MANILA — The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Saturday advised Filipinos in the United States to stay “low key” and work on legalizing their stay to avoid deportation amid the Trump administration’s fresh crackdown on illegal migrants.

”’Yung mga overstaying Filipinos… maybe it is best to be low profile and not join rallies,” DFA Undersecretary Eduardo De Vega said in a news forum.

“Our advice is to keep as low profile as possible and work on your legalization,” he said.

Some Filipinos risk deportation amid Trump's immigration crackdown: ambassador

De Vega said he is optimistic that most Filipino immigrants would not be the target of US President Donald Trump’s push to rid America of illegal aliens.

“He is targeting criminals, terrorist threats… most important yung milyon-milyon na pinasok ng Biden administration na wala namang benefit sa US,” the DFA official said.

“Filipinos are not like that… They are productive members of the us economy and a lot of them are conservatives,” he said.

“I am confident that we will not see a sudden, biglang akyat [ng deported Filipinos from the US].”

Should there be Filipinos subject to deportation, the Philippines has a P1-billion fund “to cover assistance for all fields, for all overseas Filipino workers,” De Vega said.

Of the 2.16 million overseas Filipino workers in 2023, only 9.8 percent were working in North and South America, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

There are some 300,000 Filipino workers in the US, De Vega said.

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