VTMBH Article: Body
Fifty-two Filipinos will be deported on June 23, for violating United States immigration laws.
They will be shipped out of the country to the Philippines by a special chartered flight arranged and paid for by the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) from El Centro, California.
It is expected to be a painful moment, a wrenching, shame-filled and fearful process for the deportees and their families and friends in the United States and in the Philippines.
For the first time, the United States will deport en masse Filipinos who have stayed illegally in the country, a move accelerated by the September 11th terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. However, it is a practice already done with nationals of El Salvador and Canada who had broken U.S. immigration laws.
Also, for the first time the Philippine Embassy is compelled to reach out to the Filipino deportees with a compassionate hand and a sympathetic presence during the deportation process and long flight back home.
It is a gesture that deepens the brand of public service and humanitarian diplomacy of Philippine ambassador to the U.S. Albert F. del Rosario who has proactively urged for the humane and dignified treatment of all Filipino deportees from America, now and in the future.
Del Rosario, a corporate chieftain and business warrior before becoming a diplomat last summer, has taken three steps to soften the deportation blow, shield deportees from harm and set the embassys policy of compassionate assistance to Filipinos being forced to leave the U.S.
These are: 1) ensure that all present and future deportees have been and will be afforded due process before their actual removal from the U.S.; 2) make every effort to ensure that Filipino deportees are treated humanely and accorded dignity; and 3) direct all consular outposts of the Philippines in the U.S. to obtain access to all Filipino deportees as well as current INS detainees.
Significantly, the ambassador formally expressed to the INS his objections to any physical restraints imposed on the Filipino deportees such as manacles, handcuffs or leg chains during their flight back to the Philippines. His objections were prompted by initial information from the INS that the deportees would be put under restraint during the flight for security reasons.
The envoy, himself a World War II child refugee in the U.S. from the Philippines, also forwarded his objections in a formal letter to the State Department.
Del Rosario specifically instructed all Philippine consular officials in the U.S. to provide free travel documents to the deportees, with the processing fees waived. But this step must be taken only after due process has been accorded the deportees, his instructions said.
He instructed furthermore consular officers to obtain the names of the deportees families or relatives and their contacts, data that would be sent to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila.
The DFA is expected to contact the deportees kin in the Philippines and make arrangements for them to meet the arriving Filipinos.
Consul Henry Bensurto, the embassys legal officer, has been deputized by Del Rosario to escort the deportees who are expected to fly out from California, stop over for refueling in Hawaii and proceed to the Philippines. The chartered private airliner is expected to land in any of the two former military bases, Subic or Clark, the embassy said.
The role of Bensurto, as official Philippine escort to the group deportation, is unprecedented, the embassy said, although Filipino consular officers have time and again accompanied Filipino evacuees from wars and overseas crises in the last part of the 20th century.
Bensurto, a veteran diplomatic hand in the resolution of the infamous Contemplacion case (of the Filipina domestic helper who died by hanging in Singapore) and a newly minted father of a five-month-old son, told the Reporter he welcomed the role as companion to the deportees. Its part of pakikiramay empathy and compassion, Filipino style, he said.
Being deported is a said circumstance, its not in the best of times. By accompanying the deportees, were trying to assuage our kababayans anxieties, he said in a telephone interview. Were not condoning their having broken immigration laws. The ambassador and we in the embassy all want to help. We want to be sure somebody is there with them (during the deportation flight) to assuage their sadness. Its a humanitarian gesture to our fellow Filipinos, our kababayans.
Bensurto said as we go to the press that he was negotiating for a seating space in the INS chartered flight. It looks like the INS will allow me to board the plane and be the escort, they are cooperating nicely, he said.
About four deportees in the embassys consular turf have also been in contact with the consul by phone. They are all very sad, fearful and anxious, they ask me ikukulong ba ako, anong mangyayari sa akin? (will I be jailed), noted Bensurto.
I encouraged them to look forward, to not lose hope, to see that deportation is not the end, that something good will come out of this experience, he said, adding that the deportees will be allowed to bring personal effects but no balikbayan boxes, just the regulation 40 pounds of baggage.
As of Thursday, 51 Filipino men and one Filipina, all of them grown-ups, have been confirmed as deportees on June 23 by the INS. Their names have been given to the Philippine Embassy here but the consulate has kept the list under wraps to protect the privacy of these kababayans and shield them further from embarrassment that publicity might bring.
William Manalastas, 45, of Kentucky, will be one of the June 23 deportees, an official told the Reporter. He has been an INS detainee at the Grayson County Detention Center in Leitchfield, Kentucky, one of the 210 foreign nationals, mostly from South Asian and Middle Eastern countries, targeted and tracked down by the INS after September 11th.
Manalastas, his wife and four daughters arrived from the Philippines almost 10 years ago landing first in New Jersey. But they overstayed, violating INS orders to leave the country by settling down in Elizabethtown, Ky. to build their American dream.
Officials here said that Myrna Manalastas and her daughters have also been given final orders for deportation. However, the INS took a step backward and allowed Mrs. Manalastas and her daughters to be free from detention and to be able to travel around the country pending their return to the Philippines.
However, Filipino consular officials expect the number to rise to as many as 70 as the deportation date approaches. The INS is continuing deportation proceedings of illegal aliens, whose backlog of 314,000 has been placed in the services Absconders Apprehension List, according to the INS press office here.
The embassy and its consular outposts in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago are expecting future waves of group deportation of Filipinos, and are continuing to refine their means of compassionate assistance to them.
The INS is poised to deport groups of Pakistanis also next week. Cambodians, as many as 1,400 of them either residing illegally or convicted of crimes across the country, are also under the gun.
A significant move of Del Rosario is his request to U.S. authorities to accord the deportees with dignity and humaneness.
On Wednesday, he wrote to the INS Special Removal Branch, the unit carrying out the deportation action, expressing his objection to the idea of putting the Filipino deportees in manacles and physical restraints during their flight back home.
Although these Filipinos may have violated the immigration laws (of the U.S.), wrote the ambassador, They are not necessarily criminals who could pose a dangerous threat to any individual or the aircraft during the flight to the Philippines.
The Filipino deportees should be treated more humanely and in a manner consistent with the dignity of each individual during the flight without necessarily compromising the security of the passengers and the aircraft.
The INS said that the special chartered flight would slash the high cost of deporting individuals.
Deporting a Filipino individual with the regular two INS escorts costs $10,000. The INS decision to deport the Filipinos in groups and batches is an economic one, officials said.
The Filipinos are being deported not because they are terrorists or suspected as such but because of their illegal stay in the country.
The INS said that the deportees have been served with deportation orders but they have evaded these. Absconders, they were included in the apprehension list that was triggered after September 11th.
The INS assured the embassy that all the deportees have been afforded due legal process and that Filipinos were not being targeted as a result of 9/11. The INS has also been cooperating with the embassy in providing the deportees a human and dignified way to exit America, officials said.
They will be shipped out of the country to the Philippines by a special chartered flight arranged and paid for by the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) from El Centro, California.
It is expected to be a painful moment, a wrenching, shame-filled and fearful process for the deportees and their families and friends in the United States and in the Philippines.
For the first time, the United States will deport en masse Filipinos who have stayed illegally in the country, a move accelerated by the September 11th terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. However, it is a practice already done with nationals of El Salvador and Canada who had broken U.S. immigration laws.
Also, for the first time the Philippine Embassy is compelled to reach out to the Filipino deportees with a compassionate hand and a sympathetic presence during the deportation process and long flight back home.
It is a gesture that deepens the brand of public service and humanitarian diplomacy of Philippine ambassador to the U.S. Albert F. del Rosario who has proactively urged for the humane and dignified treatment of all Filipino deportees from America, now and in the future.
Del Rosario, a corporate chieftain and business warrior before becoming a diplomat last summer, has taken three steps to soften the deportation blow, shield deportees from harm and set the embassys policy of compassionate assistance to Filipinos being forced to leave the U.S.
These are: 1) ensure that all present and future deportees have been and will be afforded due process before their actual removal from the U.S.; 2) make every effort to ensure that Filipino deportees are treated humanely and accorded dignity; and 3) direct all consular outposts of the Philippines in the U.S. to obtain access to all Filipino deportees as well as current INS detainees.
Significantly, the ambassador formally expressed to the INS his objections to any physical restraints imposed on the Filipino deportees such as manacles, handcuffs or leg chains during their flight back to the Philippines. His objections were prompted by initial information from the INS that the deportees would be put under restraint during the flight for security reasons.
The envoy, himself a World War II child refugee in the U.S. from the Philippines, also forwarded his objections in a formal letter to the State Department.
Del Rosario specifically instructed all Philippine consular officials in the U.S. to provide free travel documents to the deportees, with the processing fees waived. But this step must be taken only after due process has been accorded the deportees, his instructions said.
He instructed furthermore consular officers to obtain the names of the deportees families or relatives and their contacts, data that would be sent to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila.
The DFA is expected to contact the deportees kin in the Philippines and make arrangements for them to meet the arriving Filipinos.
Consul Henry Bensurto, the embassys legal officer, has been deputized by Del Rosario to escort the deportees who are expected to fly out from California, stop over for refueling in Hawaii and proceed to the Philippines. The chartered private airliner is expected to land in any of the two former military bases, Subic or Clark, the embassy said.
The role of Bensurto, as official Philippine escort to the group deportation, is unprecedented, the embassy said, although Filipino consular officers have time and again accompanied Filipino evacuees from wars and overseas crises in the last part of the 20th century.
Bensurto, a veteran diplomatic hand in the resolution of the infamous Contemplacion case (of the Filipina domestic helper who died by hanging in Singapore) and a newly minted father of a five-month-old son, told the Reporter he welcomed the role as companion to the deportees. Its part of pakikiramay empathy and compassion, Filipino style, he said.
Being deported is a said circumstance, its not in the best of times. By accompanying the deportees, were trying to assuage our kababayans anxieties, he said in a telephone interview. Were not condoning their having broken immigration laws. The ambassador and we in the embassy all want to help. We want to be sure somebody is there with them (during the deportation flight) to assuage their sadness. Its a humanitarian gesture to our fellow Filipinos, our kababayans.
Bensurto said as we go to the press that he was negotiating for a seating space in the INS chartered flight. It looks like the INS will allow me to board the plane and be the escort, they are cooperating nicely, he said.
About four deportees in the embassys consular turf have also been in contact with the consul by phone. They are all very sad, fearful and anxious, they ask me ikukulong ba ako, anong mangyayari sa akin? (will I be jailed), noted Bensurto.
I encouraged them to look forward, to not lose hope, to see that deportation is not the end, that something good will come out of this experience, he said, adding that the deportees will be allowed to bring personal effects but no balikbayan boxes, just the regulation 40 pounds of baggage.
As of Thursday, 51 Filipino men and one Filipina, all of them grown-ups, have been confirmed as deportees on June 23 by the INS. Their names have been given to the Philippine Embassy here but the consulate has kept the list under wraps to protect the privacy of these kababayans and shield them further from embarrassment that publicity might bring.
William Manalastas, 45, of Kentucky, will be one of the June 23 deportees, an official told the Reporter. He has been an INS detainee at the Grayson County Detention Center in Leitchfield, Kentucky, one of the 210 foreign nationals, mostly from South Asian and Middle Eastern countries, targeted and tracked down by the INS after September 11th.
Manalastas, his wife and four daughters arrived from the Philippines almost 10 years ago landing first in New Jersey. But they overstayed, violating INS orders to leave the country by settling down in Elizabethtown, Ky. to build their American dream.
Officials here said that Myrna Manalastas and her daughters have also been given final orders for deportation. However, the INS took a step backward and allowed Mrs. Manalastas and her daughters to be free from detention and to be able to travel around the country pending their return to the Philippines.
However, Filipino consular officials expect the number to rise to as many as 70 as the deportation date approaches. The INS is continuing deportation proceedings of illegal aliens, whose backlog of 314,000 has been placed in the services Absconders Apprehension List, according to the INS press office here.
The embassy and its consular outposts in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago are expecting future waves of group deportation of Filipinos, and are continuing to refine their means of compassionate assistance to them.
The INS is poised to deport groups of Pakistanis also next week. Cambodians, as many as 1,400 of them either residing illegally or convicted of crimes across the country, are also under the gun.
A significant move of Del Rosario is his request to U.S. authorities to accord the deportees with dignity and humaneness.
On Wednesday, he wrote to the INS Special Removal Branch, the unit carrying out the deportation action, expressing his objection to the idea of putting the Filipino deportees in manacles and physical restraints during their flight back home.
Although these Filipinos may have violated the immigration laws (of the U.S.), wrote the ambassador, They are not necessarily criminals who could pose a dangerous threat to any individual or the aircraft during the flight to the Philippines.
The Filipino deportees should be treated more humanely and in a manner consistent with the dignity of each individual during the flight without necessarily compromising the security of the passengers and the aircraft.
The INS said that the special chartered flight would slash the high cost of deporting individuals.
Deporting a Filipino individual with the regular two INS escorts costs $10,000. The INS decision to deport the Filipinos in groups and batches is an economic one, officials said.
The Filipinos are being deported not because they are terrorists or suspected as such but because of their illegal stay in the country.
The INS said that the deportees have been served with deportation orders but they have evaded these. Absconders, they were included in the apprehension list that was triggered after September 11th.
The INS assured the embassy that all the deportees have been afforded due legal process and that Filipinos were not being targeted as a result of 9/11. The INS has also been cooperating with the embassy in providing the deportees a human and dignified way to exit America, officials said.