Immigrant communities across the United States are in a state of fear and uncertainty after a week of immigration raids and leaks from the Trump administration that have raised the specter of a mass deportations.
The White House denied the most alarming leak – a draft memo suggesting it considered mobilising 100,000 national guard troops to round up and deport unauthorised immigrants, including millions living nowhere near the Mexico border – was current administration policy.
However the 11-page memo has compounded fears among immigrant communities that Trump’s campaign promise of a hardline clampdown on immigration, dismissed by some at the time as little more than heated rhetoric, is about to be realized.
“It’s almost like it’s psychological warfare that’s being waged against people of color to create a constant feeling of fear and uncertainty,” said Juanita Molina, the executive director of Border Action Network, a human rights organization in Tucson, Arizona.
Molina spoke to the Guardian just hours after the Associated Press revealed details of the proposed plan to deploy the national guard against undocumented immigrants in the western US.
“I’ve had border patrol ask me for my documents just going for a jog by my house. I’d go to get a gallon of milk at the store and have officers stop me and say ‘Well, what are you doing?’”, she said. Adding the national guard would be even more “invasive” and add to the already “ominous” atmosphere of border towns, she added.
“We don’t have just basic freedom of movement.”
White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, dismissed the memo, which was written by the US homeland security secretary, John Kelly, a retired four-star marine general. “That is 100% not true,” he said. “It is false. It is irresponsible to be saying this.”
The national guard memo set off shockwaves for immigrant advocates already grappling with the fallout from Trump’s 25 January executive order, which expanded the potential targets for deportation to anyone who has “committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense”.
The implications of the policy became apparent over the past week, as immigrants who could previously consider themselves relatively protected from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) were revealed to be in Ice’s crosshairs.
On 8 February, Guadalupe García de Rayos was arrested and deported to Mexico after her annual check in with Ice officials. The 36-year-old mother had been allowed to remain in the country for years on the condition that she complete the yearly appointments.
Next came a series of Ice raids in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, San Antonio, and New York City, resulting in the arrest of more than 680 people. Though the administration described the actions as “routine”, activists said that the raids were more aggressive and sweeping than was seen under the Obama administration.
This week, two immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program were detained – the first cases of Ice targeting any of the roughly 750,000 people protected by the Obama administration program. (Daca recipients, also known as “Dreamers”, are undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children.)
Taken together, the events carried a clear warning: no one is safe.
“I think of Daca as my own personal form of sanctuary. It allowed me to thrive,” said Sheridan Aguirre, 22, of Austin, Texas. Aguirre was brought to the US from Mexico as a baby, and received Daca shortly after he turned 18.
Now, after hearing the news of the two Daca recipients being detained, he said he feels unsafe for the first time in years.
“I don’t think that I can trust the Trump administration,” he said. “I’m feeling persecuted, alienated – like this administration is trying to terrorize me and my loved ones.”
It’s not easy for them to return with nothing, to start again. For me and for all of them – this country is our country
Reyna Montoya, another Daca recipient from Phoenix, Arizona, was similarly on edge.
The leader of a grassroots immigrant rights group, Montaya said her organization had been preparing for an immigration crackdown “since the day after the election”. That work included holding house meetings, organizing “know your rights” workshops, and providing emotional support for people dealing with “a lot of anxiety and distress”.
But even with all her preparations, Montoya was still shocked by the idea that state governors could be empowered to deploy the National Guard as immigration enforcement agents.
“My heart got really heavy,” she said. “I was just thinking, ‘Is this the nation we’ve become?’”
Reverend Ken Heintzelman, of the Shadow Rock United Church of Christ in Phoenix, leads one of a growing number of congregations confronting the present climate by offering up their churches as sanctuaries – places of refuge for undocumented immigrants to live.
Shadow Rock has provided four individuals with over 800 days of sanctuary since June 2014, Heintzelman said. When the church started offering sanctuary, the idea was to provide a safe space for people until an administrative remedy could be reached that would allow a family to stay together.
But with the switch in stance of the Trump administration, Heintzelman said he was concerned that there were few if any administrative remedies left to be had.
On Thursday, he attended a meeting with immigration attorneys, advocates, and other people of faith to discuss strategy and tactics around “Sanctuary 2.0”. Heintzelman was not sure what that would look like, but he said that he has received a growing number of inquiries from people seeking information on sanctuary.
For many immigrants, however, hostility from the Trump administration does not dampen their determination to stay.
“I’m very firm in my belief that I’m going to fight with all that I have to stay here,” said Aguirre.
Montoya said that she was determined to help people channel their “fear and anxiety into action”. “I know that whatever happens, I’m going to persevere and push forward,” she said.
After a long day of cleaning hallways and public areas at the Encore hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Elsa Medrano spoke of her perspective on the current political climate.
“I feel so worried about the situation, because we came to this country to find better opportunities for everyone,” said the 52-year-old mother of three from Guadalajara, Mexico. “I worked so hard, and I’m still working. We don’t just come to live from the benefits from the government. We work so hard.”
Medrano has a work permit that she renews every year, but she is concerned for her friends and neighbors, many of whom do not have any papers.
“It’s not easy for them to return to their countries with nothing, to start again,” she said. “For me and for all of them – this country is our country.”
(TheGuardian US)
