Report: 280,000 Filipinos are here illegally



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April 14, 2008

BY RHONY LAIGO
BALITA NEWS SERVICE

WHILE there has been a consistent flow of Filipino immigrants coming to the U.S. from 2005 to 2007, there seems to be no stopping visitors from the Philippines from leaving the country and staying here for good.
In the just released 2007 Legal Permanent Residents Immigration Flow Report of the Department of Homeland Security, the Philippines remained as the third leading country with the most number of legal immigrants who have made the United States their new adopted home.
According to the report, there were 72,596 Filipinos who were admitted in 2007, which is of course a fraction of what is believed to be hundreds of thousands of applications submitted in various family and employment-based categories pending approval at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Along with Mexico, China and India, the Philippines has long wait times in all immigrant visa categories, specifically in the Fourth Preference or sibling petitions, which can take as long as 22 years before they are approved.
The same report said it was in 2006 when more immigrants from the Philippines arrived in the last three years—a total of 74,606 immigrants—a jump of almost 14,000 from the previous year (2005) which had 60,746 Filipinos as new immigrants in the U.S.
However, in another DHS report “Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2006,â€