No third-country deportations for Filipinos: ambassador

The FilAm Editorial

Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez usually speaks very little about the aggressive deportations being caried out by the administration.

In fact, activists have expressed dismay that he has refused to meet with them on three occasions when they sought a dialogue about Filipinos being deported even though they are of legal status.

But in a recent meeting with journalists, the ambassador, second cousin to President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos, was emphatic: He is adamantly against third-country deportations.

“The Philippine government made it very clear to the United States government that we will accept all Filipinos. In other words, we definitely would not want them to be deported to a third country,” he told journalists at a recent press conference at the Philippine Embassy. “It’s not in our DNA to allow that to happen. We will accept any Filipino no matter what their status is and no matter what they are.”

Romualdez’s declaration is a brave one but it remains to be seen how forcefully the Philippines would resist if and when the administration goes about sending Filipinos to third countries – instead of home. Would it fight back the way other deportees, such as the gay Guatemalan man deported to Mexico, have?  Or the Venezuelan immigrants, suspected of being gang members, expelled to El Salvador and South Sudan?

Third-country deportation was a recent program in the immigration system  as it swoops down on migrants with criminal convictions or had previous run-ins with the law. No similar actions had been carried out by previous administrations.

“The ambassador reiterated that the Philippine government’s instructions are clear: neither Filipino citizens nor dual citizens should be deported to a third country. If Filipinos face criminal liability, the Philippine government will accept them, allowing them to face Philippine laws,” according to a news report.

Romualdez disclosed the U.S. government had deported between 250 and 300 undocumented Filipino immigrants in the past year, a number he considered “relatively low.”

At the same time, he warned Filipinos against resorting to “palusot” to find dishonest ways to stay in the U.S. illegally. TNT (“tago ng tago”), the Filipino word for “always hiding” by jumping from state to state, for example, so as not to figure in the immigration radar, comes to mind.  He said, “That’s the worst thing you can do because you think you can get away with something today, but you can’t get away with it forever.”

He reiterated his push for undocumented immigrants to self-deport.” He said, “If you self-deport, meaning you voluntarily leave the country… you are not in the system. So the opportunity for you to be able to come back is better than no chance at all. Once you’ve been deported, the chance of you coming back to the United States is almost zero.”

Tough words from the ambassador but worth mulling over.