Venezuelan asylum seekers in D.C. face uncertain future amid Trump’s deportation plans

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WASHINGTON DC (7News) — As many families will gather at the Thanksgiving table in less than a week, some families are thankful just to be in America.

7News On Your Side spoke with one woman who fled Venezuela and is seeking asylum with her husband and 2-year-old daughter after a treacherous journey that took her through Peru, Central America, and Mexico before she arrived in Atlanta and flew to the D.C. area. We are hiding her identity for her safety.

"[We] were in detention at the border for about two days before [we] were permitted to enter the country," the woman said through a translator. "When [we] arrived in D.C., [we] arrived in a shelter. The shelter was only able to provide shelter for about three days. With a group of volunteers, [I] was able to find a host for [my] family for a few days to get food and shelter."

However, her gratitude is now paired with fear.

In less than two months, and just miles away from her apartment, President-elect Donald Trump will once again move into the White House after a campaign during which he promised several times to carry out a mass deportation plan for the 11 million people living in the country without legal immigration status.

"My family feels really scared and very nervous. My family back in Venezuela is even more scared and worried," the woman said. "I hope that he doesn't actually do the deportations he has been talking about."

During the transition process, Trump named former Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Tom Homan, a border hardliner, as his "border czar." Homan said he could send more ICE agents to sanctuary cities, like D.C.

The Venezuelan migrant told 7News she is hoping she and her family are spared, because she came to this country to provide her daughter with opportunities not available in her homeland.

"It means everything to be able to stay here in the United States because, here, we have so much opportunity and so many opportunities for doors to open to us, and bring us blessings and more opportunities, particularly for my daughter, I hope she is able to grow up here and be educated here, and have a life she is able to build here. We want to be able to continue putting down roots in this community and ensure we have opportunities to build a good life here because that's not possible in my country," the woman said. "I know for my daughter, she would not have the opportunity to study and have a chance at life in my home country, as she would here, in the United States."

Advocates who have helped migrants in the D.C. area have also raised concerns.

Amy Fischer with Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid said she has seen panic take over entire communities.

"What we're hearing all around is a real sense of fear. The people we are talking about - the vast, vast majority of them - came here seeking safety, and this idea of having to be forcibly deported back to these places that they had once fled is really causing a lot of fear," Fischer said. "We are planning on continuing our work, welcoming and supporting the folks who have decided to make this area their home. We still are offering a free store, food delivery, and other types of programming and services to our new neighbors."

Over recent years, Fischer and fellow volunteers have worked with migrant families - including those bused up to the nation's capital from border states - to provide resources and help relocate in the area.

Now, they are preparing for a bigger workload over the next four years.

"As a group that is committed to standing in solidarity with this community, we are really working on amping up our ability to defend people's rights that are living in our community: Educating people about what their rights are, what to do, how to exercise their 5th Amendment and 4th Amendment rights and what to do when somebody comes knocking on their door, to check for a warrant," Fischer said. Even though they're immigrants, they still have rights here."

During a press conference earlier this month, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser spoke briefly about the prospect of a mass deportation plan having an impact on city residents.

"We don't know where it's going to start. I'm not sure it matters where it starts, but people who are not documented, I think, are vulnerable," Bowser said earlier this month. "While we don't have control over how our president enforces immigration policies, we should advocate for our residents who have lived here for many years, and we should advocate for the president and the congress to establish immigration reforms that allow people to come into the country legally or, more importantly for us, many people in our city came here with TPS protection, and we think they should have a pathway to citizenship."

During the first Trump administration, ICE conducted raids targeting undocumented immigrants across the country.

Fischer said she and other volunteers are preparing for a repeat of this tactic.

"We're also working on mobilizing for rapid response. We're preparing for raids. We are preparing for people to be facing deportation, and we are ready to respond, to fight back, and to try and make sure people are not deported and not snatched out of our communities. I think there is a lot of fear because so many of the people in this area are protected by things like parole and are protected by things like temporary protected status, things that the Trump campaign has said, and the Trump administration now, has said they want to revoke. All of these people who are living here and working, and doing everything they can to follow the law, are having everything pulled out from under them. The legal statuses they had previously are now being threatened to be canceled, and there's a lot of confusion. Many of the people we serve in our network were not here during the first four years of the Trump administration. They don't know what it looked like. They don't know how raids work," Fischer said. "There may be a day when someone's dad doesn't come home from work that day, and what happens to their children? Who takes care of their children. Some of this work looks like helping people get power of attorney for their children, and have paperwork organized so that, if one day, they were to be snatched from their community, we would be prepared and they would be prepared, and their family would be prepared, to fight back and to tackle whatever may come from that."

Before Trump takes office in January, groups like Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid are working to bring in more volunteers.

"We need everybody to stand up and join us, and get trained, and work to make connection with their immigrant neighbors to be able to stand up for them because the only way we're going to get through this is through community working together," Fischer said.

Trump said his mass deportation plan would target criminals first, but he has not further elaborated his priorities with this specific policy.

In the meantime, migrants like the woman who spoke with 7News said they are hoping they are not high on that priority list.

"We came here to do good, and there are other people who came here with bad intentions and are trying to do bad things. Maybe those are the people that should be focused on for deportations, but I'm hoping we are not targeted. We have paid for everything we have, and are really nervous about this threat of deportation," the woman said. [We]'ve worked very hard since they first arrived. [My] husband works with Uber, and [I] had the opportunity to work at the different stadiums in the area. When [I haven't] been able to work at the stadium, [I] also work doing Uber and deliveries."

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