Donald Trump is in hot water with the Asian community, both in the U.S. and in the Philippines, following his call for a ban on immigrants from “terrorist nations” that included the Southeast Asian country.
At a rally in Maine last Thursday, Trump said “We are letting people come in from terrorist nations. An immigrant from Afghanistan who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship, an illegal 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.”
Though he did not directly refer to Filipinos “terrorists” as he has done for immigrants from countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, Pakistan and Syria, Trump said people from the Philippines were among the “Trojan horses” who enter the country as threats to peace. The Republican presidential nominee went on to call people from those nations “animals.”
Filipino Americans make up the second-largest Asian American sub-group in the country, according to Pew Research Center.
Joey Salceda, a Philippines lawmaker, drew up a bill to ban Trump from entering the Philippines in response. The bill, which expresses concern for the four-million-strong Filipino American population if Trump were to take the presidential seat, reads in part: “Because of his current status as a candidate of a major political party for president of the most powerful country of the world, his remarks have had widespread dissemination, thus aggravating the shame it has already put Filipinos and Filipino Muslims, including Filipino migrants and overseas Filipino workers who this House and our society have recognized as modern heroes of our country.”
Sen. Brian Schatz, of Hawaii, said in a statement that Trump’s statements “demonstrates an absolute ignorance of the contributions that Filipino Americans have made to American society. … It also fails to recognize what a strong relationship the U.S. and the Philippines have and have had for many, many decades.”
Sen. Mazie Hirono, who is spearheading an effort to award Filipino World War II veterans with a Congressional Gold Medal for their service, said that Trump’s statement is “ridiculous on its face.”
“Attacks on Filipino immigrants and other immigrant groups have no place in our national dialogue, much less from a major party nominee for president,” Hirono told West Hawaii Today. “The America he envisions is the complete opposite of the America millions of Filipino immigrants have worked so hard to shape … It’s not the America my mother envisioned when she brought me to this country.”
