I’M HERE IN the United States again and, looking back, it has been 37 years of travel back and forth since I first set foot on this land of “American Dream” on a scholarship and study leave from Manila Bulletin. There were only about three million Filipinos then in US and that rapidly grew to 4.6 million as of this writing.
The atmosphere for Filipinos and ethnic groups then and the years that followed was full of promise and opportunities for a better future.
This time, it is the opposite – marked by constant fear as US 19 an immigration crackdown. Ironically, US is a country made robust by immigrants.
VOLUNTARY DEPORTATION
Traditional and social media reports indicate that even US citizens, green card holders and others who are here legally, Filipinos include, are watched, arrested or detained by US authorities reportedly to meet their 3,000 daily quota.
Philippine diplomats admitted that about 100 Filipinos have been collared since the crackdown started. But immigrant advocates claim a higher figure of 300 or more as they bewail the authorities’ alleged failure to protect Filipinos.
Surprisingly, Philippine Ambassador to the US, Jose Manuel Romualdez, even advised Filipinos to go on voluntary deportation. There are reportedly 350,000 undocumented Filipinos in US today out of 15 million from different countries.
Romualdez has been Philippine envoy to Washington DC since 2017 when he was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte. He was re-appointed in 2022, this time by his cousin, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., which some sectors alleged as a violation of the law on “nepotism.” At this time, he is already one of the longest serving ambassador to US after Eduardo Romualdez (1971-1982) and Carlos P. Romulo (1952-1953, 1955-1962).
ADVERSE EFFECTS
Aside from fears of arrest and detention, Filipinos are worriedly anticipating the adverse effects of losing US citizenship by birthright if US President Donald Trump wins his case before the US Supreme Court where his executive order has been questioned by California and several states.
As soon as President Trump assumed at the White House for his second term, he issued on January 20, 2025, Executive Order (EO) 14160 entitled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,”
denying citizenship to persons born from a mother who was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (LPR) at the time of said person’s birth, or when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa) and the father was not a U.S. citizen or LPR at the time of said person’s birth.
TRUMP’S POLICIES
Prior to Trump’s EO, anyone born in US and US territory automatically becomes a US citizen in keeping with the 14thAmendment of the US Constitution, regardless of the status of the mother who gave birth in US, and sustained by a Supreme Court ruling. The Fourteenth Amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Trump’s EO set forth these policies:
(a) It is the policy of the United States that no department or agency of the United States government shall issue documents recognizing United States citizenship, or accept documents issued by State, local, or other governments or authorities purporting to recognize United States citizenship, to persons: (1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States was lawful but temporary, and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.
(b) Subsection (a) of this section shall apply only to persons who are born within the United States after 30 days from the date of this order.
Filipinos and other nationalities are concerned with two more Trump orders – imposition of $200 additional fee to the $185 US visa application fee and five percent tax on dollar remittances to family and loved ones in the Philippines. We will discuss these two in the succeeding columns. (alfredgabot@aol.com)