Local Immigrant Advocacy Groups Prepare for the Trump Administration

The country is only a few days into Donald Trump's second administration, but the new president has worked fast, signing a flurry of executive orders that affect health care, foreign policy, and immigration.

A slew of directives enact harsh policies against immigrants, including allowing U.S. military members to act as immigration and border enforcement officers as part of Trump's promised mass deportation program; ceasing refugee arrivals and suspending the U.S. Refugee Admission Program; and redefining birthright citizenship (though this order was blocked by a federal judge this morning).

Fears of Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) raids are already permeating throughout the immigrant community.

"Lots of people are afraid to take their kids to school, or go to their doctor's appointments, or go to court to pay a traffic ticket," said Vanessa Gutierrez, deputy director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. "There's this paralyzing effect that's happening, and we want to ensure that people have that information that's going to help them feel more empowered to live out their lives regardless of their status and not have that worry always hanging over their head."

One of Gutierrez's main concerns is that the rights immigrants have to due process in immigration proceedings will be violated. Immigrants, regardless of their legal status, are entitled to the constitutional right to remain silent and request a lawyer if approached by a police officer, FBI agent, or immigration officer.

Additionally, if a governmental officer comes to your home and wants to enter, they must have a judicial warrant — meaning a warrant that has been signed by a judge. Oftentimes, Gutierrez said, they will have an ICE administrative warrant, which has not been signed by a neutral magistrate judge but rather an immigration officer. Administrative warrants do not give ICE the authority to enter a person's home.

Northwest Immigrant Rights Project is a direct legal services provider and will continue providing representation to immigrants at this time. They're also partnering with other organizations, like the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, for community education opportunities.

The Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) has the only statewide hotline for reporting ICE activity, called the Deportation Defense Hotline. On Jan. 1, it expanded its hours to begin earlier in the day, starting at 6 a.m. instead of 8 a.m., until 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. This is because raids tend to happen earlier in the morning, said Yahaira Padilla, deportation defense organizer for WAISN. Hotline operators are equipped to provide callers with information about their rights. WAISN also has a donation-based bond fund to raise bond money for detained immigrants.

"We do think that ICE and [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] will be present in our communities — most likely, in the rural areas, just because that's what we've seen in the past," Padilla said. "Before this new administration, detention, deportation, family separation hadn't stopped, but we know that with this new administration for sure, we're going to see an uptick on that."

To ensure communities know the right information, WAISN is holding in-person and virtual trainings to educate people about their constitutional rights if ICE shows up at their house or their workplace. They also have several fact sheets available on their website in different languages. WAISN has also expanded its rapid response teams, including in Seattle.

"Seattle, in the past, has also been one of the targeted cities [where] ICE has shown up, and we believe that it's because Seattle is closer to the Northwest ICE Processing Center," Padilla said.

That being said, Vanessa Torres Hernandez, integrated advocacy director at the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, said that per the Keep Washington Working Act passed in 2019, state and local law enforcement is not to assist in the enforcement of civil federal immigration law.

"We have continued to reach out to government officials when we hear about potential violations of that law, to make sure they understand their obligations under Washington law and to help ensure that local officials are complying with the law," Torres Hernandez said.

ACLU-WA is also training more lawyers to do presentations around the community about knowing your rights when interacting with the police, border patrol, or ICE. It's also working in the state Legislature right now to advance health care access for immigrants.

The effects of these types of harsh policies toward immigrant communities affect the entire state, Torres Hernandez said. It results in people being scared to bring their children to school, to go to work and contribute to Washington's economy, to go to the doctor and stay healthy, and to report crimes and create a safe environment for all Washingtonians.

"This type of harsh rhetoric really gives rise to increases in anti-immigrant hate and bias activities, which again harms all of our communities," Torres Hernandez said. "The potential impacts of this kind of rhetoric and activity from the federal system is to make Washington less well off."