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CHICAGO (NewsNation) — President-elect Donald Trump and his “border czar” Tom Homan have promised swift action in apprehending and removing immigrants who entered the United States illegally, stoking fear among some asylum seekers who worry they will be forced to leave the country in which many are just starting to settle.
Deportation doesn’t set well with Anangela Hernandez, who is among the more than 50,000 immigrants sent to Chicago from Texas. She arrived from Venezuela via Texas with her husband and two children in January.
Hernandez agrees immigrants with criminal convictions should not have refuge here. But she worries, like others awaiting asylum or temporary protective status, that she and her family could be targeted by the new administration.
“Our fear is that the new president comes with other expectations as far as immigrants are concerned,” Hernandez told NewsNation in Spanish.
Trump has pledged the largest domestic deportation in American history. Trump and Homan, the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), insist their initial primary focus will be criminals who pose a security threat.
But Homan doesn’t stop there.
“If you’re in the country illegally, you’re in violation of law, so you’re not off the table,” Homan told NewsNation’s “CUOMO.”
Immigrants worry for their future under Donald Trump
Although she entered the country via the CBP One app, Hernandez understood her chosen means of entry came with no long-term guarantees.
Hernandez and her husband recently appeared in court in Chicago to submit their asylum application months after receiving their work permits. Although she is convinced the couple is on the right track toward legal U.S. residency, Trump and Homan’s comments stir up emotions.
“He should not go against good working people,” Hernandez said.
Homan told “CUOMO” that the current asylum system allows too many migrants to enter the U.S. based on an initial screening with a “very low” threshold of proof.
In a “60 Minutes” interview this fall, Homan was asked about how mass deportations could happen without separating families. He replied, “That’s not a problem. Families can be deported together.”
That is especially concerning for Leticia Alvarez, who arrived in Chicago after making the journey from Venezuela while pregnant. She gave birth to a daughter in March in a Chicago hospital but endured much of her pregnancy alone after her husband, Lisandro Escola, was held in a detention center for seven months in Texas after the couple surrendered after crossing the border.
Alvarez previously told NewsNation that she remains uncertain why her husband was detained. He was released just weeks before the couple’s daughter arrived.
Knowing that she along with Escola, her infant daughter, husband, and sister could be forced to leave under Trump’s mass deportation plan is difficult enough, she said. But considering the amount of time Escola was detained in Texas creates more anxiety because of Trump’s and Homan’s promise to prioritize convicted immigrants.
“It’s something that worried me and that still worries me and my husband,” she told NewsNation in Spanish last week.
“And we’re all that he has,” she also said.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, along with other leaders of Democratic-led sanctuary cities have pledged to protect immigrant families from mass deportation efforts. Homan and Trump have responded by saying that sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts will risk losing federal funding.
Despite the threats, Hernandez told NewsNation she refuses to live in fear as an example to her 10-year-old son and 7-year-old son. Instead, she said she and will continue to put trust in the system they used to enter the country.
“We are Venezuelans with a good heart and a faith that is greater than anything else and if we are here, it is because (God) allowed us to be,” Hernandez said in Spanish. “We cannot wait, nor can we be rushed into something that has not happened yet.”
The effort to help protect migrants
In Denver, officials with the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, said immigrants are bracing for what is coming under Trump. The new administration’s promises and rhetoric surrounding immigrants have created an environment of uncertainty, stress, and fear, the group’s development director, Marine Brichard, said.
CIRC recently hosted more than 150 immigrants for a post-election briefing in which many of these concerns were voiced. The organization is planning workshops that instruct immigrants to know the difference between ICE agents and police and to help them understand their legal rights should they appear in court or face deportation.
Lisa Koop, the national director of legal services for the National Immigration Justice Center, told NewsNation that immigrants have good reason to be fearful. She said they should be considering an action plan that includes speaking to an immigration attorney to better navigate uncertain times.
Koop’s office has received an uptick of inquiries from immigrants who are in various stages of waiting for asylum or temporary protective status. Even for those who have been granted immigration protection that affords them some levels of due process, Koop said many fear that could all be stripped away once Trump takes office.
“To me, it’s a great sadness that our country maybe no longer feels like a welcoming place of refuge or is choosing not to be a place of refuge in some ways,” Koop said.
Koop believes the process could be expedited because Trump has a better understanding of his presidential power as he prepares for a second White House term.
In practice, Koop said enforcement of mass deportation could happen in cycles if officials carry through with targeting convicted immigrants first and then considering others later. But she doesn’t believe that makes everyone else safe.
“I think there is a pretty broad fear and concern about what comes next,” she said.