OPINION: I don’t need ICE, I need ‘aircon’

FILE PHOTO (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Manitoba, Canada has so many Filipinos. There are more Filipinos than Latinos in Winnipeg.

That’s where I’ll be doing my Emil Amok monologues starting July 16-28. If you’re near, or have relatives in Canada, tell them to check it out. Get your tickets here.

So how’d that happen? All the Filipino Canadians, that is.

When immigration to the US got hard, Canada became an option in the diaspora.

It’s all about the gatekeeper’s mindset. And these days, Donald Trump is taking us so far back in history, we should know we’ve been here before – if only we learned our Filipino American history.

Of course, Trump wants to take us back to the gilded age when tariffs were a thing. But when it comes to the movement of people, Trump doesn’t take us that far back to the 1870s. He stops at  1924, when the most hateful US immigration laws were in force setting some sort of quota for immigration from all countries.

Except for Asian countries, where the quota was zero.

Filipinos were the exception. Filipino Exceptionalism? Not exactly like “American Exceptionalism.” We weren’t the chosen ones, the models.

We were just  the colonized ones.

And it’s all due to President William McKinley, the man who Trump most wants to emulate, Filipinos were called “nationals.” We weren’t citizens, just “colonized.” Sort of Americans. The term “nationals” branded us. We didn’t need papers. We were legally undocumented.

That’s how my father got here in the 1920s. And why I celebrate July.

My father, Willie, with his younger brother Joe, were the first Guillermos to arrive in America.

The first of the chain.

On 7-11.

It wasn’t a convenient day.

It was a gamble.

My father traveled from Ilocos Norte, Philippines, to San Francisco on a steam boat to America, a month in steerage in his lone good suit, and he was on a life’s mission.

I honor his arrival that day every chance I get.

But this 7-11, was my lucky day.

I was in trouble and an immigrant saved me.

Don’t send ICE – Send the HVAC guy

It was a hot day turning into night. I didn’t need ICE.

I needed HVAC.

My air conditioner broke at 5:55 p.m. on a Friday night, just before most people quit to live for the weekend.

The last time something like this happened to me, I wasn’t at home.

I was broken down on the road on the weekend of the Fourth of July, in  Des Moines, Iowa.

So I knew I wasn’t destitute. Desperate, but not destitute.

I made two calls.The first company said, no can do.

They do HV but no AC.

They referred me to a big established company in my area.

And they had an AI on the phones taking my order.

Could they help me now, at 6 p.m. on a hot Friday night?

The AI wasn’t human enough to consider anything but no.

 “Tuesday,” said Olivia the AI.

There had to be a better choice.

The third call was to a company called 1st Call Heating and Air Conditioning.

I should have called them first.

”We can be there in 30 minutes,” said Alberto Hernandez, the very human owner.

He was there in under that time, with his coworker, his 18-year-old son, Kevin, who acts as an apprentice in the family-owned business.

I thought the AC problem was upstairs where the fan was blowing hot not cool air.

But Alberto knew exactly what the problem was and went to check the unit outside the house.

In less than 30 minutes he had diagnosed and fixed my issue.

Catastrophe averted. Things were cool again.

And the price was about half what the other established non-immigrant-owned company would have charged.

I gave Alberto and Kevin some ice water as they finished. Kevin did most of the work as his dad’s apprentice. One day he’ll be ready to take over the family business.

I was impressed by the eagerness to provide a good service, their quick but thorough work, and the fair price. Guaranteed for a year.

Plus on a hot Friday night, there was no gouge.

They were happy to be of service.

They also were aware of the news that day, the ICE overreaction to protestors at a marijuana farm in Camarillo.

Juan Duran cries outside of Glass House Farms, where a relative was injured during a previous day immigration raid, on Friday, July 11, 2025, in Camarillo, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Alberto knew all about the story, and had a definite opinion. He’s careful. He’s a Mexican immigrant. A naturalized American. His son was born in America. A citizen by birthright. They’re both proud  Mexican Americans, but also wary.

People get profiled, Alberto implied, pointing to his dark skin.

It was as dark as mine.

Alberto’s tale, like ours

Alberto told me how he got to America from Mexico in 1987 and worked in textiles. But something about the HVAC trade lured him, and he went to school, earned his industry certifications, and began working for others.

In 2019, he started his family- owned business. He tries not to let what’s happening with ICE concern him too much.

But he’s aware people like him, people like us, with brown skin are too often looked on with suspicion.

All I know is when I called the mainstream companies, they’d all quit for the weekend and had  AI answer the phone.

Alberto answered his phone, came to my house in 30 minutes, and fixed my problems in less than an hour.

That’s the immigrant drive in 2025. We don’t need to harass them, in order to find the handful of people who are not here legally or have done unlawful things.

The Trump administration needn’t act unfairly or at times unlawfully to make Americans feel safe. Doing it wrong creates fear and xenophobia, chases people into the shadows.

The Trump administration’s roundup was supposed to be about getting the bad guys not the good ones.

Too many times, they’re just looking for a brown person. Any brown one will do.

And people like Alberto and his son, the hard working, ambitious immigrants too often get caught in the middle.

Let’s not let that happen. They are legitimate Americans with plenty to offer trying not to get caught in the middle.

Like my Dad, among the first immigrants from the Philippines, they were just looking for a better opportunity that was better than a gamble.

When you watch the news, understand America has been here before.

We should know better.

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist, news analyst and comic stage performer. He writes for the Inquirer.net’s US Channel. He has written a weekly “Amok” column on Asian American issues since 1995. Find him on YouTube, patreon and substack. See Emil live in his “Emil Amok, 69,” a storytelling show at the Winnipeg Fringe.