A significant number of undocumented Filipinos in the United States have been detained and are being processed for deportation, according to Philippine Ambassador to the US, Jose Manuel Romualdez.
He did not say, however, the official count of the detained and deported Filipinos, as authorities are keeping the details confidential.
“Obviously, we don’t want this to be made public with exact figures,” Romualdez said during an interview over ANC.
“But quite a number have already been detained and processed for deportation. The last report we received mentioned around 30 individuals, but many more have been placed in detention across the US, identified as undocumented and slated for deportation.”
Even before his reelection, US President Donald Trump had vowed to carry out a large-scale deportation of undocumented immigrants in the country.
In response, Romualdez urged undocumented Filipinos to consider voluntary departure rather than face the harsh reality of deportation.
“If there is absolutely no legal pathway for you to stay, it is best to leave voluntarily,” he advised. “By doing so, you have a chance to return legally in the future, without enduring the traumatic experience of being held in a detention center.”
A 2023 report by the Migration Policy Institute in Washington D.C. ranked the Philippines as the sixth-largest source of undocumented immigrants in the US, with an estimated 309,000 individuals in 2021.
Overall, the unauthorized immigrant population in the US was approximately 11.2 million in 2021, up from 11.0 million in 2019, with an increasing annual growth rate since 2015.
