Double-Crossed: Rethinking Filipino American Faith after Crimmigration

As many as 370,000 Filipinos live in the United States without legal status. Under the Trump presidency, their daily lives were plagued by fears of state violence in the forms of incarceration and deportation. Despite his promises, President Biden has not succeeded in changing U.S. immigration policies. Seizing on a crisis at the Southern border, nativists have continued to depict undocumented immigrants as “illegals” who are a danger to American society, even though empirical studies have consistently shown otherwise. In this paper, I examine the lived realities of undocumented Filipino Americans in order to challenge assumptions about their Christian faith and ethics. By situating their decisions historically and sociologically, I show that they are not only victims of largely-hidden legal violence, but that their communities offer important contributions to the work of nonviolent resistance.