As Trump returns to the White House, families in Florida prepare for mass deportations

Parents gathered around Nora Sanidgo’s huge, rectangular dining table for lunch before signing documents designating the Nicaraguan immigrant as their children’s legal guardian, entrusting them to her if they are deported. She provided a list of items to bring with them, including birth certificates, medical and school records, immigration documents, and her phone number. “Talk to your children and tell them what can happen, let them have my phone number on hand, let them learn it, let them record it,” Sandigo was quoted as saying Sunday. For the gathering at Sandigo’s southwest Miami house, and for millions in the United States illegally or with temporary legal status, the start of Donald Trump’s second term as president on Monday comes with the feeling that their time in the U.S.

Trump campaigned on mass deportations and promised a slew of executive actions to overhaul immigration policy. “You don’t have to be afraid, you just have to be prepared,” Sandigo told a group of about 20 people, including small children, who were watching a demonstration of how to respond if immigration authorities knocked on their door. “Take precautions wherever you are.” Sandigo, who moved to the United States in 1988, has volunteered to care for more than 2,000 children in 15 years, including at least 30 since December. A notary was present on Sunday. Erlinda, a single mother from El Salvador who arrived in 2013, filed legal documents for her two U.S.-born children, ages 10 and 8. She stated that she sought for asylum but does not know the status of her case.

“I am afraid for my children, that they will live in terror of not seeing their mother for a day, a month, or a year,” said Erlinda, 45, who requested to be named only by her first name due to worries of detention. Plans for deportation arrests appeared to be in flux as reports of an operation in Chicago broke this week. On Fox News Sunday, Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan stated that Chicago was “not off the table, but we’re reconsidering when and how we do it.” He claimed the leak prompted concerns about police safety. Sanctuary cities, which limit local police cooperation with federal immigration officials, have been a popular Trump target, particularly Chicago. Reports that his first push will be in the country’s third-largest city sparked a new sense of urgency and anxiety.

Chicago became a sanctuary city in the 1980s and has strengthened regulations each since, especially when Trump took office in 2017. Last Monday, the City Council flatly rejected a long-shot proposal that would have let local police to collaborate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on deportation cases involving people charged or convicted of crimes. The Rev. Homero Sanchez said he had no idea the level of dread in the Chicago immigrant community he represents until someone asked him to manage the sale of their family’s home and other finances if they were picked up after Trump took office.

“They believe they have been targeted for who they are. Sanchez, who serves the St. Rita of Cascia Parish on Chicago’s South Side, stated that they feel as if they are recreating a terror from eight years ago. “They believe something is going to happen. This is no longer their city due to the threat.” Sanchez, whose congregation has primarily comprised of people of Mexican heritage since the 1980s, dedicated Sunday Mass “to solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters.” Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, said stories of immigration officials targeting the city were “not only profoundly disturbing but also deeply wounding.” “We are proud of our immigration legacy that continues to renew the city we love,” Cupich said Sunday during a visit to Mexico City, according to a copy of his prepared remarks.

ICE arrests a small percentage of its targets during street operations, but Trump is anticipated to cast a wider net than President Joe Biden, whose focus on picking up people away from the border was mostly limited to those with serious criminal records or who pose a threat to national security. Biden’s administration also discontinued the practice of large worksite arrests, which had been widespread under Trump, including a 2019 operation targeting Mississippi poultry facilities. Trump advisors have stated that immigration agents will arrest non-targets, such as spouses or roommates, who are in the country illegally.