NC immigration attorney outlines how people should prepare for Trump mass deportation
Donald Trump has vowed to take on the “largest deportation operation in American history” when his second term begins in January — and he intends to declare a national emergency and use “military assets” to help carry out his plans.
Immigrant groups and their allies in North Carolina are bracing for a mass deportation event, which could separate families and deal a significant blow to the economy.
More than one-third of all immigrants living in North Carolina are here without legal status, according to the American Immigration Council. Just 7 states have a larger population of immigrants without legal status than North Carolina, per estimates from the Center for Migration Studies of New York, a nonpartisan think tank. Several of those states are “sanctuary states,” meaning they limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. North Carolina is not one of them.
Yesenia Polanco, an immigration lawyer based in Durham, said that she expects Trump’s second presidency to affect the immigrant community more deeply than his first. During Trump’s first presidency, hundreds of immigrants across North Carolina were detained in “targeted enforcement operations,” many of whom did not even have any criminal convictions to speak of.
And even though Trump is more of a known quantity this time around, Polanco expects his second presidency to be more traumatic.
“It’s going to feel heavier when people that are pillars in the community, that don’t have a criminal record, that don’t have final orders of removal, are detained in mass rates,” Polanco said. “That’s going to feel different. It’s going to be it’s going to feel more traumatic.”
Polanco calls it “Hurricane Trump,” and like with any other disaster, she wants people to be prepared. She wants people to assemble what she refers to as a “Hurricane Trump preparedness kit” — getting their affairs in order just in case disaster strikes.
For starters, Polanco says people should consult with an immigration attorney just to be sure there isn’t a form of relief they haven’t considered before. But they also need to make sure all documents are in order, especially for those who have children born in the U.S. That means having valid passports and accurate birth certificates, as well as arranging powers of attorney.
Many immigrant families in North Carolina are mixed-status families, meaning that they have at least one undocumented resident and one resident with legal status. For families with children, that could mean that one or both parents are undocumented but have U.S.-born children. Trump’s proposed mass deportation program could separate those children from their parents. Polanco wants those parents to have conversations with people that they trust. What happens if they don’t show up at home? In the event that they are arrested, who will pick their children up from school? Who will feed them?
If Trump fulfills his deportation promises, it won’t just be the immigrant community that is affected. It will be all of us. We don’t know which of our neighbors, colleagues, or friends are undocumented. It will be our economy that’s affected, too. Undocumented immigrants in North Carolina have a total spending power of around $6.7 billion, and they work in essential industries like agriculture, service and hospitality.
As Trump’s second term looms, many advocacy groups have been holding workshops to inform the community of their legal rights if they are served a deportation order or immigration officials come to their house or place of work.
Polanco, who has spoken at one of these workshops, says she wants people to understand that they have constitutional rights and are owed due process. They have the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney, and they also have the right to bond.
“There is an entire community of talented, knowledgeable, capable lawyers and community organizers that will be fighting tooth and nail to protect constitutional rights and to protect families from being separated,” Polanco said.
