“It’s interesting to live without being known.”
This is what Bea, their name concealed to protect their identity, said about their life in the West Coast of the United States with their mother, grandfather, and younger sister. Since they came on a tourist visa a decade ago, they have been living without permanent legal status in a country that has provided them a better life than the Philippines.
That life, however, is not without its problems. Bea’s uncertain status almost put their college prospects in jeopardy. It has made it difficult for them to find a job, a home, or health insurance. And now, it has put their family at risk of being sent back to a country they haven’t been in for years.
Since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House, he has unleashed a flurry of anti-immigrant attacks, leaving Filipinos there uncertain in the face of inaction from the Philippine government.
“I was in high school when the first Trump presidency came,” Bea told the Collegian. “A lot of those same feelings are coming up right now—the same fear, anxiety, but of course, in a different way.”
Flooding the Zone
It may be too early to tell what’s in store for the next four years, Bea noted. But unlike his first term, Trump’s second administration has already taken more drastic executive action in a manner that can only be described as “muzzle velocity,” as his longtime ally Steve Bannon put it.
Immigration policy, a cornerstone issue for Trump, was rapidly turned on its head as early as day one. Of the 26 executive orders on Jan. 20 alone—the most signed by a US president on their first day in office—eight sought to massively overhaul immigration law by restricting border access, halting refugee arrivals, and scaling up deportation efforts, among others.
About 11 million immigrants who are in the US illegally are prime targets of Trump’s heightened enforcement operation, an estimated 350,000 of whom are Filipino. Their expulsion could separate 8.5 million US citizens from their immigrant family members.
Trump’s efforts quickly met legal challenges, with federal judges in multiple states indefinitely blocking an order that would have effectively ended the right to citizenship for babies born to parents without permanent legal status, among other actions.
This has not stopped US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from conducting large-scale raids in major metropolitan areas, where many Filipinos are concentrated. The Tanggol Migrante network reported that eight Filipino caregivers were arrested on Jan. 24 during a raid in Chicago, with six of them deported just four days after, without a court hearing.
“It was very quick. It was truly what President Trump wanted—expedited,” said Nerissa Allegretti, president of the US-based National Alliance for Filipino Concerns, during a virtual press conference on Feb. 6.
The network also alleged two Filipino women were nabbed by plainclothes officers in Chicago, described as “ground zero” for mass deportation, but their whereabouts remain unknown.
Filipino progressive groups joined a march in Washington, D.C. to display their rejection of Donald Trump and his mass deportation campaign during the presidential inauguration. (Tanggol Migrante Network)
The Trump administration is supposedly targeting those with criminal records, but these only made up around 73% of arrests in the first 50 days. At least 8,718 individuals were unlawfully taken in without warrants, as what officials described as “collateral arrests.”
Being on US soil without legal status is a civil violation, not a crime, meaning violators are deported instead of imprisoned. But recent orders—including one forcing immigrants to register themselves with the federal government—signal the administration’s push to criminalize their presence.
Under the Laken Riley Act, the first law Trump signed, immigrants merely charged with “burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting” can now also be immediately detained without waiting for a conviction.
With ICE agents known to use deceptive tactics in their operations, communities are uneasy as enforcement expands.
“Sometimes, they're even knocking at the wrong doors,” Bea said. “There’s a lot of mess right now with the ramp up of the ICE raids, and people who aren't even their target are being impacted.”
What were once “safe havens” have also become dangerous, as community spaces, like schools and places of worship, are no longer protected from immigration enforcement after a Biden-era guideline was rescinded.
“They really are taking away every safe space they can, and when we don’t have spaces like that anymore, we really only have each other,” Bea said.
Turning a Blind Eye
Rather than assist Filipino nationals at risk of expulsion, the Philippine embassy in Washington has instead encouraged them to leave voluntarily through “self-deportation.”
The consulate in New York had promised aid for health care workers Jovi Esperanza and Dhenmark Francisco after their wrongful arrest in New Jersey, but they did not receive the USD 10,000 in legal funds.
Jovi has since self-deported on Jan. 29, while Dhenmark remains in detention.
Migrant groups have disputed the government’s reporting of deportation numbers. Initially, the Department of Foreign Affairs claimed no Filipinos were arrested in Trump’s first week, and the embassy dismissed the first 24 Filipinos deported as an insignificant figure.
An unidentified number of Filipinos are now up for deportation. Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez claimed the specifics are being kept “confidential,” despite concrete figures existing for other nationalities.
Advocates have said the Philippine government has ignored or given little support to immigration cases. Ligaya Jensen, for example, testified that the consulate has never visited her in the over six years she has been in ICE custody.
Rights groups have long protested the torturous conditions inside ICE detention centers, especially at Adelanto, where owner GEO Group was sued for its use of toxic chemicals. (Tanggol Migrante Network)
The consulate in Los Angeles is supposedly refusing aid to Ligaya, a lawful permanent resident in the US, due to her felony conviction—even as her health deteriorates from the unsafe conditions in the privately owned Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California.
Her prolonged stay is in spite of Romualdez’s statement that the extended detention of Filipinos is something they are trying to avoid, amid what he described as Trump’s “triumphant return.”
Ligaya’s deportation is now imminent, and the Free Ligaya campaign has been calling on the consulate to support her pardon application to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“Every single day, people here are scared that their name will be called,” Ligaya said, describing the anxiety inside the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, where she was transferred. “We live in fear constantly.”
Navigating the System
Advice from the embassy to seek legal pathways may be impossible for those in danger of deportation, given the limited legal avenues and the backlog in immigrant visas which caused many Filipinos to overstay and lose their status, a 2024 study from Claremont College showed.
Proposed legislation, such as the Dream Act, would have provided a path to citizenship for immigrants like Bea—who came to the US as children—but these laws were never passed when the Democrats were in control. It is now more unlikely under a Republican trifecta.
But even legal immigrants are not immune, given recent cases concerning visa and green card holders, including Lewelyn Dixon, a Filipino detained upon her return to Seattle from a trip to the Philippines.
Lewelyn, a legal resident for 50 years, is slated for a hearing in July. Her case, among many others, has further shown the Trump administration’s willingness to test the limits of immigration enforcement.
Another such case is Alma Bowman, who was also recently detained despite attending her previous check-ins with ICE with no issues. Immigration officials unsuccessfully moved to deport her back in 2020, when she became a key witness in a medical misconduct case at a detention center in Georgia.
Alma, born to an American father and a Filipino mother, is a US citizen according to her attorney and reporting from The Intercept.
Volunteers like Bea are working with Tanggol Migrante to advocate for immigrant rights by organizing and building community defense networks throughout the country, as Filipinos like them are rendered vulnerable under the new administration. But they continue to call on the Philippine government for support as cases grow increasingly complex.
“To the embassy and the consulates here, visit us,” Bea said. “If they’re actually saying that we need to be one, then they should be with us, too.” ●
A version of this article was first published in the March 31, 2025 print edition of the Collegian.
