Migrants wait throughout the night on May 10, 2023, in a dust storm at Gate 42, on land between the Rio Grande and the border wall, hoping they will be processed by immigration authorities before the expiration of Title 42. (Photo by Corrie Boudreaux for Source New Mexico)
WASHINGTON — As President-Elect Donald Trump is set to be sworn in for a second term next week, immigration advocates said Thursday they are prepared to combat the incoming president’s campaign promise of enacting mass deportations of undocumented people.
Additionally, those immigration advocacy groups are ready for an onslaught of executive orders and a return of harsh Trump-era immigration policies.
“The terrain that we are facing is dangerous and terrifying,” said Greisa Martínez Rosas, the executive director of United We Dream Action, the political arm of the youth advocacy group.
That terrain she’s expecting includes the return of the so-called Remain in Mexico policy that required asylum seekers to often remain in dangerous parts of Mexico while their cases were pending, and another health-related policy like Title 42, which allowed the U.S. to expel and bar migrants from claiming asylum due to the 2020 pandemic.
Additionally, she said, she expects the legal fate to be decided for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Trump tried to end it during his first term, but said recently that he’s open to working with Democrats to create a legal pathway for DACA recipients.
“One, we will remain calm,” Martínez Rosas said. “Two, we will ensure that our communities have the support necessary that they need to be able to navigate such terrible and terrifying moments. Three … where litigation is possible and where our rights are usurped, we will litigate. We are ready for the next four years.”
Immigrant defense coalition
Advocates are prepared to fight back, said Gustavo Torres, the executive director of the grassroots immigrant advocacy group known as CASA.
That includes organizing “Know Your Rights” events to inform immigrant communities of their legal rights when confronted with potential enforcement actions from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the creation of an immigrant defense coalition.
Torres said CASA has held those legal workshops in places where the organization has offices based in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
“We have constructed an immigrant defense coalition of faith communities, businesses, community organizations, donors, elected officials, educators, attorneys and other people, all whom stand ready to act alongside us,” Torres said. “We will not stand by while families are separated and lives are disrupted.”
Deportations team formed
Trump has already tapped his team to craft and carry out those mass deportations plans with border czar Tom Homan and White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller.
Homan was the architect behind one of the harshest Trump-era immigration policies, known as “Zero Tolerance,” that led to the separation of thousands of parents from their children in an effort to deter people from crossing the southern border.
“They are poised to use the immense power of the federal government to force their radical nationalist ideology onto the American people, irrespective of the cost,” said Zachary Mueller, a senior research director for America’s Voice, an immigrant advocacy group.
Mueller said he’s curious how independent South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, will be from Miller and Homan. Noem’s confirmation hearing in the U.S. Senate is set for Friday.
“We have seen in the first Trump administration, in particular … the DHS secretary’s role in facilitating family separation, and what we’ve already heard from Tom Homan and many others, is a willingness not to just reinstate some of the horrific effects of family separation, but to go much further,” he said.
Angelica Salas, the executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, or CHIRLA, said that since November, her organization has held “Know Your Rights” presentations in schools, community centers, apartment groups and places of worship. Additionally, CHIRLA has a hotline for legal services.
“On the other side of the spectrum, dozens of immigration attorneys have been working and taking cases of families and individuals most likely to feel the brunt of Trump’s enforcement apparatus, and collaborating and coordinating with city, county and state officials,” Salas said.
She said they are also continuing to push for Democrats in Congress to not allow for additional funding for DHS to carry out mass detention and deportations.
“What is certain today is that we’re more organized, we’re more prepared, we’re more resilient and united and ready to face the incoming president and his administration,” Salas said.