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Langley Park, Md. – Affordable housing and accessible public transportation in this suburb of Washington's suburbs have attracted newcomers from around the world, especially from Central America and the Caribbean.
On the summer weekends, many residents of this predominantly immigrant community attend mass, dine with their families in one of the pupuserias or other restaurants run by immigrants and send funds to their families in their home country via Western Union. Others simply walk the streets in front of their red brick apartments, where some of their neighbors sell crushed ice with chili powder and mangoes sliced with lime and salt from unpretentious food carts .
But in recent weeks, some of them – especially those in the United States who have no legal status – are living in constant fear and even fear a visit to the local convenience store. Like other immigrants in communities across the country, they have been on edge since President Trump vowed to order the mass expulsion of undocumented families last month.
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"Sometimes the streets are empty now," said Yennifer, a native of Guatemala and now living in Langley Park, which is just northeast of Washington.
When the 22-year-old mother, who spoke on the condition that her last name is not used, learned for the first time by Facebook and WhatsApp of Mr. Trump's announcement, she was said worried for her two children. Seven months ago, she arrived illegally in Mexico in the United States during her pregnancy to find her husband, Kevin, 24, who had crossed the southern border a month earlier with their 5 year old son.
"I'm afraid to go outside, I'm afraid to go everywhere," she said in Spanish. "My biggest fear is that if they take me, what will happen to my husband? And if they take my kids away from me, what will happen to them?" "
Ronen Tivony
Yennifer and her husband, now working in landscaping, grew up and lived in the western highlands of Guatemala. Many of them have also fled in recent months due to suffocating poverty and poor harvests caused by the weather caused by climate change. She added that they had decided to leave after receiving death threats. The young couple, along with their 5-year-old child, are now seeking asylum in the United States and are scheduled to visit the immigration court scheduled for next year.
But Yennifer said that the prospect of being deported, especially if asylum is denied to them, is terrifying. She is afraid of being separated from her 22-day-old American citizen.
"The government is only thinking about getting rid of people, they do not think about the families we have," she said. "There are children involved."
Víctor, 51, recently felt a similar feeling of anxiety. He also spoke on the condition of not revealing his last name.
"In this country, if you do not have any papers, you will always be afraid.But now, it's worse," said Víctor on his return from work. Like many immigrant men in the area, he was hired by businesses and individuals to work on landscaping projects in affluent suburban homes near Langley Park.
The laborer lives alone in the United States but is the main breadwinner of his family in Guatemala, which he left four years ago when the crops he grew, mainly coffee, began to fail. He crossed Mexico to go illegally to the United States.
Although he is aware of the consequences of living in the United States without legal status, Víctor said that he did not think it was smart or fair for the government to target people simply seeking to provide to the needs of their families.
"If you work here and you do not commit crimes or something like that, you should be left alone," he said, also in Spanish.
Two weeks ago, the president announced that he would delay the wave of arrests of undocumented families that he had telegraphed a few days ago. But he has nonetheless threatened to order massive deportations unless Congressional Democrats agree to change the country's asylum laws by Saturday.
The multiple efforts to reform the country's immigration system have failed under the Republican and Democratic administrations, and there is currently no legislation with sufficient bipartite support to be passed by both chambers. Congress, particularly during the brief delay requested by Mr. Trump.
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On Friday, the president said the raids would "begin shortly". His senior US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) official said that Immigration and Customs and Law Enforcement (ICE), responsible for moving operations, was ready to track down and expel about 1 million people with a final removal order.
"We are talking here about the fact that ICE is doing its job as if it were special, and this should actually be happening on an ongoing basis," said Cuivinelli, acting director of the USCIS, "Face the Nation" , adding that "they are looking to the future just doing their job".
According to Cuccinelli, deporting "millions" or even a million during Mr. Trump's tenure is probably logistically impossible, given ICE's resources and manpower.
Last year, ICE expelled more than 250,000 people, many of whom were recently arrested migrants near the US-Mexico border. The highest number of annual deportations occurred under the Obama administration in 2012, when the agency expelled about 410,000 undocumented immigrants. According to ICE, 55% of these immigrants had been convicted of crimes.
Any large-scale deportation blitz is likely to generate public outcry and affect not only undocumented immigrants with pending removal orders, but also millions of mixed-status families with members who are US citizens and green card holders.
However, ICE officials reported that the expected roundups would target a limited group.
Former interim director of ICE, Mark Morgan, who now heads the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), told reporters last month that undocumented immigrants on whom the ICE would focus for the operation, he said, is intended to send a "powerful message" of deterrence, on an accelerated record in the immigration court system. He added that these people had been evicted by a judge because they had not appeared in court and had also been informed by ICE so that the agency could organize their removal.
Cliff Owen / AP
When asked if this specific operation was still "deferred" – a term used by both Mr Trump and ICE – the agency sent CBS News an old statement in which the Carol Danko praised the president's decision to delay the raids. "If Congress does not change the laws to ensure that illegal aliens can be quickly deported to the southern border, there is no choice but to permanently stop these aliens fleeing. in the interior of the country, "Danko said in a statement.
An ICE official said the agency did not disclose "specific details" on law enforcement operations, but said the officers were giving priority to the removal of those who had been detained. which "threatened national security, public security and border security".
Nick Katz and his Langley Park-based immigrant advocacy group, CASA, ensure that local immigrants know their rights and operate a hotline for people to report their ICE activities. He stressed, however, that it was important for them not to magnify panic that he thought the administration was trying to inculcate in immigrant communities.
"That's what they want," said Katz, a lawyer responsible for CASA's legal services. "They want people to be scared of going to the grocery store, they want people to self-expel, and above all they want immigrants to be afraid to engage in activities. basic life in this country. "
Nevertheless, he said the danger for many immigrant families was real.
"ICE is dividing families every day, and I have no doubt that these raids are threatening their progress, and we will see a period of time when more people will be arrested, so there are real consequences for families." , did he declare.
For Luba Cortés, coordinator of immigrant advocacy at Make the Road New York, one of New York's largest immigrant advocacy groups, one of her most pressing concerns is about "Collateral arrests". These are apprehensions of people who are undocumented but who are not directly targeted by an ICE operation. They had just been in the place where the operation takes place.
"There is a real and palpable fear," said Cortés, before adding: "To say," We are going to raid today, "then" We will not do a Today's raid "really plays with people's emotions".
Indeed, despite its probably limited scope, the imminent ICE operation has already fueled the obvious apprehension of immigrant households. It can be argued that the "powerful message" that Morgan acknowledged was one of the objectives of the operations has already been sent – at least to people already in the United States.
"We are all worried, we are all scared," said Abel, 47, a Guatemalan father of three.
Abel, who requested that his last name not be disclosed because he was in the country without legal status, said that he was now working with fear in the performance of his duties of day, from 6 am to 5 pm concert to repair the rooftops of suburban Maryland.
The Guatemalan immigrant lives with his 17-year-old son, who crossed the southern border three months ago and is now seeking asylum. The teen now learns English at an American high school and works with his father after school.
Abel said that he was not really scared for himself, but for his son and two young daughters, who, he said, are in Guatemala and did not come to the United States because of the dangerous course through Mexico to reach America. There is no doubt that in Guatemala, a poor country, which he left several months ago when the collective of maize planters he was working in was ravaged by a severe drought, he will not be able to provide for himself. from his family.
"Going back is not an option," he said.
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