WASHINGTON- The day after former President Trump won a second term on a promise to deport millions of immigrants, a line formed outside a Riverside County legal aid organization even before it does not open its doors.

Legal permanent residents wanted help applying for citizenship. Asylum seekers who had communicated their addresses to the Confederation were wondering whether they should pack their bags and move.

TODEC Legal Center of Riverside County Helps Immigrants Prepare for Another Trump Presidency

(Mark Boster/For Time)

In the country, a woman illegally told the organization that her children had refused to go to school because they feared she would be detained while they were away. One man said he stayed home from his landscaping job.

“It’s all hands on deck right now,” said Luz Gallegos, executive director of the TODEC Legal Center. “We must prepare for the worst.”

Trump has listed mass deportations and reducing the temporary legal status of millions of immigrants among his top priorities. Her Newly appointed “border czar” Tom Homan said Monday that the Trump administration would prioritize deporting people who are living in the country illegally and pose a threat to public safety. He also said authorities will intensify raids on workplaces as part of the repression of labor trafficking and sex trafficking.

“If sanctuary cities don’t want to help us, then get out of the way, because we’re coming,” Homan said in an interview on “Fox & Friends.”

California leaders and immigrant rights organizations are responding by promising lawsuits and insurance to protect immigrant residents from Trump’s policies. Governor Gavin Newsom last week called a special session of Parliament to safeguard the progressive policies of the State, particularly in matters of immigration. California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta has vowed to defend the state’s policies in court.

Advocates are urging the Biden administration to strengthen immigrant protections before Trump’s inauguration by redesignating some countries to temporary protected status and prioritizing pending work permit applications.

In California, they hope to expand programs offering pro bono legal representation to immigrants facing deportation proceedings. They will also push local governments to enact sanctuary policies that go beyond the state’s sanctuary law.

Luz Gallegos, executive director of the TODEC Law Center in Riverside County, helps immigrants prepare for deportations promised by Trump.

(Mark Boster/For Time)

During Trump’s previous term, immigrant advocates held frequent “know your rights” sessions and encouraged families to make contingency plans. Parents guardianship agreements signed allow family members or friends to care for their children if they were detained. Immigrants carried business cards stating their rights (ask to see a warrant, request a lawyer, remain silent) and the phone numbers of rapid response networks that would go to the scene of an immigration arrest .

Today, organizations across California are mobilizing the same tactics to prepare for a new Trump administration. They are trying to find a balance between being realistic about possible federal actions and not aggravating public fears.

“We take him at his word,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of CHIRLA – the Coalition for Immigrant Human Rights in Los Angeles. “Members of immigrant rights organizations are acutely aware that what lies ahead is cruelty and suffering manufactured to achieve political results. »

Salas said CHIRLA has received requests from schools, health clinics and unions to hold on-site sessions to “know your rights.” Defense organizations also coordinate to maximize their reach. Last week, CHIRLA joined hundreds of organizations to launch “We are California,» an effort that aims, among other things, to rebuild rapid response networks.

Nana Gyamfi, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Black Alliance for Just Immigration, said she is particularly concerned that black immigrants will face increased racism due to The Trump campaign fueled the lies that Haitian immigrants were eating domestic animals in Springfield, Ohio.

“You can tell people are tired,” she said, “because we know, as black people, that the hammer is coming down on us harder. »

Joao Morales left Nicaragua for Los Angeles as part of the Biden administration’s program offering legal entry and temporary work permits to immigrants from certain countries who have secured financial sponsors.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Joao Morales, 29, moved from Nicaragua to Los Angeles in August 2023 as part of the Biden administration’s program offering legal entry and temporary work permits to immigrants from certain countries who have secured sponsors financial.

Uncertain about what another Trump administration might mean for his ability to stay in the United States, he attended meetings hosted by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network to teach immigrants across the country how to defend themselves themselves.

“With everything he has said and everything he plans to do to the migrant community, things are not looking good,” Morales said. “The most important thing is that we are united.”

Nonetheless, several organizations expressed concern about the cost of informing immigrant residents, providing legal representation to those facing deportation, resisting federal violations, and advancing local policies that will strengthen immigrant protections. They also face a more limited range of legal options, with the justice system being more conservative due to judges appointed by Trump during his first term.

“We don’t have courts like last time, but we still have the Constitution, we still have civil rights, we still have local laws,” Salas said.

Advocates also plan to oppose efforts to expand immigration detention centers and ensure the state uses its surveillance powers. A new California law allows county health workers inspect immigration detention centers. But GEO Group, which operates most of the state’s facilities, sued last monthasserting that this requirement significantly burdens federal immigration enforcement in violation of the Constitution.

“We’ve been here before,” said Talia Inlender, deputy director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA. “And we know how to fight back.”

People who arrived in the United States as children and now have temporary status under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that protects them from deportation and allows them to working legally, also worry about their future under a second Trump term.

Born in Yugoslavia, Edvin Dapcevic has lived in the United States since the age of 4. He is an executive who leads a sales team at a large Los Angeles technology company and asked the Times not to publicly name the company.

Dapcevic said Trump’s election forced him to start thinking about moving to another country, which would mean leaving behind his mother, a permanent resident, and his brother, a U.S. citizen.

He highlighted that technology leaders such as Elon Musk and David Sacksboth South African immigrants who supported Trump’s re-election bid, have been vocal about America’s need for highly skilled immigrants. He said he would like to be able to talk to them and the president-elect about the hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients like him who have already been screened and could fill that gap.

“I have no concrete future in this country,” Dapcevic said. “I grew up here, I pay taxes, I’ve never had any problems, I’ve never been arrested. I am compelled to identify (which country) could give me a permanent home – and it saddens me to say that America has not done so.

Riverside residents Monica Gonzalez and Myra Diaz listen to representatives from the legal aid group TODEC.

(Mark Boster/For Time)

Last week at TODEC, Perris’ legal aid organization, one of the people who showed up for advice was another DACA recipient, Marta, who asked to be identified only by her first name. The 23-year-old Mexican said she feared being fired from her restaurant job.

She worries even more about her parents, who are living in the country illegally. During the last Trump presidency, when they were afraid of immigration agents showing up at their door, the family put a tint film on their windows that prevents people from seeing in but allows them to see outside.

“It’s the fear of deportation that worries us the most,” she said. “He started strong in his first term, and this time I have a feeling he might get stronger.”