Young immigrants in the United States are preparing for four years of fear under threat of expulsion

The most pressing danger after the presidential transition period in the United States next week does not concern the residents of those countries that Donald Trump has considered invading. It’s for the millions of people inside the United States who are about to enter four years of fear: the illegal immigrants that Trump has pledged to deport en masse.

Among them are young people who arrived as children and whose entire lives’ memories reside exclusively within the United States

These people prepare in countless ways. They download a Digital panic button To alert loved ones, in case federal agents arrive. They study their rights and memorize lawyers’ phone numbers.

Families are encouraged to plan for the worst: prepare food, shelter and care for children in case the adults disappear one day.

Their situation will come into focus on Wednesday, when US senators will have the opportunity to question Trump’s pick to lead the border and deportation agencies in her confirmation hearing for Homeland Security secretary.

“It’s fear that paralyzes movement,” said Saul Rascón Salazar, who arrived in the country 18 years ago, when he was five years old. His Mexican family came on a temporary visa and never left. He is now a college graduate and works as a fundraiser for a private school in California.

“I say (this) as someone who hates fear mongering and is absolutely against it. (But) I don’t think things are looking good. In terms of everything — emotionally, financially, rhetorically. I don’t think so.” “I see this situation improving.”

These young men did not expect to be here again.

Four years ago, they were Upbeat. Joe Biden, who has just been elected President of the United States, endorsed a A program to allow them to stay in the countryTalk about a new immigration law remained hanging in the air.

Then those hopes evaporated. Congress I lacked votes In order to pass a law, Trump was re-elected and immigrants now face a two-pronged threat – from the incoming president and Courts.

Reality hits on election night

Rascon said he felt hopeful until election night. He never believed Trump would win. But the new reality emerged when he received the results of the November 5th election with his friends in Arizona.

“It was a very dark, dark atmosphere in the room,” he said, recalling how he and his friends began to study the things that would change.

Rascon is an international relations graduate of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, so he said his first thoughts drifted abroad to Ukraine and the Middle East, then to domestic issues like abortion, minority rights and gun laws.

He said it was only after that that he started thinking about emigrating, and insists it took a few days for his personal reality to truly hit home.

For example, Rascon said he urges people in families like his, if they use social media like he does, to avoid posting their exact whereabouts and location.

He said they should set aside money for lawyers, moving fees and, in a worst-case scenario, for long-term nannies.

Trump insists he is not keen on deporting young people like Rascone.

It is one of more than Half a million people They were enrolled in a program created by Barack Obama in 2012, suspended by Trump while he was president in his first term and revived by Biden known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). It delays their deportation indefinitely if they arrived as children, went to school or work and have a clean criminal record.

Trump tries to reassure young “dreamers”

In a recent interview, Trump suggested that he would finally deport these young men, referring to them by the common nickname, “Dreamers”; The next president even said he would like Congress to protect them with permanent law.

“We have to do something about the Dreamers because these people came here at a very young age,” Trump told NBC in December.

“They don’t even speak the language of their country. And yes, we will do something about the Dreamers.”

But there is every reason to doubt. “They’re just empty words,” Rascon said.

After all, Trump tried in his first term to repeal DACA. In his own words, even he would Deportation of entire families The children were born in the United States and are full American citizens. Additionally, there is a legal challenge to DACA that is moving forward Through the courts.

Above all, Trump’s allies are pledging to do just that Punish and prosecute people Who intervene in deportation processes.

A young woman, a college student in Texas, interviewed by CBC News, illustrates the point Trump makes: that this land, the United States, is the only land she remembers. (CBC agreed to keep the woman’s name confidential because it fears she will be deported for speaking out about her experiences.)

She described being brought by car from El Salvador when she was two years old. She received permission a few years ago to leave the United States and return to see her ailing grandfather in her native country, calling it a culture shock.

The woman recalled her interaction with a street vendor in El Salvador who referred to her as “Chile,” or white. Others started calling it Mexican. Although she speaks Spanish well, her language is influenced by the expressions of many of the Mexican Americans around her.

As for the possibility of treating her as a criminal now, she describes it as cruel.

“I did not choose to come to the United States,” she said. “How is this fair?”

Same family, different situation

One big unknown is the fate of mixed-status families, like Rascon’s: His parents and older brother are completely undocumented, and he is enrolled in the DACA program and his two younger siblings are U.S.-born citizens.

Trump said entire families like this could be deported. The next border czar is coming later He explained that he could not be deported Actual US citizens – but if their parents are expelled, they can decide whether to take their children with them.

It’s not always clear where they’re going. Take the case of Marina Mahmoud.

She was born in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to a Syrian father and a Ukrainian mother. Her family’s common language at home is Russian.

Mahmoud was a little girl when her parents took a trip to the United States 20 years ago and never returned home. She now has a college degree and works in Michigan as a caregiver.

In 2016, she was called out of class the day after Trump’s election to meet with her parents and a lawyer and discuss next steps, such as whether to flee the country or go into hiding.

Her situation has changed dramatically since then: Mahmoud has just obtained permanent residency through a relative, which means, in theory, she has survived. She was even allowed to travel internationally and visited Canada three times.

But on election night, she was saddened, thinking about the hundreds of thousands of other dreamers who lacked the security she had found.

On her way home from work that night, she heard about Trump’s early lead on the radio and tried not to cry while driving. I got home, opened multiple screens, and collapsed.

“I cried all night,” Mahmoud said. “I couldn’t stop.”

She likens it to survivor’s guilt.

Mahmoud has promised her friends in the DACA movement that she will continue to support and protest with them.

“I’ll be your human shield if you have to,” she described a text message to a friend after the election.

But she admits that her situation is not secure. Trump and his team did it I thought about abstraction Establishing certain persons and challenging the Constitution of the United States Citizenship rules.

Being a human shield during protests is not without risks either. A permanent resident could still face deportation if convicted Certain crimes.

For undocumented immigrants and their allies, the four years of fear begin when Trump takes the oath of office in Washington, D.C., at noon Eastern time on Monday.