Marcos seeks immigration talks with Trump
Amid the deportation of 24 Filipino immigrants from the United States due to their alleged involvement in crimes, President Marcos said he would visit Washington to meet with US President Donald Trump to discuss several issues, including the latter’s stricter policies against illegal immigrants.
“I will meet with President Trump because I should, because there’s much that we need to discuss between the US and the Philippines in terms of trade, in terms of defense and security, and now, the new policy on immigration,” Mr. Marcos told reporters at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport on Thursday.
He noted that 24 Filipino migrants had already been sent home from the US due to their alleged involvement in crimes as Trump cracks down on immigrants with criminal records and those illegally staying in the US.
“This is something that we have to work through and hopefully resolve because the Filipinos in the United States, especially, have really formed a very important part already of their workforce,” the President said.
“So we’ll see how we can influence the policy-making in terms of immigration,” he added.
No schedule yet
Asked for additional details, Malacañang said no date has been set for Mr. Marcos’ visit to Washington.
At the same time, the President declined to comment for now on Trump’s 90-day suspension of foreign assistance programs and grants.
“It’s not yet clear, so it’s hard to comment on the freezing of aid…It’s very unclear what it is. Because even the agencies in the US government don’t understand what it means. What programs will be hit, what aid funds will be slashed,” the President said.
According to him, these issues are the “growing pains of a new administration” that will be eventually clarified and smoothened out.
“I’m sure that with time, these policies will crystallize and will become clearer. And by which time, I will have a chance to visit President Trump and we can discuss it with a better understanding of what the policies are,” Mr. Marcos added.
Earlier, National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the freeze on US foreign aid programs would only have a “minimal direct effect” on the Philippine economy.
Balisacan said most of the country’s loans were with Japan, Korea and other multilateral lending institutions like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
