Undesirable aliens’ deportation fast-tracked

Foreigners who have been ordered deported by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) have 30 days within which to leave the country, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.

“Once a deportation order is issued, if it is not reversed by the President or the Justice secretary within 30 days, deportation is automatic),” DOJ spokesman Undersecretary Markk Perete, said citing provisions in the Administrative Code.

Undesirable aliens can return only if their petition is granted, Perete who has supervision over the BI.

The problem is BI’s rules do not conform to the Administrative Code, he said.

Under Immigration rules, foreigners who are appealing their deportation before the DOJ cannot be deported.

To clear the inconsistency, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has created a technical working group (TWG) headed by Perete to draft the DOJ’s omnibus rules on appeals which will conform to the Administrative Code.

The group is composed of the prosecutor general, BI’s legal team and the DOJ’s technical and legal staff.

Perete said he favors the interpretation in the Administrative Code “because we don’t have the facility to hold” all detained undesirable aliens appealing their case.

He the TWG has been working on the draft since during the first quarter of the year. The draft is finished and expected to be published in newspapers on Nov. 6.

The new rules will be implemented 15 days after publication.

Perete said Immigration will be amending its own rules to conform with the Administrative Code.

The spokesman assured that the new rules had nothing to do with the issue concerning the deportation of Australian missionary nun Patricia Fox, who left the country on Nov. 3, 2018 after having contested the deportation order issued by the BI.

Perete said the BI raised concerns about the rules when Menardo Guevarra took over the department in April 2018.