My advice to immigrants is to file taxes, have good credit, open savings accounts so that they will not be affected,” said lawyer Fernando Romo.
In the church of Saint Thomas, on the populous Pico Boulevard and Mariposa Street in Los Angeles, a crowd of mostly Salvadoran and Mexican faithful listens attentively to the Gospel passage about the visit of the wise men to the Holy Family, the persecution of Herod and the slaughter of the Innocent Children.
“Now we have a new Herod,” one of the participants commented quietly to his relatives.
The father of the family was alluding to President-elect Donald Trump and his plans to lead “the largest deportation in history.”
Fears increase every day with the announcement of surprise raids in towns such as Bakerfields, in Kern County, where grape and orange plantations were abandoned.
Border Patrol agents raided places frequented by immigrants, such as gas stations.
They set up roadblocks and ask for documents, especially those who look like day laborers.
“Economic hara kiri“
The Border Patrol has announced similar operations in Fresno and Sacramento, the capital of the state of California.
The site callmatters.org, in an article signed by Sergio Olmos, reported that agricultural producers and leaders in California and across the country have warned that the mass deportations promised by Trump will affect the country’s food supply, causing shortages and higher prices.
“People are scared, worried, they plan to stay home for the next few days,” said Antonio De Loera-Brust, communications director for the United Farm Workers. De Loera-Brust said Border Patrol detained at least one UFW member in Kern County while they were “traveling between home and work.”
“We’re in the middle of the citrus harvest. This has sent shockwaves through the community,” Casey Creamer, president of industry group California Citrus Mutual, said Thursday. “People aren’t going to work and kids aren’t going to school. Yesterday, about 25% of the workforce didn’t show up and today 75% didn’t show up.”
He refuted Border Patrol claims that they are pursuing ill-intentioned people. He said they appeared to be general raids of workers.
“If this is the new normal, this is absolute economic devastation,” said Richard S. Gearhart, associate professor of economics at Cal State-Bakersfield.
In the short term, he predicted that farms and dairies could make up for losses, but that home builders, restaurants and small businesses would be hit hardest financially. But he is worried about the long term.
“We’re talking about a recession-level event if this is the new long-term norm,” he said.
Agriculture accounts for about 10 percent of Kern County’s gross domestic product and undocumented workers may make up half of the workforce, he said. And the Central Valley provides about a quarter of the United States’ food.
Other media have reported that the detained workers were released after refusing to sign their deportation order and asking to appear before a judge, who granted them parole, but they will have to wear a location shackle while it is decided whether they can remain in the United States.
veda to work permits
Fears have even been revived that he will once again extend the ban on immigrants obtaining permanent residence by considering them a “public charge”, a policy that in his previous Government (2017-2021) even affected US citizens.
Under that long-standing rule, immigration authorities can deny entry to the United States or grant the well-known green card to a foreigner who they consider will be a burden on the country.
Trump expanded the regulation in 2019 to ban immigrants who had applied for social assistance for food, housing, or health care, such as the Medicaid program and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which left many undocumented immigrants without possibility of opting for permanent residence and caused many families to stop receiving aid for their American children.
President Joe Biden’s Administration reversed the changes made by the Republican and relaxed the ban, but it is very likely that Trump will expand the rule again, which would reduce the number of people who can adjust their immigration status.
Lawyer Fernando Romo, immigration advisor to the Association of Salvadorans of Los Angeles (ASOSAL). He recalled that under Trump, immigrants who applied for permanent residence had to prove that they had financial solvency. “They had to provide evidence that they could support themselves, even if they had a sponsor,” he explained, adding that it was frowned upon if the applicant had declared bankruptcy or had a bad credit report.
An analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) estimated that the 2019 changes to the public charge policy could have led to a decrease in coverage of between 2 and 4.7 million Medicaid or CHIP enrollees, including some Americans children of undocumented immigrants.
It is expected that Trump will have the support of the Republican caucus on this issue. Last year, the US Senate, with the help of two Democrats – Jon Tester of Montana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia – passed a resolution to leave in place changes made in 2019 to public charge.
Although President Biden did not give in, the outlook for 2025 is different, since the Democrats have lost control of both chambers of the US Legislature. Added to this is that more than a dozen conservative states began a legal battle for the White House to resume the rule.
Romo does not expect that the new public charge rule can be implemented next January, given that it requires an administrative process that requires several months. “We are going to see changes, but not immediately. My advice to immigrants is to file their taxes, have good credit, open savings accounts so that they will not be affected,” said the lawyer.
