James Aranas
Roy Francisco has confirmed on his Facebook page that James Aranas was detained and deported back to the Philippines in the same manner that Dennis Orcollo was detained and deported earlier this year.
In his Facebook post, Francisco said that he feared that Aranas might be on a list of flagged players and his fears were proven true when Aranas was detained at LAX on February 3rd.
Aranas informed Francisco that he was being held in a room with a number of athletes and artists from outside of the United States who were on tourist VISAs. Most of them being from Europe. He was held and questioned for twenty seven hours before having his VISA revoked, a citation issued and being informed that he was banned from entering the United States for the next five years.
Additionally, Aranas was informed that participating in tournament in the US on a tourist VISA was what he had done wrong and that he would need to obtain an Athletes VISA or a Working VISA.
At least for now, Aranas will be in the same position as countryman Orcollo as they attempt to fight this ban and obtain the required paperwork to re-enter the United States in order to compete.
Francisco expressed his concerns that Orcollo and Aranas will not be the last Filipino players to have these same tourist VISA issue’s and warns any other Filipino players entering the country to make sure they have the proper paperwork, or are prepared for a quick trip back home.
