Will America Deport 350,000 ‘Overstaying’ Pinoys?

By Alex P. Vidal 

“The word nobody wants to use, but you see if you are here illegally, that’s the punishment, deportation.” —Tom Tancredo

WHEN President Donald Trump returns to the White House on January 20, 2025, most of the estimated 350,000 “overstaying” Filipino nationals all over the United States may have not left, virtually ignoring the call of Philippine Ambassador to the U.S., Jose Manuel Romualdez, to leave voluntarily before removal begins.

The ambassador had warned undocumented Filipinos to do so of their own accord rather than be forced out “…because once you’re deported, you can never come back.”

Romualdez’s appeal seemed quixotic if not implausible.

It is not also technically correct.

Any alien removed from the U.S. can’t be banned for life. Removal normally results in an extended ban on re-entry, but not a lifetime ban.

And besides, in four years of the second Trump administration, it’s impossible for the U.S. Government to round up and deport all the 350,000 “illegal” Pinoys who mostly don’t have criminal records other than their woes with the immigration laws.

Instead of trying to help appease the worried Filipino community, Romualdez has added fire to a conflagration by his seemingly untruthful assertion about would-be Filipino deportees facing a lifetime ban.

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“If I’ll be deported, so be it. I actually missed the Philippines,” groaned 65-year-old Rustico, a former make up artist of a showbiz “mega star” from Guadalupe Nuevo, Makati City in the Philippines.

Rustico decided to stay in San Diego, California and never left the US after the “mega star’s” concert in Reno, Nevada sometime in November 1994.

Rustico used a fictitious name when he first entered the San Francisco International Airport in the company of several “Rotarians” who visited Santa Clarita Valley in California.

“That’s the biggest mistake that I continue to regret until this day,” exclaimed Rustico, who now stays in Asbury Park, New Jersey. “I could have been a US citizen a long time ago.

Rustico and thousands of other Pinoys who have overstayed the limit of their tourist visas actually aren’t exempted from the threat of Mr. Trump’s incoming boarder czar Tom Homan that there would be a possible “collateral damage” when immigration raids begin immediately after Mr. Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

What Homan probably meant was even those without criminal records could be arrested and deported if they were caught violating the immigration laws.

Michael McManus, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) director of research, the Philippine government was prepared to help facilitate its nationals to leave the U.S.

He quoted a statement on website, the Philippine Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) which stated, “The DMW is prepared to assist our OFWs (overseas Filipino workers), whether they are documented or undocumented OFWs. Under the directives of our President, a whole-of-government team is here to provide support to possible deportees.”

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According to McManus, the government of the Philippines realizes that the incoming U.S. administration intends to carry out large-scale removals to counterbalance the disaster of open-borders policies and reaffirm the rule of law.

“Rather than have its nationals caught up in the new administration’s deportation efforts, and potentially banned from the U.S. for years, the Philippine government is telling those illegally present to return to their homeland,” wrote McManus.

“Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data show that over 150,000 Philippine nationals have been encountered at America’s borders since Fiscal Year 2021. Media reports in Asia estimate over 350,000 Philippine nationals are currently in the U.S. without authorization.”

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PISTACHIOS LOWER CHOLESTEROL.  A daily 1.5-ounce serving (74 nuts) can drop LDL 9 percent, significantly cutting our risk of heart attack disease. The nuts’ phytosterols appear to help stop the

absorption of cholesterol from other foods we eat. That amount equals 240 calories, but it’s the same as 1.5 ounces (48) of not-so-healthy corn chips. Source: Pennsylvania State University.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)