MANILA (Asianews) – Not just “Latinos”, therefore: with Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, the promise of the wave of deportations will – apparently – also involve hundreds of thousands of Asians who could be repatriated from the United States. The Department for Migrant Workers of the Philippines (DMW) has made it known that it is ready to provide assistance to the 370 thousand compatriots who are in the United States without valid documents and who, with the return to the presidency of Donald Trump, may have to leave the territory American. The department has undertaken the commitment to support the reintegration of compatriots from a working and financial point of view, but is also evaluating the possibility of sending its workers to other countries (in particular Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Hungary and Japan).
315 million dollars to guarantee assistance. The local news site Rappler calculated that for a total of 370 thousand repatriated migrants, the Philippine government would have to find 18.5 billion pesos (over 315 million dollars) to guarantee everyone adequate assistance. Between 2014 and 2024, around 10,600 Filipinos were expelled from the US (an average of more or less 1,000 per year), including around 3,500 during Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2020. Even the Philippine ambassador to the US , Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez, had advised illegal workers to leave the country voluntarily. In fact, the majority of Filipinos obtain a regular work visa, but, once it expires, they prefer to remain in the United States, often continuing to work illegally.
Illegal immigrants in the USA are not just Latinos. Illegal migrants in the US do not only come from Latin America. The most recent data on their composition dates back to 2022 and indicates that of the 11 million undocumented people, approximately 1.7 million are from Asia. More than half are Indians and Chinese, followed by Filipinos, South Koreans, Vietnamese, Pakistanis, Nepalese, Thais, Afghans and Bangladeshis. In the last year alone, 1,100 Indians were expelled out of a total number (but still dating back to 2022) of 725 thousand in irregular conditions.
An 855% increase in asylum requests. Unlike official migration data, data from American courts is more up-to-date. From these it emerges that between 2021 and 2023 there was an 855% increase in asylum requests in the United States by Indians (of which the vast majority came from Gujarat), rising from 4,330 to 41,330.
India’s migratory pressure. Last year, India was the fifth largest country in terms of requests for defensive asylum (the one that is debated during a removal hearing, as opposed to the affirmative one in which the applicant has to apply immediately) after Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia and Nicaragua . But India was also the fifth largest nationality to have obtained international protection after Afghanistan, China, Venezuela and El Salvador.
The Chinese crossing the border from Mexico. In the last two years, US authorities on the border with Mexico have recorded the presence of over 55,000 Chinese migrants. In 2022 there were 375 thousand irregular Chinese, a figure which has probably been increasing in recent times due to China’s economic difficulties. Between 2011 and 2022 alone there was an increase of over 15% in irregular Chinese immigration (compared to 70.6% for Indian immigration) and it is known that migrants from China arrive by plane in Ecuador and then continue on foot the journey to the United States. If in 2022 there were 13 thousand Chinese arrivals in Latin America, last year the number exceeded 45 thousand entries.
The different fate of South Koreans. There were 110,000 South Koreans considered illegal in the US in 2022, but their situation is completely different from that of economic migrants. Many were adopted by U.S. couples between the end of the Korean War in 1953 and the late 1980s, when South Korea was still ruled by a military dictatorship and adoptions occurred without certifying that the children were orphans. Citizenship was never granted due to a legislative gap: in 2000 a law was approved that automatically naturalized children given up for adoption, but only if they were under 18 years old, a condition that South Koreans did not fall under.
20% of adult South Koreans face deportation. Now, about 20% of South Korean adults adopted in the past 60 years face deportation. This is what already happened to Adam Crapser, who in 2016 was forced to leave the United States, despite not knowing the Korean language and culture, and having two American children. His legal battle against the South Korean government, which began in 2019 and will receive the final verdict in January next year, has brought to light the plight of hundreds of adoptees whose origins have been falsified or hidden.
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