President-elect Donald Trump has said that he plans to launch the largest deportation operation in American history. Now that he’s been elected, Trump’s campaign promises are causing fear among immigrants in our region. Morning host Luis Hernandez spoke with Helena DaSilva Hughes, president of the Immigrants’ Assistance Center in New Bedford, about some of those fears, and how immigrant families are preparing for a second Trump presidency.
TRANSCRIPT:
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Luis Hernandez: Helena, what are you hearing from immigrants that your organization is serving? How are they reacting to the election?
Helena DaSilva Hughes: Well, there’s a lot of fear. There’s a lot of anxiety. It’s difficult times. I know that, you know, when he got elected in 2016 the same thing happened. I just think that it’s just, this time it’s going to get worse, and people are just, the fear of the unknown, and what can they do in case deportation picks them up? A lot of these families that we serve are mixed immigration families. Many of them are, children are born in the U.S., and both parents, or at least one parent, doesn’t have any status in the US.
Hernandez: You know, you said that this time will be worse. What do you expect is going to happen when Donald Trump is sworn back into office?
DaSilva Hughes: I think there’s going to be more deportations. I feel that, because now we have Congress, we have the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and President – very Republican. So the Republicans basically hold the seats in all of that, in all. So I think, because it’s being controlled by the Republican Party, I really feel that it’s going, you know, it’s going to be really tough, and I do believe that there will be lots of deportation. So it’s kind of hard, like we’re trying to, the team here, you know, our leadership team, our staff, and everyone here at the center are very like trying to be as calm as possible, and just giving them the tools and preparing them in case of deportation. And so that is, I think information and education is the tools we can give our immigrant families.
Hernandez: You mentioned just a moment ago that you have many, you know, families with mixed status living under the same roof. You’ve got members who are citizens, some have green cards, some are undocumented. What do you think is going to happen with these families? Will they be able to stay together?
DaSilva Hughes: I think that the issue becomes – and like I said, in the past, in 2016 as we were doing emergency family preparedness, we noticed that these families want to stay together. So I say that if a family gets deported, I have not heard of any families that would want to leave the children behind. So I would say that the families, everybody will be deported, in the case they’ll be able to take their children with them. The issue becomes, you know, these children, a lot of these families are from Central America, from countries that are fleeing poverty, and many times government. And so the problem becomes, now they’re going back to something that they were fleeing. And so to me, it’s very, very, very concerning. And as, having children in the United States, many of them are still children, very young – and only when the children become 21, then they can petition for their families to come into the U.S.
Hernandez: You mentioned also the importance for families to have preparedness plans. Give me a little sense of the uncertainty people are feeling right now, and what should be in that plan.
DaSilva Hughes: First of all is knowing your rights. We have these red cards in different languages, in English and either in Portuguese, Spanish, Cape Verdean, Creole, Haitian Creole, and other languages we have access. These red cards basically says that every citizen, everyone has the right – so in other words, one of the things is, if they get stopped by the police, or if they’re walking or if ICE [stop them], you have a right to remain silent. You have the right not to answer. It’s also important that they do not carry any legal documents. If you have passports or anything, it’s important to put it in a safe deposit box, because if there is a knock on the door and they open the door, immigration, ICE has the right to check the house. So making sure that, if ICE is knocking on your door, to make sure that if they have a warrant, many times, making sure that the name is correct on the warrant, and it’s being signed by a judge. At the same time, one of the things that it is you’ll sign, there’s an affidavit, like – and I’m just going to use you and I as an example. Let’s say I’m undocumented. You’re a very good friend of mine, and you are a U.S. citizen, and I have two children. And now let’s say I get pulled by immigration. This affidavit that you and I will sign, what I’m actually doing is, in case I get picked up by immigration, you will have authority to pick up my children from school, to bring my children to the doctors. And by having you in charge, you’ll be supporting the children. Then you can reunite me with my children once I get deported. So that is an example of what an emergency family preparedness looks like.
Hernandez: There’s a lot that people need to know. We’ve already gone through one Trump administration. What was it like during that administration? Because I’m trying to get a sense of why you’re more afraid this time.
DaSilva Hughes: Last time, we did not have Congress in control also. So I think because everything’s so, the Republican Party has gotten control of the House and Senate, I think that gives them more power. And so that, to me, is scary. And during the elections, I mean, this time I think we all heard, he kept saying, “mass deportations, mass deportations.” What scares me sometimes [is] a lot of people think, “oh, it’s going to be just criminals. It’s just people who committed crimes,” and all that. No. Because what we saw is, even legal permanent residents who have status in the United States can be deported if they’ve committed a crime, or whatever the crime was, meaning anything up to a one year, even a one year suspended sentence. So to me, a lot of times there’s a lot of playing with words, right? “Undocumented” and “non-citizens” in the next, in the next statement is very confusing and very misleading.
Hernandez: I’m wondering how the broader community has responded. I’m just wondering, like, what you’re hearing from people. Are people reaching out with any questions, or maybe they want to help, or something like that?
DaSilva Hughes: I would say our donations have gone up. We’re having a lot of people coming forward and wanting to see, “what can I do? What can I do? Can I volunteer?” So I think we’re looking at, you know, utilizing our volunteers to ESL classes, civics classes, you know, screening people who are applying for citizenship. We have also seen an increase of legal permanent residents applying for citizenship in fear. And to me, I think that’s the positive thing, is making sure that if you have a green card and you’ve been in the United States for five years and you speak English, you can apply for citizenship.
This story was originally published by The Public’s Radio. It was shared as part of the New England News Collaborative.
