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Under Trump US families gird for potential deportations
Trump ften used dehumanizing language as he called undocumented migrants crossing the Mexican border "animals" who were "poisoning the blood" of the nation -- a phrase reminiscent of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.
President-elect Donald Trump. / Reuters
El Paso, United States
Oscar Silva has a bull's eye on his back as Donald Trump prepares to retake power with a pledge to deport millions of undocumented migrants like him.
Born in Mexico, Silva was a baby in his parents' arms when they waded across the Rio Grande into Texas more than 20 years ago, beginning his life in the only country he's ever known.
Silva, 24, went to college in Texas, interned at Congress in Washington and married an American woman, Natalie Taylor. But he can't get a work permit or a driver's license.
"I'm Americanized in every way except on paper," Silva said from his home in Denton, near Dallas.
Now he faces the terrifying prospect of deportation under the hardline America First immigration platform that earned Trump a win over Kamala Harris on November 5.
Indeed, a sea change on immigration is afoot.
People like Silva are nervously waiting to see if Trump makes good on his pledge to declare a national emergency at the border with Mexico and expel millions who lack residency papers, potentially tearing apart families, homes and lives.
'Take them away?'
Under outgoing President Joe Biden, US immigration policy was largely accommodating to people trying to enter America.
That is, until he made a sharp turn late in his term when it became clear that a lax border policy could cost the Democrats the election -- which in part it did, despite his efforts to tighten entry.
Trump, on the other hand, often used dehumanizing language as he called undocumented migrants crossing the Mexican border "animals" who were "poisoning the blood" of the nation -- a phrase reminiscent of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.
Silva had hoped to benefit from a new Biden administration program announced in June that would allow undocumented immigrants married to American citizens to apply for a green card without leaving the country.
But 16 Republican-led states that support Trump challenged this plan in court, and in November a federal judge in Texas struck down the program.
It would have protected some 500,000 people from deportation. An immigration advocacy group called FWD.us said that on average they have been living in the US for more than 20 years, and 81 percent of them are working.
'How did I come?'
So people like Silva would have to go back to the country of origin, which they hardly know, apply there and wait years for an answer with no guarantee of being able to return. If they are deported outright, things get much uglier.
Further south, in El Paso on the Mexican border, a woman named Mirna Cabral was brought to the United States aged five. She was married to an American for 10 years, had two kids and became a widow in 2023.
For these children, now 10 and 12, Cabral is 100 percent American. And for all three the future under Trump -- and the prospect of her being deported to Mexico -- is scary.
"I wouldn't be able to take them with me," said Cabral, who is 37. "How can I take them away from their place, from their home, from their dreams?"
Then there is Foday Turay, born in Sierra Leone and brought to America at age seven. He was able to attend public school because it is guaranteed no matter what a person's migration status is.
Reality set in when he applied for a driver's license and his mother told him he was undocumented -- they had crossed over from Mexico.
"Then I started asking questions like, 'How? What happened? Tell me how did I come?" said Turay, who is married to an American, has a child and lives near Philadelphia.
Both he and Cabral are so-called "dreamers," people who benefit from a program launched by Barack Obama in 2012 that protects from deportation undocumented people that arrived in America before the age of 16, among other requirements, and allows them to study and work.
"DACA is my last shield," said Turay, using the acronym for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
He is an assistant US district attorney in Philadelphia while Cabral is employed in artificial intelligence.
A judge in Texas has halted new applications under the DACA program and declared it illegal, making it harder for Silva to qualify. Without DACA he cannot work. The fate of the program will probably end before the Supreme Court.
"I hope he only focuses on deporting the criminals because America is a land of immigrants," Turay said of Trump.
Silva and Taylor want to have kids but know it is risky because he could be deported. She said she would go to Mexico to be with him.
In his wallet Silva carries a card with the phone numbers of his family and a lawyer, in case he is arrested.
"What I can do right now is just hope for the best, prepare for the worst," he said.
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