The Philippine Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) announced its readiness to assist 370,000 undocumented Filipinos living in the United States who might be deported following the election of Donald Trump. The DMW is set to help returning Filipinos with financial aid and job placement, but is also consi-dering the possibility of sending workers to other countries (in particular Croatia, Slovenia, Ger-many, Hungary, and Japan).
According to Rappler, a Phi-lippine online news website, to meet its commitment to 370,000 returnees, the Philippine govern-ment would have to find 18.5 billion pesos (over 5 million) to ensure proper assistance for all. Between 2014 and 2024, about 10,600 Filipinos were expelled from the US (a thousand per year on average), including some 3,500 during Trump’s first term in office (2017-2021).
The Philippine ambassador to the United States, Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez, issued an advisory telling undocumented Filipinos to leave the country voluntarily. Most Filipinos in the US are granted a regular work visa, but once it expires, many prefer to stay, often working illegally.
Irregular migrants in the United States do not come only from Latin America. The latest data (2022) indicates that about 1.7 million out of 11 million are from Asia. More than half are from India and China, followed by the Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, Pakistan, Nepal, Thai-land, Afghanistan, and Bangla-desh. In 2023-2024, 1,100 In-dians were deported out of an estimated population at 725,000 unauthorised Indian immigra-nts in 2022.