Now that President Trump has taken office again, U.S. migrants are bracing for his deportation sweeps — which he promised again in his inauguration speech on Monday. But among many migrant workers in South Florida, at least, there’s more a sense of prep than panic compared to Trump's first presidency.
Although vital Florida economic sectors like agriculture, tourism and construction rely on migrant labor, documented and undocumented, migrant communities like South Florida's have in recent months been making legal and other preparations.
Perhaps more than any other consideration, that means ensuring those migrant families — many of whom have both documented and undocumented members — secure powers of attorney in case of family separation.
“In the event of a deportation, powers of attorney allow a person you trust to do whatever it is you need to do with your children or an elder relative you care for — make legal decisions for them, make medical decisions,” said Mari Blanco, assistant executive director of the nonprofit Guatemalan-Maya in Lake Worth Beach, which serves mostly Palm Beach County's migrant community.
READ MORE: Florida's role in cracking down on people here without legal status
But Blanco and other advocates say because migrants went through this sort of drama with Trump in his first presidency (2017-2021) — not to mention under Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' targeting of undocumented migrants last year — many are expressing less paralyzing fear than robust caution, as well as an understanding of their legal rights if they are arrested because of their immigration status.
“This time around, I think our families just understand the process a lot better," said Blanco. "They feel at this point they’ve done everything that they can.”
The Guatemalan-Maya Center will be pausing in-person services at its site for the next few weeks so as not to make those families more vulnerable targets.
The new Trump Administration, meanwhile, has said its deportation raids will likely begin in Chicago. Across the country, it has also said it intends for the sweeps to begin at job sites.
But many immigrant advocates say they fear Trump will focus at first instead on migrants who have a lawful status that can quickly and easily be canceled by executive order — such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS), humanitarian parole and deferred action (DACA) for migrants brought to the U.S. as young children.
After taking office, Trump declared an emergency on the U.S. southern border, which he insists is "under invasion" by often dangerous if not diseased undocumented migrants, and he canceled a federal Customs and Border Protection agency app, known as CPB One, that migrants arriving at the border have used to schedule processes like asylum interviews.
"All illegal entry will immediately be halted and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came," Trump said in his inauguration speech.
The border was, in fact, overwhelmed by migrants during the first few years of the administration of Trump's predecessor, former President Joe Biden. But it has actually seen the number of illegal migrant crossings plunge in the past year.
Either way, Trump aides have rightly noted that voters elected him again in November in large part because of the immigration crisis.
Still, Pope Francis over the weekend called Trump's mass deportation plan "disgraceful."
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