YONKERS ‒ Salomon Aparacio clutched a microphone in the bitter cold and spoke of a hard but stable life at risk. He fears he’ll be deported and separated from his daughter after two decades in the U.S.
“We’re not asking for any handouts, anything free,” the 47-year-old construction worker and Yonkers resident told the crowd as an interpreter repeated his Spanish words in English. “We go out, day in and day out, and sweat. We go out and get money for our families, contribute to this economy, and we want to continue doing that. We want to continue being part of this city and country.”
The rally last Wednesday in Yonkers’ Van Der Donck Park was held by an array of immigrant support groups to face a looming threat from Washington. They and the people they serve are bracing for the large-scale roundup and removal of undocumented immigrants that President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to begin when he takes office on Jan. 20.
What exactly his pledge will mean for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. is unknown, a source of anxious speculation among those whose lives could be upended. In New York, that includes anywhere from 600,000 to more than 800,000 people like Aparacio living in the country without authorization, based on various estimates.
Among the many uncertainties: Where and how will authorities try to snare them, and will they be granted hearings before a judge to make their case to stay? How will businesses that rely on their labor function without them? Will U.S.-born children, citizens, be separated from their noncitizen parents?
During an interview Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, Trump said his administration plans to start by deporting immigrants who committed crimes and then move on to “others.” He said he ultimately wants to expel everyone living in the U.S. without authorization.
“You have no choice,” he said. “First of all, they’re costing us a fortune. But we’re starting with the criminals and we’ve got to do it. And then we’re starting with others and we’re going to see how it goes.”
When asked about handling an estimated 4 million U.S. families with mixed immigration status, Trump offered the same solution that Tom Homan, his future “border czar,” has suggested in interviews: deport them all, citizen children along with their undocumented parents.
Donald Trump delivers remarks on border security and immigration, in Austin, Texas, U.S., October 25, 2024.
“Well, I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back,” he said.
New York’s immigrant advocacy groups argue his mass deportation plans may split apart families, return people to dangerous places they fled, and hurt the U.S. economy by hobbling industries powered by undocumented labor. They also fear immigrants who are living legally in the U.S. could be swept up in a massive push and unjustly evicted.
As they await what comes next from Washington, they’re spreading the word to immigrants about their legal rights and what they should do if detained. They’re also pushing for a statewide sanctuary law in Albany to sharply curtail the help immigration authorities can get from police and local governments in New York as they pursue the undocumented.
Hillary Clinton discuss deportation plan at New Rochelle event
Hillary Clinton, Democratic elder stateswoman of Westchester County and Trump’s opponent in the 2016 presidential race, weighed in on the impending deportation push at a large event in Westchester last week. She dispensed advice for support groups and their clients and sketched some ways that push may unfold.
“There’s going to be a lot of theater,” Clinton told a crowd of 400 at VIP Country Club in New Rochelle. “So there are going to be raids. There’ll be raids into all kinds of establishments.”
The event was held by Neighbors Link, a nonprofit that offers legal services, English lessons and other support for all types of immigrants in Westchester, regardless of their legal status. Westchester, a county of 1 million people, has about 54,000 undocumented residents, the largest total of any New York county outside New York City, according to estimates by the Migration Policy Institute.
Hillary Clinton speaks during an event sponsored by Neighbors Link, an immigrant advocacy organization based in Westchester County, during a luncheon at the VIP Club in New Rochelle Dec. 3, 2024. Clinton spoke about her concerns for immigrant rights and planned mass deportations by the incoming Trump administration.
Clinton, who bought her Westchester home with her husband Bill in 1999 as his presidency neared its end and her own political career began, warned of a potentially broader threat to all immigrants, even those with a legal foothold. She recommended, for example, that green-card holders apply for residency to strengthen their legal status.
“This is a full court press to try to get people who are most at risk to understand what they can do to protect themselves,” she said.
She also argued that “economic interests” could prove important allies in blocking Trump’s mission.
“Are they really going to take every farm worker out of the field?” she asked. “Are they really going to take every construction worker off every scaffolding?”
Renewed push for NYS sanctuary bill
A focus of last week’s rally in Yonkers was getting state lawmakers to pass a pending bill that would limit interaction with federal immigration agencies. That proposal, known as New York for All, has sat without action in Albany since 2020, but is now a rallying cry for advocacy groups with the next legislative session set to begin in early January, just before Trump takes office.
“The prospect now that looms over us is pretty dire, and I think people are really concerned what Trump’s deportation plans will actually mean,” state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a Brooklyn Democrat who sponsored the bill, told the USA Today Network in an interview.
“I think people realize now that things are very real,” Gounardes added. “And so there’s renewed focus on trying to build as much of a bulwark as possible to protect our immigrant neighbors from this deportation machine.”
The bill would prohibit police and government agencies — including jails, probation departments, state and municipal employees — from turning someone over to federal authorities unless a judge has issued an arrest warrant. It also bars asking for and recording a person’s immigration status unless that information is needed to qualify for a government benefit.
Jahaira Roldan of Albany, a member of the New York Immigration Coalition, was among those attending a rally for immigrant rights in downtown Yonkers Dec. 5, 2024. Approximately 100 immigrants and immigrant advocates attended the rally as President-elect Donald Trump’s vows to begin mass deportation of undocumented immigrants once he takes office on Jan. 20.
Gounardes makes a public-safety case for the bill, arguing that immigrants who witness crimes or are crime victims are less likely to come forward and speak to police if they fear deportation, which hinders investigations. That same “chilling effect,” he said, is counter-productive when it comes to schooling and health care.
Some of New York’s local governments, including Westchester County, already have “sanctuary” policies in place that limit when their agencies may interact with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. And New York itself has a similar policy that applies to state agencies, set by executive order by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2017, the first year of the first Trump administration.
Gounardes, referring to that patchwork of rules, contends a statewide law is needed to set a uniform policy for the entire state.
Stepping from the shadows to tell their stories
With Christmas coming in just a few weeks, the Rev. Eric Cruz found an apt biblical metaphor as he delivered a prayer at the Yonkers rally. He invoked the story of Jesus’ birth and his parents’ flight to safety — likening it to migrants coming to the U.S. “to escape oppression, poverty, persecution, violence and war.”
“Living and working among us, you experienced the life of a migrant when Mary and Joseph, your parents, fled their homes to protect your life,” said Cruz, director of services for Catholic Charities in the Bronx and Westchester and Putnam counties. “We call upon our public servants to join us always, expressing an unwavering commitment and resolve to walk with our brothers and sisters.”
Several rally speakers were immigrants at risk of deportation.
Approximately 100 immigrants and their advocates attended a rally for immigrant rights in downtown Yonkers Dec. 5, 2024. The rally was held as President-elect Donald Trump’s vows to begin mass deportation of undocumented immigrants once he takes office on Jan. 20.
Aparicio, the construction worker, said in an interview after his speech that he came to this country from Mexico 24 years ago, and lives in Yonkers with his wife and 7-year-old daughter. He said he already has a pending deportation case after being detained by ICE in 2022, but has been unable to get any information about its status.
“I call my lawyer; he doesn’t answer the phone, so I’m going to go to his office to see what’s going on with my case,” he told the USA Today Network. He paused and added, “I believe in God, I believe in God.”
Closing shelters: Migrants still housed in upstate hotels must leave as NYC ends relocation program
Another speaker was Jennifer, a 38-year-old, single mother whose family fled from Colombia —”a beautiful country with high levels of violence.” She now lives in Mamaroneck with her daughters, ages 6 and 11, and sells coffee in the community. She told the USA Today Network that she’s applying for political asylum in the U.S., and asked that her last name not be used.
“We know the negative things said about us immigrants,” Jennifer said to the crowd. “I know that we immigrants sacrifice a lot to support our own families, even our own health. With our own sweat, we contribute to this country’s economy.”
Teaching immigrants about their rights
How the deportations will be carried out is hard to predict, making the wait more stressful, said Karin Anderson Ponzer, director of the community law practice for Neighbors Link. With an estimated 20 million people living in mixed-status families, ICE “may pick up whoever is easy to find,” rather than use its discretionary power to choose whom to deport, she said.
For now, she said, her office has focused on distributing materials to immigrants about their rights and training its workers for what comes next.
Anderson Ponzer stressed that noncitizens are entitled to due process in legal proceedings, just as citizens are, which means they have a right to appear before a judge at a hearing about their deportation case. She and other attorneys are preparing for administration attempts to bypass those rights by expediting removals.
Karin Anderson Ponzer, Director of the Neighbors Link Community Law Practice, photographed Dec. 3, 2024 during a luncheon at the VIP Club in New Rochelle. Hillary Clinton spoke at the event, sponsored by Neighbors Link, an immigrant advocacy organization based in Westchester County.
“They have a right to fairness,” she said. “They have a right to a hearing. They have a right to present an application to protect themselves.”
She argued immigrants — both legal and undocumented — are a vital economic contributor, making up 27% of New York’s labor force and paying $27 billion a year in taxes. Nationwide, she said, undocumented immigrants paid an estimated $25.7 billion in social security taxes in 2022, shoring up a system that pays them no benefits.
“We are going to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with immigrant families,” Anderson Ponzer said.
Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Trump mass deportation plan braced by NY immigrant support groups