No re-entry for deported Pinoys — US Embassy

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — They have reached the point of no return.

The 63 Filipinos deported from the United States who arrived at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) here on a flight chartered by the US government will find it "very difficult" to return to the US, the US Embassy in Manila said.

In an interview with The STAR, US Embassy spokesperson Karen Kelly said the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) would "definitely be on the lookout" against the re-entry of the deported Filipinos, four of them women, into the US.

Citing an official from INS, Kelly also said the deportees have lost any chance of appealing their cases in the US: "They have undergone all the legal processes that led to their deportation and there is no longer any venue for appeal for them."

The 63 deportees were sent home after violating US immigration laws. Some of the deportees were arrested for committing crimes that ranged from minor felonies to child molestation and sexual assault. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said that while some of the deportees were criminally convicted in the US, their deportation was based on their violation of US immigration laws – some were undocumented aliens (TNT, or tago-ng-tago, in the vernacular) or had overstayed.

However, Kelly said the US has not slammed the door in these deportees’ faces. She said there is a slim chance that the deportees may be allowed to return to the US, "but their future application for entry would be scrutinized carefully."

One of the deportees is a 26-year-old man who lived in the state of Florida after his mother married a US serviceman who was once based at Clark Field when the US government still maintained military facilities, Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base, in the Philippines.

He was brought to the US by his mother and foster father when he was only five years old, but his stay in the US was never legitimized. Relatives from Barangay Balibago in Angeles City fetched him from the airport last Tuesday, their first reunion with him since he left the Philippines. Left in the US were his mother, foster father and a half-sister.

Kelly declined to comment on whether this man’s case could be appealed for humanitarian reasons, adding that she is privy to other circumstances surrounding this man’s case.

The deportees were immediately given assistance by the DFA and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) upon their arrival last Tuesday at the DMIA. The DFA covered telephone and travel expenses to enable deportees to return to their hometowns and provinces, while the DSWD ensured that medical and social workers were on hand to meet the deportees who may need their services.

These people were deported as part of the US Department of Justice’s efforts to tighten the country’s internal security against further terrorist attacks. They were also among 314,000 foreign nationals in the US who ignored orders from US courts to leave America under the US justice department’s move to reduce the number of foreign residents in the US who originate from countries that have alleged cells linked to terrorist Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network. The Abu Sayyaf group has been linked by Philippine and US authorities to al-Qaeda.

Meanwhile, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has warned that more Filipinos will be deported by the US government in the days to come.

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said Filipinos overstaying in the US with pending criminal cases are scheduled for deportation soon: "We have received the information that there will be a second batch of deportees, but we do not know how many."– With Mayen Jaymalin