Trump’s deportation plans worry families with relatives in the US illegally

GABRIEL SANDOVAL

PHOENIX (AP) — Jocelyn Ruiz remembers her fifth-grade teacher warning the class about large-scale patrols targeting immigrants in Arizona’s largest metropolis. She asked her mother about it – and unearthed a family secret.

Ruiz’s mother entered the United States illegally, having left Mexico ten years earlier in search of a better life.

Ruiz, who was born in California and raised in the Phoenix area, was gripped by anxiety at the time that her mother could be deported at any moment, despite having no criminal record. Ruiz, her two younger siblings and her parents quietly persisted, never discussing their mixed immigration status. They lived “like Americans,” she said.

Jocelyn Ruiz, 26, pictured in Tempe, Arizona. — Jocelyn Ruiz, 26, pictured in Tempe, Arizona, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, is a U.S. citizen who revealed a family secret that her mother could be deported at any time. (AP Photo/Matt York)

More than 22 million people live in a U.S. household with at least one resident in the country without authorization, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of 2022 Census data. That represents nearly 5% of U.S. households and 5.5% in Arizona, a state where Latino votes can be critical.

If Donald Trump is elected and makes good on his campaign promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history, it could not only upend the lives of the 11 million people who, according to the US Census Bureau, are living in the United States without authorization – it could devastate US citizens in their families.

The issue of immigration has been a cornerstone of Trump’s platform since he promised to “build a great wall” in 2015 when he announced his first Republican campaign for the presidency. And despite polls that show the economy is the top issue for voters, Trump remains fixated on the issue, criticizing the Biden administration’s actions on the southern border as an existential threat to American society as Election Day approaches.

Trump’s crackdown plans have prompted some mixed-status families to speak out. They argue that America’s success depends on the contributions of immigrants, and the people doing these jobs deserve a path to legal residency or citizenship.

Others prefer to remain silent, hoping to avoid attention.

And there are those who support Trump, although they themselves may become targets for deportation.

The political divide over immigration runs deep: 88% of Trump supporters favor mass deportations, according to a recent Pew poll, compared with 27% of voters who back Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president.

Trump was asked about the impact of so many deportations on mixed-status families when he visited the Arizona-Mexico border in August.

“The provisions will be passed, but we have to get the criminals out,” Trump responded to NBC News. He has not said what those provisions might include, and his campaign did not share additional information when The Associated Press asked for details.

Living in a mixed-status family is inherently precarious, with immigration policies and political rhetoric having a ripple effect on U.S. citizens and legal residents, says Haide Castañeda, a professor of anthropology at the University of South Florida.

“It is unusual for most Americans to go about their daily lives thinking that someone in your family may have been kidnapped,” said Castañeda, author of “The Boundaries of Belonging: Struggle and Solidarity in Mixed-Status Immigrant Families.” “But for mixed-status families, of course it’s always on the mind.”

Politicians, she said, “think they are targeting a specific group, but those groups live in families, communities, households and neighborhoods.”

In Nevada, California, New Jersey and Texas, nearly one in 10 households has people living in the U.S. without legal permission, according to Pew. Many of them have lived in the country for decades, and US citizens depend on them.

Michael Kagan, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said the recent arrivals are not representative of Nevada’s population.

“The vast majority have lived here for more than 10 years,” Kagan said, warning that their U.S. citizen relatives could be inadvertently captured.

Erica Andriola, 37, a longtime advocate for immigrants in Arizona, witnessed her mother and brother being detained by immigration agents in 2013. She led a successful campaign that led to their release, but she now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and separation anxiety as a result of that day.

“It was like constant nightmares. I would wake up crying,” Andriola said. She and her brother are now legal residents of the country, but their 66-year-old mother has been fighting her deportation in court since 2017.

It’s an experience Andriola doesn’t wish on anyone – and she says the emotional and economic toll can affect entire communities.

Betzaidah’s brother Robinson was deported to Mexico several years ago, despite never having lived there. A fixture in the Phoenix family, he helped pay bills and raise two children.

Robinson said Trump and his supporters must not think about what it would be like to have a loved one taken away from them.

“If you were in this situation, what would you do and how would you feel?” she said.

Still, there are people living in the country illegally who support Trump, said Castañeda, the university professor. Even Andriola says she has family members who do it.

“They don’t necessarily think about what could happen to people like my mom,” Andriola said, “but they think about their own lives and what they think is best for them.”

Victoria Castro-Corral is a self-proclaimed optimist from a blended family in Phoenix who advises students at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. She said she believes the mass deportation plan will never come to fruition and credits her Mexican parents, who crossed the border illegally decades ago, for teaching her to stay positive.

“We’re here to stay,” she said.

Gabriel Sandoval is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Originally published: October 28, 2024, 10:07 am

Trump’s deportation plans worry families with relatives in the US illegally

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