MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
In three days, President-elect Donald Trump will take office, and he has promised to carry out mass deportations of people in the U.S. without legal status. Immigrants are bracing for Trump's actions. Some say they'll stop going to work. And advocacy organizations say they are ready to challenge Trump in court and to provide legal help to those detained. NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán reports.
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN, BYLINE: There's a real fear in the immigrant community. You can ask Nicolas, a 20-year-old restaurant worker who comes from South America and is in the U.S. without legal status.
NICOLAS: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Nicolas says he's not only worried about the workplace raids that can occur across the country but also about the way they will be conducted. He fears rights will be violated. Nicolas is also an organizer with Resistencia en Acción, which advocates for immigrant rights and the working class in New Jersey. We're only using his middle name because he worries about being targeted for his immigration status. When Trump gets inaugurated on Monday, Nicolas says he won't be at the restaurant where he works.
NICOLAS: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: He says he made that decision in part out of fear of being caught up in a raid.
NICOLAS: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Instead, he will be at a rally in Newark, hosted by immigrant rights groups to send a message that there are people willing to stand up and fight. It's unclear what actions Trump will take to target people who are living in the U.S. without legal status in his first days or weeks in office. The Republican has said he will start mass deportations on Day 1. He's also vowed to end birthright citizenship. According to an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released this week, 49% of Americans back mass deportations. A spokesperson for Trump's transition team told NPR in a statement that he will deliver on his promises, although she didn't answer a question about whether all of this would happen right away.
FELICIA GOMEZ: We are prepared to meet the impending Trump administration head-on.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: That's Felicia Gomez, a senior policy advocate at the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties.
GOMEZ: We will use every tool in our toolbox to defend civil rights and liberties of all people in our region.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: The ACLU has been preparing plans for different scenarios. They include offering know-your-rights training for migrants in different languages. It's also putting in teams to rapidly respond to the raids. But Trump's promises are not the only reason why immigrant communities are on edge.
Under the Biden administration, which deported a record number of migrants since 2014, many haven't felt safe. Last week, Customs and Border Protection conducted arrests in California's Central Valley. According to CBP, 78 migrants without legal status were detained during the three-day operation. The agency says those arrested had broken the law. Mario Gonzalez is the deputy director of Centro La Familia Advocacy Services in Fresno, California.
MARIO GONZALEZ: Over the weekend and days after, people were not coming out. People were not leaving their homes. People were staying at home.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: He says his organization has been receiving nonstop calls from people asking what they can do to protect themselves. Employers have also gotten involved.
GONZALEZ: Again, this is something new as well, not something that we saw a lot of prior to this. But this time around, we're seeing employers actually reach out ahead of time and ask for us to show up and to do know-your-rights trainings to their employees.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: He says this is a sign of how some employers see the value of the immigrant workforce, one that could be decimated if mass deportations were to take place.
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
