WASHINGTON, D.C. — Close to 4,000 undocumented Filipinos are in the “system” of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which is primarily responsible for deporting individuals who have violated immigration laws.

A document dated November 2024 said there were a total of 3,772 Filipinos classified as “non-citizens” on ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations’ “non-detained docket with final orders of removal.”

Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez said the issue of immigration would “probably not” be discussed during the first bilateral meeting between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and US President Donald Trump slated for Monday.

“I think we probably will not need to because we’ve had discussions already. I’ve had meetings with the Department of Homeland Security on how we will cooperate with the United States in handling illegal immigration,” Romualdez told reporters on Sunday at the Philippine Embassy in Washington.

He reiterated that undocumented Filipinos in the US should be proactive and contact immigration lawyers before it is too late.

“As I have always said, those that are on illegal paths should have already contacted immigration lawyers. We have the volunteer Filipino-American Lawyers Association that has come forward to help our kababayan,” he said.

“But I think at the end of the day, the laws of the United States must be respected, just like we expect citizens who come to the Philippines to respect our laws,” he added.

Romualdez said the majority of the undocumented Filipinos on the ICE radar are on the West Coast, particularly California.

“Well, a large number of Filipinos are concentrated in California, so you can imagine that we may have quite a number of them on the West Coast,” he said.

“We do have some of them, of course, here on the East Coast. But generally, the concentration of Filipinos is in California,” he added.