Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez admitted that there are already "quite a number" of undocumented Filipinos who are being detained or processed for deportation amid United States President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants.

(From left) Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez and  President Donald Trump during a meeting at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida.  (Photo courtesy of Amb. Romualdez)

In an interview on ANC’s “Headstart” on Tuesday, March 25, the envoy said the Filipinos are being detained in many parts of the US.
 

He, however, refused to divulge the actual number of illegally staying Filipinos awaiting deportation as he wants to keep the number “confidential”.
 

“But quite a number have already been detained and have been processed for deportation. The last one we reported was about 30 of them and I think there are quite a number that have already been put in detention in many parts of the United States that had already been considered to be undocumented and ready for deportation,” he added.
 

Romualdez advised that it is best for Filipinos to “just simply voluntarily leave” if “there is absolutely no chance for you to legally stay.”
 

“Why? Because then you’ll have the chance to be able to come back and you don’t go through that harrowing experience of being in a detention center,” the ambassador stressed, noting that a stay in a detention center can take weeks or months “depending on the people that they are trying to process.”
 

Meanwhile, Romualdez said that Lewelyn Dixon, a 64-year-old Filipino green card holder who has been a permanent US resident for 50 years and was detained by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) upon her return from a vacation, has “a very strong case.”
 

“She has a very strong case of being able to appeal this and it can be reinstated…They have a very good case to be able to keep her green card and remain in the United States because she already served basically whatever it was,” he explained.
 

Reports said that Dixon was previously convicted for embezzlement in 2001, for which she paid a $6,400 fine and stayed in a halfway house for 30 days.
 

Her travel outside the US, Newsweek quoted her lawyer Benjamin Osorio as saying, triggered the issue.