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    • Fear of ‘scary’ days ahead for some immigrants upon Trump’s return
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    Fear of ‘scary’ days ahead for some immigrants upon Trump’s return

    Harry Posted on

    Giddel Contreras lives in the Bronx, works as a chef at a hotel-resort in Queens, and is as much a New Yorker as anyone.

    But the Honduran native’s decision to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border in 1995 may now be targeted for deportation – despite being married to a US citizen for over a decade, living and working legally in the US for over 25 years, and having a child who is a US citizen.

    Donald Trump’s resounding victory On Tuesday, he offers a clear mandate for his promise to mass deport illegal immigrants in the United States. His plan also includes canceling some immigration benefits that keep millions of immigrants with their families; “temporary protection status,” or TPS, which allows Contreras and people from certain countries stay in the usa.

    “Scary times,” said Maribel Hernández Rivera, his wife and an immigration attorney. He is also director of policy and government affairs for the ACLU, which helped file the lawsuit that blocked Trump’s first attempt to repeal TPS.

    Trump said mass deportation was a necessary step to protect the country from “criminal, illegal aliens.” majority of American voters – more than one 73 million – agreed.

    Millions of Latinos were among the voters who supported Trump’s campaign. Trump won nearly 45% of Latino voters in this election; This rate was a significant increase from the 32% Latino voter rate he won in 2020. According to CNN exit poll.

    In his victory speech on election night, Trump reiterated his plans for tighter controls on immigrants: “We’re going to have to close these borders and we’re going to have to let people come into our country. We want people to come back. But we have to, we have to let them come back, but they have to come in legally.” .”

    Now immigrant families are beginning to face many realities, from the widespread threat of deportation to the realization that a broad swath of Americans don’t want them here.

    More than 19 million Latinos in America live in the same household with an immigrant, according to an analysis by FWD.us. Almost a third could see their family being separated Under Trump’s immigration enforcement plan.

    Juan Proaño, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), said “you’re talking about going into the homes of people with mixed-status families” to deport more than 11 million people as Trump has promised.

    “There is one parent that is documented, and the ones that are not are children who are U.S. citizens,” he said. “Are you taking the mother? Are you taking the father? Are you deporting the whole family?”

    Michael Kagan, who directs the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Immigration Clinic, said Trump’s victory has sparked a wave of fear and anxiety among immigrant communities nationally.

    “I think this is a very scary moment,” he said. “If we go into full deportation with the National Guard and desert detention camps, things are going to get very, very scary.”

    More: Trump’s deportation plan: Cost to taxpayers, billions to big corporations

    Hernández Rivera said she was encouraged by the legal challenges to Trump’s agenda, which successfully protected her husband and many others last time.

    “We litigated constantly during the first Trump administration,” he said. “This is what we are doing. We are well aware that a second Trump administration promises to be more brutal and less constrained by law.”

    Federal authorities oppose ‘sanctuary’ cities

    Trump failed to achieve his goals of mass deportation in his first term after facing legal hurdles and “sanctuary” jurisdictions from San Francisco to Chicago to New York City refusing to work with him.

    On Thursday, California Governor Gavin Newsom called: a special legislative session to determine strategy How the state will oppose Trump’s plans, including providing funds to fight attempts to end protections for immigrants brought to the country as children.

    In New York, Manuel Castro, the city’s immigration affairs official, warned about the spread of misinformation in immigrant communities and warned against “the generation of panic and fear.”

    He said New York City institutions, including the police, will respect the city’s housing laws and that immigrants should not be afraid to seek services.

    “We expect all of our city institutions to abide by our sacred laws,” Castro said at Wednesday’s news conference. “We will continue to protect our immigrant communities.”

    But Trump has threatened to restrict federal resources to sanctuaries that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, which could put some cash-strapped cities in a difficult position.

    New York City, Chicago and Denver last December Requested federal aid To help house tens of thousands of immigrants left without money after Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott, I took them there from the border by bus.

    In April, the Department of Homeland Security awarded more than $300 million in grants to cities struggling with humanitarian crises through the Housing and Services Program. more than 20 million dollars To New York’s Office of Management and Budget.

    The optics of Abbott’s busing programforcing cities to provide shelter and services to tens of thousands of immigrants, fueled the anger of some Americans The Biden-Harris administration’s management of the border turned voters toward Trump.

    More: ACLU sues feds, questions mass deportation infrastructure

    Hundreds of actions regarding immigration

    Although Trump failed to deliver on his more extreme promises the first time around, including promises to deport millions of people or close the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, the administration has generally been successful in increasing immigration enforcement and making legal immigration more difficult. According to a report by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.

    took over his management 472 administrative actions affecting migration policyAccording to the 2022 report, travel bans targeting Muslim-majority countries; suspension of non-immigrant visa processing; Increasing sanctions against immigrants in the interior.

    Kagan, the Las Vegas professor, said he suspects some Trump voters don’t really understand what a mass deportation would look like, while others may have supported Trump because he promised to address longstanding border concerns and thought he would only target violent criminals.

    But in one of Trump’s first executive orders in 2017, he “made every unauthorized immigrant a priority for detention,” ending Obama-era immigration officials’ discretion to target only criminals for deportation, according to a Migration Policy Institute report. The Biden-Harris administration has redirected ICE to focus on deporting people who pose a threat to national security or are criminals.

    Jessica Orozco Guttlein, senior vice president of policy for the Hispanic Federation, said Trump targeted anyone who is not a citizen or legal permanent resident and “puts everyone on the same level.” “Undocumented immigrants – that is the priority.

    “That’s what promoted the panic” at the time, he said. “People say, ‘Oh my God, we’re all prioritized for deportation. Where’s the safe place?’ ” he said.

    ‘Are they going to take my babies?’

    No president has reached the level of annual deportations reached by Democratic President Barack Obama, who removed more than 407,000 people at his peak in 2012, according to the Syracuse Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. In total, his eight years of management recorded more than 100 records. 3.1 million ICE deportations.

    Trump’s peak year came in 2019, when his administration fired more than 269,000 people, according to the TRAC dataset. During the four years of the Trump administration, ICE recorded just under 932,000 deportations.

    But immigrant advocates say the threat alone is enough to make people uneasy.

    “I vividly remember the fear and anxiety in mixed-status families in 2017,” Orozco Guttlein said. “They weren’t sending their children to school, they were missing work, they weren’t going to hospitals, they were just traveling within the city. This isn’t something we can say won’t happen again.”

    He said the federation’s New York office had begun taking calls.

    “I’ve heard individuals say, ‘I’m undocumented. My children are US citizens. Will the US let me take my children with me, or will they take my babies?’ “We’ve heard questions like, ‘We need to put these things in context: You have the right to be with your children, you have the right to bring your children with you.’

    The nonprofit is working with a network of grassroots organizations to provide “know your rights” workshops and information in the wake of Trump’s victory. He said they will first focus on rural areas such as North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, Wisconsin and Ohio.

    “There is a lot of misinformation and disinformation in these areas and a lack of culturally competent service providers,” he said.

    Trump frequently quoted 1954 deportation sweep as a model for mass deportation efforts. But Kagan said the military-led gang has deported many American citizens of Mexican descent and people living in the United States without legal permission.

    “When we enter into a system of mass deportation, anyone who thinks a piece of paper will save them is naive,” Kagan said.

    Kagan also said she was concerned that self-proclaimed vigilante groups, empowered by Trump’s victory, could begin harassing or attacking immigrant communities under unlawful circumstances.

    “This has happened before, and it’s a risk that’s on the table right now,” Kagan said.

    ‘Scary times’

    Hernández Rivera said she and her husband will take it day by day, just like they did last time.

    He continues to believe that most Americans do not want to see families like his own divided.

    “There’s something big that gives me hope,” he said. “There are a lot of people who support us in this. The majority of the American people don’t want people like my family to leave.”

    Still, he’s not making plans for the couple’s 14th anniversary next year.

    “I’m not sure where we celebrated,” he said. “I hope we are not separated from our loved ones because of cruel policies.”

    Bart Jansen contributed to this report.

    Lauren Villagran can be reached at [email protected].

    Harry
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