Community members call for the Philippine government to help migrants facing exploitation and ICE terror as part of a global day of action
NEW YORK— On Monday, July 27, over 200 Filipinos and allies from across the Northeast held the People’s State of the Nation Address (PSONA) in direct response to Marcos Jr.’s State of the Nation address. Community members rallied in front of the Philippine Consulate General and Cerberus Capital Management headquarters, against the Marcos administration’s human rights violations, military defense deals and blatant lack of support for Philippine nationals facing ICE detention and deportation.
Led by BAYAN USA, Malaya Movement USA, and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP-US), the rally and march to Cerberus featured community members who spoke about their experiences and the lived realities of Filipinos in their homelands.
Speakers also spoke out against Pax Silica, a U.S.-led economic and industrial initiative centered on a 4,000 acre “economic zone” given to the U.S. by the Marcos Jr. administration in New Clark City, Tarlac, within the Luzon Economic Corridor. Noting this project as another example of uneven diplomatic relations between the two countries, speakers also said that the natural resources required to power Pax Silica would be detrimental to the environment during an oil and energy crisis in the country and will also displace indigenous people, fisherfolk and farmers in the area.
Speakers from Filipino organizations also called out the failure of the Philippine Consulate to protect migrants facing workplace abuses and for failing to support migrants in detention, including Kuya Raul, a Philippine national who had lived in Jersey City, New Jersey and was taken by ICE last Friday. Filipino organizations have been working to prevent his transfer to a facility out of state.
