The incoming Trump administration has made it clear time and time again that mass deportations will be among their top priorities. Personalities like Stephen Miller, President-elect Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff, and Tom Homan, his border czar, have hinted at the use of military and Congress to carry out the largest mass deportation operation in American history. With just a few weeks left until Trump officially assumes office, how are undocumented immigrants bracing for the impact?
In Texas, Maria, the mother of two U.S.-born teenagers who crossed illegally from Mexico in 1988, have remained tucked to a small corner in South Texas, between the U.S.-Mexico border and a fortified Border Patrol checkpoint 77 miles north. For decades now, Maria has remained largely unbothered by immigration officers, but as Trump returns to the White House, her situation could easily change, according to a recent New York Times report.
"Before Trump got elected, we always felt scared but knew we could do things to avoid being noticed," said Maria, who did not want her last name published for fear of drawing the authorities' attention. "Now we feel that once he takes office, dangers are everywhere. There is no place to hide."
Maria, who married a fellow undocumented immigrant, and gave birth to two daughters in the U.S. is considered to be part of the so-called "mixed-status" families— where at least one parent is undocumented and caring for children who are legal U.S. residents or citizens. About 75,000 children in the Rio Grande Valley live in such families, according to a 2018 report by two immigrant activist groups, La Union del Pueblo Entero and Human Impact Partners.
Maria, worried in the months leading up to the November election, taught her older daughter, now 15, to drive and told both of them to be prepared to move in with legal relatives in the area in case one day she didn't come home.
"We know from the moment that we crossed illegally, that there is always a chance we could be sent back," Maria said in an interview with The New York Times.
Her elder daughter, also named Maria, said she planned to study immigration law to bring her mother back in case she was deported. "I want her here for when I graduate, get married, to be here for all the events of my life," the daughter said.
A similar situation is happening to Laura, 35, a clerk at a medical clinic, and an immigrant living along the Texas border, who was brought into the U.S. when she was a child. She eventually married a U.S. citizen and gave birth to two American children. She has limited legal status as a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) beneficiary. But her authorization expired in two months, and she is not confident that Trump will keep the program in place.
"I don't even want to think about leaving my children behind if I have to return to a land I no longer recognize," she told The New York Times.
Their worries are not unfounded, as the incoming administration has made it clear that deporting unauthorized migrants will be among their top priority over the next four years, promising to start with criminals.
"President Trump has made it clear we will prioritize public safety threats and national security threats first and that's what the focus would be," incoming border czar Tom Homan said of the deportation plan in an interview on Fox News' "Hannity" program on Nov. 11. "There's thousands of gang members, illegal alien gang members we're going to be looking for. Now, I'm going to say if you're in the country illegally, you shouldn't feel comfortable, absolutely not. I won't feel comfortable."
Similarly, incoming deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has suggested the Trump administration would kick off mass deportations on Day 1, though the operation would be hard to achieve without major structural overhauls. The incoming official also revealed that Trump has plans to "issue a series of executive orders that seal the border shut and begin the largest deportation operation in American history.
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