‘I’m not sleeping’: America’s immigrant communities brace for Trump crackdown | News about Donald Trump
The administration of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, is rolled backwards a decade-old policy that barred immigration authorities from making arrests in sensitive places, including schools, churches and hospitals.
As the fallout from the move began Wednesday, many of those living undocumented in the U.S. expressed fears about the effects it would have on several aspects of life where they felt safe.
“I don’t sleep,” Iris Gonzalez told The Associated Press from Boston, Mass., where her children attended school for a decade.
Gonzalez, who came to the U.S. from Guatemala 14 years ago, wondered what would happen if she came into contact with immigration authorities while attending a court hearing or driving.
“What if I get stopped?” she said.
She also questioned whether she should continue to look for work under the new administration. Still, she was adamant that her children would continue to go to school, where she hoped they would be safe.
“Education is important,” she told the news agency in Spanish.
‘Devastating Consequences’
Gonzalez’s story highlights the daily negotiations of those seeking to avoid possible immigration crackdowns under Trump, whose political comeback is based on promise to undertake “mass deportations” and limit immigration to the US.
His first days in office were defined by a series of executive orders and actions related to immigration enforcement. That included declaring a state of emergency at the U.S. border to increase staff and resources there, laying the groundwork for expedited deportations and suspending the CBP One application that thousands of asylum seekers relied on for appointments.
Trump also sought to end the so-called citizenship by birthand move which government officials and human rights groups have already challenged in court.
And on Tuesday, the second day of Trump’s second term, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced he ended the policy of avoiding immigration raids in “sensitive” places.
The change largely affects two agencies: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), both of which had guidelines prohibiting the enforcement of measures in places such as medical centers.
So far, there has been no major immigration crackdown in the US since Trump took office, but speaking to reporters on Monday, the president-to-be said it was only a matter of time.
“I don’t want to say when, but it will happen. That has to happen or we won’t have any country left,” he said.
Human rights groups, meanwhile, have spent the weeks since Trump’s Nov. 5 election victory holding training sessions with community groups on how best to respond to the coming crackdown.
Many decried the Department of Homeland Security’s policy change as a dangerous precedent, noting that the “sensitive location” policy is designed to ensure that those living in the country without documentation can access basic services.
“This action could have devastating consequences for immigrant families and their children, including children of American citizens, deterring them from receiving medical care, seeking disaster relief, attending school, and going about their daily activities,” Olivia Golden, interim executive director of the Center for Law and social policy, says the press release.
“If ICE’s presence near such locations becomes more frequent, it also increases the likelihood that children could witness a parent’s detention, arrest or other encounters with ICE agents,” Golden said.
‘I can’t imagine why they would do that’
For its part, in a statement announcing the policy change, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that “criminals” were using sensitive locations to avoid arrest, without providing data to support the claim.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” the statement said.
“The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave police officers and instead believes they will use common sense.”
In another sign that Trump is seeking to roll back protections for undocumented communities, the Justice Department also has begun directing its federal prosecutors to investigate state or local officials who stand in the way of increased federal immigration enforcement, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press in Wednesday.
This move is an obvious salvo against the so-calledasylum” jurisdictions, where local officials instruct police under their control not to coordinate with federal immigration agents.
The Justice Department memo also calls on federal prosecutors to return to the practice of charging defendants with the most serious crime they can prove, limiting prosecutorial discretion in those cases.
Responding to the Trump administration’s change in “sensitive” locations, Carmen, an immigrant from Mexico, was in disbelief.
“Oh, dead God!” she told the Associated Press. “I can’t imagine why they would do that.”
Still, Carmen said she believes her local school system in the San Francisco Bay Area will notify her if it becomes unsafe for her to bring her 4- and 6-year-old grandchildren to school.
“What helped calm my nerves was knowing that the school stood by us and promised to let us know if the school was unsafe,” said Carmen, who asked that her last name not be used for fear of being attacked by immigration agents.
