Government leaders in the Philippines have told undocumented Filipino immigrants currently residing in the US to go home before January, in spite of the trust in him declared by the nation’s President. This will be when President-Elect, Donald Trump, takes charge of the White House and follows through on his pledge to see millions of such immigrants deported from the US.
The citizen journalism website, Rappler, says that the call was made on Wednesday by Presidential spokesman, Ernesto Abella, during a news briefing, mirroring comments made by Silvestre Bello III, the country’s Labor Secretary. Abella is quoted as saying that the labor chief is urging all undocumented Filipino immigrants to come home before the strong prospect of a massive deportation of undocumented immigrants from the US under the new administration next year.
There were as many as 3.5 million Filipinos living in the US as of 2013. Around 271,000 of those, 7.6 percent, were classified as being either undocumented or irregular, the Commission on Filipinos Overseas has stated. This number has almost certainly increased in the subsequent three years. Some local reports speculate that there may currently be around four million Filipinos, a third of the entire population, living overseas.
According to the report from Rappler, Abella made it clear that the government, headed by President Rodrigo Duterte, is willing and ready to provide help to Filipinos who return home after having lived illegally in the US.