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Mass deportation of Filipino-Americans unlikely — immigration lawyer

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<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1731133170845photo-1.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Filipino-Americans campaigning for Trump-Pence. Photo courtesy of Herman Martir"/><span class="fr-inner"></span></span></span></div><p style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;text-align:left">Filipino-Americans campaigning for Trump-Pence. <em>Photo courtesy of Herman Martir</em></p><div></div><p>MANILA — Fears of mass deportations under a second Trump administration are “a little bit overblown”, a Filipino-American immigration lawyer said, adding most Filipinos in the US are there legally.</p><p>Speaking on ANC’s “Dateline Philippines”, lawyer Jath Shao said undocumented migrants are a “very tiny problem that’s been magnified too much in political rhetoric.”</p><p>He said that in the past 24 years, the US has deported around 9.6 million people, around 25,000 were Filipino.</p><p>Shao said that Filipinos in the US typically follow the law.</p><p>“We’re not really part of this problem,” he said.</p><script data-wid="auto" type="text/javascript" src="https://content.viralize.tv/display/?zid=AAEyze-tm4MR6kEa&amp;cid=ABQCAVZb6RHhRsVX&amp;activation=click&amp;vip_mode=playing&amp;vip_position=bottom-right"></script><p>He added that the mass deportations that President-elect Donald Trump promised during the campaign would cost the US government billions, could take years, and could disrupt the US economy.</p><p>“Realistically, it’s not going to happen in anyone’s lifetime,” he said.</p><p>“Even if you are undocumented, you do have the right to fight it, you have the right to file a defense,” he also said.</p><p>Shao said the best way to secure one’s stay in the US is still to marry a citizen, have relatives who are citizens, or have a relative in the US military.</p><p>“Going through the military route would be a smarter way than to go through any other route right now,” he added.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s a very small problem. I think as long as you do everything right, it’s a very small problem,&quot; he also said.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/world/2024/11/9/canada-on-high-alert-bracing-for-migrants-fleeing-us-818">READ: Canada on &#x27;high alert&#x27; bracing for migrants fleeing US</a></div><p>Philippine Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez has advised undocumented Filipinos who are in the US illegally — there are around 250,000 to 300,000 of them, he said — to go home to avoid being deported and blacklisted.</p><p>“Some of them have already filed and so therefore they are here in limbo, meaning to say they are waiting for their papers to pass through,” Romualdez said in a forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) on Friday.</p><p>“My advice to many of our fellowmen who are actually still here but cannot get any kind of status, my advice is for them not to wait to be deported.”</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/11/8/envoy-advises-illegal-filipino-immigrants-to-leave-us-voluntarily-after-trump-win-1233">RELATED: Envoy advises illegal Filipino immigrants to leave US voluntarily after Trump win</a></div><p>Although he said that mass deportations are unlikely, Shao said he does not necessarily disagree with Romualdez.</p><p>“If you have no hope in your case, save up enough money and go home, or fight the case here for decades, pay a lawyer a lot of money… We can do that too,” he said.</p><p>According to the Pew Research Center, citing 2022 census data, around 4.1 million Filipino Americans live in the US, with more than half of them — 52% — born there.</p><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6pZKzUdS8_Y?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>Shao said the best way to secure one’s stay in the US is still to marry a citizen, have relatives who are citizens, or have a relative in the US military.</p>

Shao said the best way to secure one’s stay in the US is still to marry a citizen, have relatives who are citizens, or have a relative in the US military.