen who actually are still here but cannot get any kind of status, my advice is for them not to wait to be deported, because I can see that the administration of President Trump is really going to be very strict with the immigration policy that he intends to put in place.”

Romualdez warned that a foreign national, once deported, can never return to the US.

“At least if you leave, there is always the opportunity or the chance that you'd be able to file at the right time. Just follow the rules and regulations of the country – that's the only way,” he said.

Still, the envoy said the number is relatively lower than other nationalities.

He noted that the US continues to regard Filipino health care workers as essential to its workforce, saying many health service companies are asking the embassy for ways to increase the number of deployed Filipino nurses.

“That's one sector that really gives a great image to the Filipino community here because the nurses are so much appreciated, and by every single one of them, from the president of the US all the way down to anyone working that has been able to have a Filipino nurse take care of them or their loved ones,” he said.

Romualdez said in Guam, there is also a great demand for construction workers from the Philippines.

“I've spoken to the governor and also to the representative from Guam, we're working together trying to increase the number of those who can be brought to Guam,” he said. “They would prefer to have Filipino workers because they're the best.”

At the 3 minute 5 second mark in the video, the moderator of the discussion asks a great question.

Given that there are between 200,000 and 300,000 Filipinos in the U.S. illegally, why did such a large number of Filipinos vote for Trump?

The Ambassador said it's basically two reasons: 1) The economy, and 2) They resent having to have gone through the difficult process of citizenship through legal means, while others are cheating the system.

Same argument that Mexican Americans have made.

He adds that many Filipinos supported Trump in 2016 and 2020 - especially in Nevada, where there's a large Filipino population - and they were proud to admit it.

Personally, I think that religion also played a large part, because most Filipinos are DEVOUT Catholics.

Again, just like Mexicans.

Democrats are going to have to figure out a way to make inroads with both of these groups, in the future.

I guess the best "Inroad" R2 is when they face the "out road" under their beloved Orange God. You can file this under "Let the people get what they voted for."

At least when it comes to this issue, I can be safe in the fact that my family has been documented in the United States over 200 years - much longer than most of the white people in the country telling everyone to get out - longer than Trump's or any of his goons. Half or my family were never slaves and the other half bought themselves out of slavery in the early to mid 1800s. But my bloodline goes way way back. Yet it's funny how I didn't grow up being allowed to own the title "All American." Yet there was probably no one more American than me in my peer group.

R3, sounds like your heritage doesn’t include Native American.

Who will love us long time?

That whore was from Saigon, r5.

U.S. Americans don't like foreigners because a couple years after they get off the boat or jump the fence they are thriving, their kids winning spelling bees, etc. While Americans overeat, take meds and want their di$ability and SNAP cards adjusted for inflation.

Im sorry but (he’ll just froze over) Im with Trump in this. Im a Demicrate zkanaka voting liberal. But her ‘pathway to citizenship” was full of crap. My people came here legally, through normal channels. They came in droves, LEGALLY, until Me. Roosevelt decided he didn’t want America to become too Jewish so the Jews who wanted to come decades after my people came, where not welcome. Hit let got ‘em. Most of the illegals have nothing at home waiting for them, they are economic referees. Very few are really fleeing genocise. Those are the ones we should keep. The rest have to go back, abd frankly tbe opportunity to cone back should be very limited. We don’t need them.

Nursing homes across the Country will be devoid of caregivers. We also majorly depend on Phililenos for for staffing our hospitals because of the drastic shortage of nurses here.

They can all come to Canada, we’ll trade you these Indian international students for them.

R9 - yes - go into any rehab facility or hospital, and there are tons of Filipino nurses and staff. But I don't think they are illegals necessarily.

Every Filipino I've met works their ass off with a smile on their face and an easy laugh. They're like the Latino Asians.

Suddenly Haiti doesn't look so bad...

If you send them all home, what home health aide is going to wipe your ass, Donald?

I wonder if Philippine renews the passports of the illegals in USA? I know that Poland does, that's how these Polish illegals are able to survive here for so long. You can't get state ID cards if your passport has expired (as an example from the blue states)

People who live and work in the real world are not that complicated or difficult to understand. Human nature is pretty consistent. Only the left seems to have a problem understanding people and human behavior.

[Quote] I guess the best "Inroad" [R2] is when they face the "out road" under their beloved Orange God.

Why are you thinking rationally after the Tuesday before last? People don’t operate or vote based on logic.

Democratic Party policies are much better for working class whites than Republican yet they overwhelmingly support the republicans.

That's not rational thinking R16 that I am using. I am saying having them physically experience being deported will be the only inroad Democrats will ever have with their community. Like children, they have to put their hand in the fire and get burned, just to see what hot feels like.

R7 thinking like this is why Democrats are doomed.

R17, the white people in this country are in fact feeling the pain inflicted on them by republican/corporatist interests. It’s what has them so upset, and receptive to Fox News agitprop.

But they don’t comprehend the source, the cause. They continue to see “woke culture” as the cause of all their problems because they saw it on the tv.

^^^ white people with a college education or lower.

This should work out well for them.

Can anyone make sense of R8?

It sounds like gibberish.

yeah, get rid of all of them!

R8, are you going to start picking fruit and building houses then?

Didn’t think so.

Give them 6 months, R19. They’re going to figure it out.

[quote]Demicrate zkanaka

😆

“they are economic referees”

?

R8 is drunk.

it's all just bluster. There will be no mass deportation nor tariffs . This is just to scare us. And obviously it's already working .

Yeah, the whole world is scared of him (except Putin). He's a dictator-in-waiting.

Nobody's louse-infested great grandparents from the Old Country were "legal"

I think it's true...Texas has already purchased a huge piece of land for the jail or whatever they're gonna call it to put the illegals in.

Nobody is scared of him, certainly not outside the U.S. This is malevolence tempered by ignorance. He’s going to do some dumb things and then blame everybody else for his policy failures, as usual. We provably won’t even see much of him, given how far gone he is.

And yes, R28, there isn’t going to be at least any successful effort at mass deportation but he will impose his tariffs because he’s trying to shore up tax revenue to justify his corporate tax cuts and make permanent his costly tax cuts for the wraiths. He’s going to tank the economy because he’s stupid.

Two years before this buffoon will lose Congress and he’s going to face nothing but opposition until then.

*for the wealthy

Fucking AI.

People who add value to our system will be around. Deals can be made swiftly with other countries. If we need to bring in tens of thousands of vetted Filipinos to work in our health care system, it will be made to happen. This narrative that we have to allow illegals to remain here or we will suffer from a labor shortage is alarmist.