The Philippine ambassador to the U.S. urged Filipinos who are in the country illegally to leave voluntarily to avoid deportation after Trump takes office.
“My advice is for them not to wait to be deported,” the ambassador, Jose Manuel Romualdez, told reporters. “Because I can see that the administration of President Trump is really going to be very strict with the immigration policy that he intends to put in place.”
He estimated that there were 250,000 to 300,000 Filipinos in the U.S. without documentation.
Immigration was a major issue in the campaign, and Trump repeatedly pledged to execute the “largest deportation effort in American history.” In an exclusive interview with NBC News yesterday, he said his administration would have “no choice” but to follow through with that plan and that there was “no price tag” on it.
Asian American support for Trump was 5 points higher in this election than in 2020, according to the NBC News Exit Poll. That may have made a difference in battleground states such as Nevada, which Trump won for the first time.
Filipino Americans are the state’s largest group of Asian American voters, who in turn make up 12% of the Nevada electorate. At a rally in Las Vegas last month that was aimed at Asian Americans, Trump praised the Filipino community as “the greatest people, hard-working people.”
Though they have historically leaned Democratic, Filipino Americans connected with Trump on issues such as the economy and immigration, Romualdez said.
“A lot of them resent the idea that people can just come in here” without following the same procedures as those who entered the country legally, he said.
Belgium
