As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to assume office, significant shifts in U.S. immigration policies are anticipated, concerning both national borders and immigrant communities.
Experts in immigration law anticipate immediate changes, such as an increase in 287-G agreements. These agreements allow for collaboration between federal agents and local law enforcement in immigration enforcement efforts.
Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council, has indicated potential policy changes at the U.S.-Mexico border. “We know that the Trump administration is considering a series of actions and reinstatements of various policies, including Title 42, MPP and others that will be used to restrict or end access to asylum,” Gupta stated.
The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) required asylum seekers to remain in Mexico until their U.S. immigration hearings, while Title 42, introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, blocked asylum seekers. Gupta also highlighted the potential for executive orders to end Biden-era programs that permit temporary residency and work for some immigrants, including those from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. “There are currently 530,000 benefitting from the CHNV program, with no option to renew,” Gupta noted. “The question will be, what happens to those currently here under that parole program?”
Gupta expressed uncertainty regarding whether the Trump administration will allow these protections to lapse or actively terminate them.
In Arizona, community and border aid groups are preparing for these changes. At a recent event near Tucson, aid groups discussed potential impacts. Tucson aid worker Dora Rodriguez expressed concerns about the fear among immigrant families due to the heightened focus on deportations and enforcement. “This is not families with no documents, this is families with a process, with an immigration process, but the words are so hateful, that they’re afraid they’re going to be [a] target,” she explained.
Rodriguez, who herself fled El Salvador’s civil war years ago by crossing into Arizona, shared her personal experience with the current climate. She described a disturbing incident where she received a postcard urging people to report undocumented immigrants, reminiscent of tactics in her home country. “Before I was afraid, but then I got very angry, and disgusted, because it brought me so much memories of my country when I fled the country, because that’s exactly what they were doing, targeting innocent people through other people in the community,” she said.
Despite concerns about potential crackdowns on aid activities, Rodriguez remains committed to her work, particularly in Nogales, where aid efforts are concentrated under a Biden administration protocol affecting asylum seekers intercepted by Border Patrol.
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