by Connie Triggiano
Every new year offers a hopeful pathway to ditching the depths, surmounting life’s setbacks of the previous year, and latching on to the promise of better times.
As the year 2025 beckons, Filipino American communities in the US are gearing up to face a battery of challenges the most daunting of which is the nemesis of large-scale deportation of undocumented kababayans and the attendant trauma and psychosocial impact of family separation and its toll on the economic landscape of affected families. While the prospect of surviving deportation may be bleak for vulnerable groups due to the reported harshness of Trump’s deportation proceedings, the mantra in immigrant communities is do not just give up. There are ways to scale these challenges.
Those in violation of US immigration laws experience heightened fear of deportation and wrecked family units. It causes anger, isolation, and anxiety. For other ethnic migrant families with children born and raised in the country, forced separation from loved ones, while debilitating, remains but a threat. However, the prospect of this painful episode could be forthcoming anytime now.
Real threats to Filipino families
This phenomenon however is no longer just a threat to Filipino families. For Filipinos, separation has always been raw and real — it happens every time — the breaking up of families, from the moment the parent, usually a mother, leaves behind her family in the Philippines to try and catch a slice of the American dream. The journey is 8,222 miles away, and only after draining scant family resources, surviving stressful immigration interviews in Manila’s US Embassy and slugging it out in low-paying jobs once in America, if they find jobs at all. And enduring the hollow wailing of time and loneliness for many years.
With plans for massive deportation in the offing in January, this breaking up of Filipino families experiencing immigration issues may happen once again, the difference being that affected members would this time need to leave loved ones in the US and be sent back to the Philippines for good. This could be the most devastating separation challenge ever, even if undocumented presence in the US is not in itself a federal crime unless a person had been previously formally removed from the US and then found to have returned without permission.
Generally, Filipinos come to the US legally but become undocumented only when their visas expire. Details on how this massive deportation will pan out have not been made clear but troubling nevertheless; the incoming border czar, Tom Homan’s strategy in preventing family separation even between a US-born child (a citizen) and an undocumented mother is simple: to deport both. Citizens and legal residents caught harboring illegals are also deemed marked for reprisals.
The deportation chief has declared that the massive task will start in Chicago
Are undocumented Filipinos in Illinois, particularly in Chicago, protected by sanctuary policies? No guarantees are pegged. Sanctuaries enjoy constitutional protection against forced enforcement of federal programs; however, the national government may institute cuts in federal funding for local law enforcement.
The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, representing 130 organizations promoting the full participation of immigrants in social and political life, is preparing “Know Your Rights presentations. ” The American Bar Association has launched its Rapid Response Immigration Legal Clinic Toolkit, which includes resources for organizations helping those affected by “rapid changes to immigration law and policy.”
It is estimated that 310,000 to 370,000 Filipinos are undocumented in the US per Migration Policy Institute’s records, with 170,000 in Illinois and 10,000 in Cook County alone, or 4% of the total unauthorized count, behind Mexicans and Asian Indians.
A palpable fear ricocheting around immigrant communities has prompted organizations like California’s Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights to conduct training programs on how to tackle ICE backlash when confronted in public places or even in homes. Lectures and role-plays help ease anxieties when participants stay informed and alert for any exigencies.
Beyond knowing one’s rights, practical, common-sense planning to ensure family welfare will help alleviate fears and uncertainties when faced with deportation issues. Critical situations that need attention are seeking immediate legal help, establishing guardianship of children, protecting financial assets, explaining immigration enforcement to children, and collecting the names and contact information of relatives and trusted friends who can help in case of emergencies.
Philippine Ambassador Babes Romualdez has directed Philippine diplomatic missions in the US to advocate for protecting the rights of Filipinos in this country even if he is urging those who cannot obtain legal status to voluntarily depart for the Philippines and not wait for deportation orders. For the Filipinos in Hawaii, the ambassador’s urging was but misguided, a conciliatory gesture meant to pacify the Trump administration, as reported by Hawaii News Now (Nov. 15, 2024). Some 23,000 undocumented Filipinos reside in Hawaii. A local Filipino businessman asked, “What will the ambassador do with 250,000 undocumented Filipinos (in the US) going back?” He added that they send money to their families — “contributing significantly to the economy of the country, which struggles to employ its people.” The Filipinos point to nonprofit agencies where migrants can get help before deciding whether or not to leave.
Still, the Philippine government is steadfastly ready for the potentially hostile immigration setting. Its Department of Migrant Workers has been alerted to provide assistance for Filipinos who may be deported: financial aid through DMW’s Aksyon Fund is available; there’s reintegration to ease deportation trauma, apprehension, and tumult over the loss of jobs, job retooling that involves acquiring new skills, upskilling, local job search and exploring employment opportunities in other countries.
It has been reported that many people lacking correct immigration papers hide in sanctuary states and cities where local police forces are under no obligation to cooperate with federal agencies on immigration enforcement. According to World Population Review, there are at least 560 such sanctuary jurisdictions, including Illinois and Chicago where the governor and the mayor respectively have strongly condemned the planned undocumented roundup and pledged to protect these people from the Trump election promise.
What shall be done?
In only a few days, the new year reels off with some of the same challenges that have pained Filipino American communities in the US for many years now — unemployment, homelessness, healthcare disparities, mental health issues, hatred and discrimination of various kinds, homesickness, and the rising cost of living. An imminent deportation however of family members if and when identified by ICE remains the greatest challenge of all. It’s the one that needs the community’s united front to counter the turmoil looming ahead that dampens the chances of living the American dream.
Erratum:
“In our December publication, the article mistakenly titled “Filipino Americans—the Invisible Voters” was incorrectly labeled. The correct title should be “Christmas Trees That Spawned a Friendship.” We apologize for the oversight and any confusion it caused.”
Please link “Christmas Trees That Spawned a Friendship to https://rizalcenter.org/2024/11/30/christmas-trees-that-spawned-a-friendship/
Connie Triggiano is currently Board Secretary of Circa-Pintig, a Chicago community theater organization. She works as Academic and English tutor assisting foreign students to pass IELTS, TOEFL, Celpic, ESL and other English exams to gain admission to universities in English speaking countries. She also trains greencard holders to pass US citizenship exams and interview. She worked for many years as Vice-President of Chicago-based Leo Burnett Advertising in its Manila office where she managed the advertising accounts of the country’s biggest brands: Procter & Gamble, Pepsi Cola International, BPI, Vicks, Wyeth and Cathay Pacific. She edited a travel newspaper in Singapore and taught college freshmen in a local university. Connie graduated with a BA degree, major in English, from the University of San Francisco in California while working as an information officer for a United Way agency. She took up MS in Advertising at the Asian Institute for the Development of Advertising, UST Graduate School.
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