DONALD Trump has declared before that should he be elected President of the United States, he would ban immigration from countries identified to be a hub of terrorists so he could protect America from ISIS. The Philippines has been named by the State Department as one of those countries.
However, it was when Donald Trump mentioned the Philippines in his campaign speech in Portland, Maine that this hit many kababayans to their core. Trump proposed a temporary ban on ALL Muslims from what he called as “terrorist nations”.
“We are letting people come in from terrorist nations that shouldn’t be allowed because you can’t vet them…You have no idea who they are. This could be the great Trojan horse of all time,” he said. Trump warned that terrorists, including members of the Islamic State extremist group, will sneak into the United States as refugees.
Trump then went on to mention immigrants from countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Uzbekistan and Yemen — who were arrested for conducting or threatening to carry out violent attacks, teaching bomb-making to recruits, and otherwise supporting terror groups. [NOTE: permanent residents are NOT illegals]
And then he went on to say in no uncertain terms, that indeed, the Philippines is part of this list of terrorist nations, and I quote:
“An immigrant from Afghanistan, who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, and a legal permanent resident from the Philippines were convicted for plotting to join Al Qaeda and the Taliban in order to kill as many Americans as possible,” Trump said during the rally.
”We’re dealing with animals,” Trump also said earlier in his speech.
But the uproar did not only come from kababayans. Here in the United States, even U.S. politicians came to Filipinos’ defense against Trump’s statement.
As Balitang America Senior Correspondent Henni Espinosa reported on The Filipino Channel, Democratic Senator from Hawaii Brian Schatz was among those who were quick to denounce Trump’s statements saying these do not have a place in American politics.
“His call to ban Filipinos from coming to the US demonstrates an absolute ignorance of the contributions that Filipino-Americans have made to American society but it also fails to recognize the strong relationship that the US and the Philippines have and have had for decades,” Sen. Schatz said. A quarter of Hawaii’s population is Filipinos.
“He doesn’t understand that Asian Americans generally, Filipino-Americans, in particular, are a growing voting bloc, to the extent that they can have an influence on the elections. I have no doubt that they will,” Sen. Schatz added.
Balitang America also reported on the statements two American politicians who are sons of Filipino immigrants.
California Assemblymember Rob Bonta, the first and only Filipino elected to the State Legislature, said in a statement, “ Trump’s sweeping, irresponsible and vitriolic pronouncements on race have no place in our America.” There are more than 1.5 million Filipinos in America, the state with the biggest Filipino population.
In New Jersey, Jersey City Council President Rolando Lavarro Jr. also made strong statements against Trump.
In a report by Balitang America New York Correspondent Don Tagala, Lavarro said, Trump disregards “over a century of relations between the U.S. and the Philippines” and insults over 127,000 Fil-Ams residing in New Jersey.
But there are kababayans who support Trump’s plan. Balitang America Los Angeles Correspondent Steve Angeles interviewed a Filipina who said she agrees with Trump, so long as the temporary ban is for MUSLIMS only.
Do you support Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s plan to ban immigration from the Philippines?
* * *
Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
