Fil-Am groups take cudgels for 310,000 illegal Pinoy immigrants

With the crackdown of the Trump administration against illegal immigrants, Filipino-American groups have taken a stand to defend undocumented Filipinos in the United States (US).

“It (overstaying illegally in the United States) is like jaywalking,” said Aquilina Soriano Versoza, executive director of the Pilipino Workers Center (PWC) in Los Angeles, California.

“Just because of that technicality, they shouldn’t be punished. They contribute a lot to the society here,” Versoza told Filipino reporters in Los Angeles.

Based on data by the US

Department of Homeland Security, an estimated 310,000 Filipinos are illegally staying in the United States.

So far, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reported that no Filipino has been rounded up by American immigration officials in ongoing random raids across American cities.

The DFA, citing various reports reaching DFA, said the Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency rounded up undocumented individuals living in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and other nearby cities.

Filipinos workers serve

Versoza explained that both legal and illegal Filipino immigrants are actually working the type of jobs that Americans will not take because of low salaries and bad benefits.

“They (the immigrants) are not really taking away jobs. They are doing them because they are not jobs that folks here want to do – from farm work to domestic and retail work,” Versoza said.

The same sentiment was echoed by Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA), a Los Angeles-based Filipino-American group founded in 1972.

“They provide a lot to the workforce. They are one of the most educated among the ethnic Asian groups,” said Dorothy Gamoning, SIPA executive director.

“When they come here, they provide a strong work ethic,” added Gamoning.

Meanwhile, PWC and SIPA expressed disappointment with President Duterte, who had earlier said he will not help undocumented Filipinos in the United States.

Duterte said undocumented Filipinos are violating the law of the United States by overstaying.

Both Versoza and Gamoning also noted how Filipinos in America – whether legal or illegal immigrants – are remitting in billions of pesos to their families in the Philippines and eventually help boost the Philippine economy.