Deport foreigners who violated immigration laws – senator

GOVERNMENT authorities should waste no time in implementing the law and arresting foreign nationals, including Chinese, who entered the country through illegal means, Senator Francis Pangilinan said over the weekend.

After legal deportation proceedings, the senator said, undesirable aliens should be immediately deported to their country of origin.
“Since it has been established by testimonial evidence that tens of thousands of these Chinese nationals entered the country through illegal means then they should immediately be arrested and deported,” Pangilinan said.

“Illegal nationals take away jobs for Filipinos, rob the government of taxes, and possibly put our national security at risk,” he added.

Commonwealth Act 613, as amended by Republic Act 503, provides the provisions on deportation of aliens.

“Foreign nationals who have circumvented immigration laws in connivance with corrupt immigration employees have forfeited their right to stay in the country and therefore should be arrested and immediately deported,” Pangilinan said.

In addition, all foreign nationals proven to have committed illegal acts such as violations of our laws may be blacklisted, arrested, and deported, according to the senator, who is also a lawyer.

In 2019, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) arrested over 2,000 foreigners, most of whom were illegally staying and working Chinese nationals.

Earlier this week, Pangilinan filed Proposed Senate Resolution 558, urging the Senate to investigate, in aid of legislation, the national security implications of the entry of around four million Chinese into the country since 2017.

Pangilinan said there should be no letup in the drive against illegal foreign nationals, stressing that the number of deportees could be higher if there was an intensified effort to catch and prosecute them.