Advice from the Philippines Ambassador to the United States for undocumented Filipinos to voluntarily leave the country is causing “unnecessary panic,” says an immigrant rights advocate.
As AsAmNews previously reported, just days after Donald Trump won the presidential race, the Philippines Ambassador to the United States, advised undocumented Filipinos to “not wait to be deported” following the president-elects threats of mass deportation.
Those caught undocumented in the U.S. can potentially face a 10-year-ban against returning illegally.
Migrant Filipinos in the North Long Beach area are flocking to the Filipino Migrant Center after Ambassador Jose Manuel Ramualdez’s advice. For Romeo Hebron, the Executive Director of the center, Ramualdez’s statements cause more harm than good.
“The Philippines’ ambassador should not have said those things because it causes unnecessary panic in our community,” said Hebron to NBC LA.
Immigration advocates in Hawaii say mass deportation would “devastate families and the local economy.”
Hawaiian local businessman Eddie Flores questions the ambassador and says he’s “misguided.”
Flores said to Hawaii News Now, “He’s trying to make a consolatory gesture to pacify the Trump administration. My question to him is, what are he’s going to do with the 250,000 people going back to the Philippines?”
Family separation has long been a key argument against deportation and immigration policies.
Trump’s pick for “border czar” Tom Homan, has previously defended the President-elect’s policy of family separation at the border, but plans are still to be finalized.
Maria Rollojay, with the Hawaii Coalition for Immigrant Rights, says undocumented migrants from the Philippines typically arrive on tourist visas to visit family and subsequently remain to work jobs that are unavailable to them in the Philippines, allowing them to support their families back home.
The North Long Beach Filipino Migrant Center hosted a “know your rights” session advising migrants on their rights, legal options, and preparing for the possibility of deportation.
Hawaiian Senator, Joy San Buenaventura is asking agencies to resist cooperation in rounding up 51,000 undocumented migrants but Republicans like Sen. Brenton Awa disagrees.
“There’s gotta be stories that are heartbreaking for certain families, but we’re standing up for the people that were native to this land,” Awa said to Hawaii News Now.
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