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Two
More Filipinos Ordered Deported
From Filipino Reporter
July 12-18, 2002
Two more area Filipinos with outstanding deportation orders have
been arrested and jailed by U.S. immigration agents and are expected
to be sent home to the Philippines starting next week, the Filipino
Reporter has learned.
The two Filipino men whose identities are being withheld by the
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) were separately arrested
during the past two weeks in New Jersey and Pennsylvania for ignoring
previous orders that they leave the country voluntarily.
Both men have no criminal records but violated immigration laws
for overstaying despite deportation orders, an INS source said.
The arrests came just days after 62 Filipino nationals were deported
by the INS on a special chartered flight last June 23. Among them
were four Filipinos from the New York tri-state area.
The Philippine Consulate would not comment on the latest arrests
saying it has not yet received official notice from the INS, which
normally coordinates with the consulates or embassies of the nationals
they apprehend for the issuance of travel documents to the deportees.
One of the Filipino men arrested in Philadelphia last week is reportedly
being flown to the Philippines sometime next week. The man was said
to have received his deportation order in 2000.
The other man, reportedly facing deportation in two weeks, moved
to New Jersey to avoid his 1999 deportation order in Los Angeles,
sources said. There are already hundreds of illegal immigrants with
outstanding deportation order who have been tracked down and jailed
by the INS after the 9/11 attacks. But on top of the INS list are
violators from countries where terrorist activities have been linked
to the Al-Qaeda terror network.
From January to April this year, the INS has identified 321,000
illegal aliens who have ignored orders to leave and has been feeding
their names and last known addresses into a national criminal database.
There is no available information how many are Filipinos.
People who disregarded orders to leave the country will not be
ignored anymore, the INS said. Only recently, the Philippine
Consulate in New York has advised Filipinos with outstanding deportation
order to consider going back to the Philippines "voluntarily
and peacefully" rather than being picked up and then jailed
for months before being deported.
Consul Joseph Gerard Angeles said that while there is no crackdown
on illegal immigrants, the INS is seriously tracking down illegal
aliens who have outstanding deportation order.
"Usually in the past, even if you have outstanding deportation
order but did not commit any crime, the INS would just leave you
alone and would simply mark you as having overstayed," Angeles
told the Filipino Reporter shortly before he wrapped up his New
York assignment and returned to Manila more than a week ago.
"But right now, the INS appears to be actively looking for
people with outstanding deportation orders," he said. "If
they want to avoid a situation where the authorities actually pick
them up in their residence to implement the deportation order, they
might want to consider going home voluntarily."
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