PHOENIX — Jocelyn Lewis remembers when her fifth-grade teacher warned her class about large-scale patrols targeting immigrants in Arizona’s largest metropolitan area. She asked her mother about it and revealed a family secret.
Ruiz’s mother entered the United States illegally and left Mexico 10 years ago in search of a better life.
Lewis, who was born in California and raised in the Phoenix area, feared that her mother could be deported at any time, even though she had no criminal record. Lewis, his two younger brothers, and his parents endured it in silence, never discussing their mixed immigrant status. They lived “as Americans,” she says.
More than 22 million people live in U.S. households with at least one resident in the country without authorization, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of 2022 Census data. That’s nearly 5% of households nationwide, and 5.5% in Arizona, a battleground state where the Latino vote is key.
If Donald Trump were elected and followed through on his campaign promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history, he would not only upend the lives of the 11 million people living in the United States without permission, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. , which could devastate American families.
Immigration has been a cornerstone of Trump’s platform ever since he pledged to “build the Great Wall of China” when he announced his first presidential campaign as a Republican in 2015. And even though polls show the economy is the top concern for voters, President Trump remains fixated on the issue, and as Election Day approaches, the Biden administration’s southern border has criticized the response as posing an existential threat to American society.
President Trump’s crackdown plans are motivating some families from all walks of life to speak out. They argue that America’s success depends on the contributions of immigrants, and that those who do this work deserve legal residency and a path to citizenship.
Some people choose silence to avoid attention.
Others support President Trump even though they themselves may be subject to deportation.
Political divisions over immigration run deep. According to a recent Pew poll, 88% of Trump supporters support mass deportation, compared to 27% of voters who support Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.
When President Trump visited the Arizona-Mexico border in August, he was asked about the impact of the large number of expulsions on mixed-status families.
“There will be provisions, but we have to take out the criminals,” President Trump told NBC News, without saying what those provisions would include, when asked by the Associated Press for more details. At the time, the camp did not share any further information.
Heide Castañeda, an anthropology professor at the University of South Florida, said living in a mixed-status family is inherently unstable because immigration policies and political rhetoric have a ripple effect on U.S. citizens and legal residents. said.
“For most Americans, going about their daily lives with the thought that a member of their family might be removed is foreign,” says Boundaries of Belonging: Struggles and Solidarity in Mixed-Status Immigrant Families. says author Castañeda. “But of course, for mixed-status families, it’s always on their minds.”
Politicians “think they’re targeting specific groups, but these groups live in families, communities, homes and neighborhoods,” she said.
According to Pew, nearly one in 10 households in Nevada, California, New Jersey, and Texas includes someone living in the U.S. without legal permission. Many have lived in this country for decades and rely on U.S. citizens.
Michael Kagan, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said the recent arrivals are not representative of Nevada’s population.
“The vast majority have been here for more than 10 years,” Kagan said, warning that relatives of U.S. citizens could be inadvertently swept away.
Erika Andriola, 37, a longtime immigrant advocate in Arizona, witnessed her mother and brother being detained by immigration officials in 2013. Although she successfully campaigned for her release, she now suffers from PTSD and separation anxiety as a result of the trauma. That day.
“It was a nightmare. There were times when I would wake up crying,” Andriola said. She and her brother are now legal residents, but her 66-year-old mother has been challenging her deportation in court since 2017.
For Andriola, it’s an experience she wouldn’t wish on anyone, and she says the emotional and financial toll can impact the entire community.
Bezaida Robinson’s brother was deported to Mexico several years ago, even though he has never lived there. He was a vital part of the family in Phoenix, helping pay the bills and raise their two children.
Robinson said President Trump and his supporters shouldn’t think about what it’s like to have a loved one taken away.
“If you were in that position, what would you do? How would you feel?” she said.
Still, Castañeda, the university professor, said there are illegal immigrants in the country who support President Trump. Even Andriola says he has family members who do that.
“They don’t necessarily think about what happens to people like my mother,” Andriola said. “But they’re thinking about their lives and what they think is best for them.”
Victoria Castro-Corral is a self-described optimist from a mixed-class family in Phoenix who teaches students at Chandler Gilbert Community College. She said she believes a mass deportation plan will never happen and credits her Mexican parents, who crossed the border illegally decades ago, for teaching them how to stay positive. Ta.
“We are here to stay,” she said.
___
Gabriel Sandoval is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
