President-elect Donald Trump has promised mass deportations when he steps into the White House, and Trump on Monday confirmed he plans to use the military to remove immigrants.
Many in Charlotte’s immigrant community are bracing for deportations — as immigration lawyers plan to ramp up legal services.
A few days after the election, the Carolina Migrant Network held a meeting at its office in east Charlotte to strategize about preparing for mass deportations. About 50 people showed up.
Immigrants wanted answers on how to protect their family members from deportation, and supporters were determined to help in any way they could.
Carolina Migrant Network is focusing on providing legal help to fight deportations. Immigration attorney Jamilah Espinosa, of Espinosa Law, plans to assist nonprofits in the area.
“More so than anything, is just preparing our staff on how to make sure that we are well-positioned to provide services to our clients on an immediate basis, more on a crisis level,” Espinosa said.
Roughly 58,000 undocumented immigrants live in Mecklenburg County and an estimated 325,000 in North Carolina. Nonprofits, immigration attorneys and supporters are scrambling to prepare to aid these immigrants when Trump takes office in January.
Adriel Orozco, who is with the immigrant advocacy group American Immigration Council, says Trump’s first term provides insight into how he may operate this time.
“We saw large raids here in North Carolina and South Carolina in February of 2017,” said Orozco, who is based in Durham. “So, I think that’s what we’re gonna see. We’re gonna see the government really try to play up that it’s actually fulfilling his promises.”
Trump hasn’t offered many specifics about his deportation plan. But on Monday he confirmed on Truth Social that he intends to declare a national emergency and use the U.S. military in some way to deport undocumented immigrants.
Trump has also threatened to revoke Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, as he tried to do for some countries during his first administration. TPS is a long-standing program used to help people in the U.S. who can’t safely return to their home countries.
“The ending of TPS would mean my dream is over. What I worked so hard to legally accomplish would be over,” said a Charlotte resident who doesn't want her name to be used, since she fears deportation if TPS is revoked.
She came to Charlotte from Venezuela in 2015 to attend college on an international student visa. After she graduated, she was granted TPS. She’s now 28 and works here legally.
“Being here undocumented has never been my ideal scenario," she said. "And given the fight that the undocumented are going to experience in the upcoming year, I wouldn’t want to be in that position either.”
During the first Trump administration, the Carolina Migrant Network recruited volunteers to patrol neighborhoods and confirm reported sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on social media.
“We had to attend trainings and then you were placed in a group,” volunteer Kristie Puckett Williams said. “You received the alert, and then whoever could respond would say I’m going. And sometimes there would be more than one of us who would show up because of proximity.”
The group plans to bring back its community watch program and will focus on educating immigrants on what to do when confronted by ICE or local law enforcement. Jamilah Espinosa will help deliver that message.
“You still have the right to remain silent,” Espinosa said. “You still have the right to ensure that you have an attorney. It’s very important our community understand that they have the right to refuse entry without a warrant and the right to due process.”
She says that it’s important for all immigrants to keep in mind regardless of their legal status.
