Our own Diego Bonesatti was quoted in a Detroit News article on how Michigan United and sister groups fighting for the rights and dignity of everyone who comes to America. Titled “Michigan immigrant rights groups brace for chaos as possible deportations loom”, you can read an extended excerpt below:
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Michigan agencies and nonprofits that work with immigrants and refugees say they are bracing for “chaos” but are educating their clients as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office in January and carry out his vow for mass deportations.
At least one organization is advising some clients to potentially carry copies of their green cards, even receipts of rent or mortgage payments in case they are stopped by law enforcement officials. Other groups that work with immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees across the state have been hosting “know your rights” events to educate various groups.
“Since the election, our phones have been ringing off the hook because clients are calling tearfully,” said Christine Suave, policy, engagement, and communications manager for the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, a legal resource center for the state’s immigrant communities that has offices in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Ypsilanti.
The nonprofit is one of the largest groups in the state that works with people going through the often years-long immigration process. “They are calling tearfully because they’re fearful about what might happen to their pending applications,” Sauve said. Trump supporters argue the Biden administration created chaos with its lax border policies that allowed an influx of migrants into the country who created problems in some U.S. cities.
“Trump’s plan includes reinstating policies that worked, like the Remain in Mexico policy, which deterred illegal migrants from entering the country and entering bogus asylum claims in the expectation that they would be released into the U.S.,” wrote Joey Chester, communications manager for the Federation for American Immigration Reform group in Washington, D.C., in a post on the group’s website. “Construction on the border wall will resume, and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) will once again be empowered to remove those who break our laws.”
FAIR estimated at least 16.8 million illegal immigrants resided in the country as of June 2023.
There are an estimated 90,000 undocumented residents in Michigan, based on an analysis of 2019 U.S. Census Bureau data by the Migration Policy Institute. But the range of people who might be at risk of deportation is far beyond that, according to a half dozen groups that work with immigrants statewide. It includes Ukrainian and Afghan refugees, high- tech workers on H2B visas, child victims of human trafficking and others who have noncitizen or temporary status, according to five statewide groups that work with immigrants.
Trump has vowed to immediately start the largest deportation operations in U.S. history once he takes office. In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, Trump said his mass deportation effort would first start with convicted illegal immigrant criminals.
“… We’re starting with the criminals, and we’ve got to do it,” he told “Meet the Press” host Kristin Walker. “And then we’re starting with the others, and we’re going to see how it goes.”
The incoming Trump administration and his appointees also might eliminate or seek to restrict many federal immigration programs that allow many noncitizens to be in the U.S., the immigration rights groups contended.
When immigrants are detained by law enforcement officials, they are given the opportunity to make a free telephone number to call for legal advice and assistance. That number is for the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. MIRC has gotten about 1,500 calls from immigrants who are being detained.
A variety of agencies are bracing for “chaos,” said Julie Powers, executive director of Immigration Law & Justice Michigan, a nonprofit that provides legal services to low- income immigrants. Powers’ group, which has advised some clients to carry copies of their green cards, is one of the main organizations providing assistance to Ukrainian refugees statewide. They are among the refugees who have temporary deportation protection under a Biden administration program called humanitarian parole, which is granted to people fleeing countries considered too dangerous to return to. Trump intends to take that status away, according to immigrant rights groups.
Some are asked to carry their green cards because “who knows what kind of Karen is going to start calling the cops on a person?” Powers said, particularly people of color. “I hope that won’t happen, but I also know that is some of the rhetoric we have heard”…
…”People don’t know, right? And so that’s difficult to capture because how are you going to tell someone who’s undocumented: ‘Oh, don’t worry, they won’t come after you?'” Thronson said. “I cannot tell them that. If you constantly threaten people with the possibility of getting deported, then how are you going to function? I would be scared to death. I couldn’t even go to work or send my kids to school.”
Thronson said she’s working with her clients on things such as setting up guardianships or referring them to family law attorneys who can help with custody or powers of attorney.
This would ensure that if a child doesn’t get picked up by a parent, a relative could do so instead and avoid having the child end up in foster care, she said.
“These were things that we definitely were not prepared for during the first administration,” Thronson said. “… Now that we know what he’s capable of, we’re getting smarter. We are working harder trying to figure out what advice we can give people.” Many immigrants are “mixed-status” families, with some members having permanent residence while others are awaiting their applications to be approved for citizenship or some other status, said Diego Bonesatti, director of legal services for Michigan United, an organization that works with immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
“It’s not like there’s a neat incision that ICE can make and affect only undocumented immigrants,” Bonesatti said. “There’s a lot of people who are going to be hurt. We’re just trying to get the word out for people to prepare for it as best they can.”
While some Trump supporters say illegal immigrants cause a net drain on the economy, it remains one of the many points that fuels the polarizing debate. Undocumented immigrants’ spending power totaled more than $254 billion in 2022, and undocumented households had a combined income of $330 billion — paying nearly $76 billion in taxes, according to the Council of Foreign Affairs. According to a FAIR study, illegal migration costs the American taxpayer $182.1 billion annually as of the beginning of 2023. Those immigrants contribute around $31.4 billion in taxes at the state and federal levels.
Trump supporters, including FAIR, some of whose staffers got hired into the first Trump administration, said the current illegal immigration situation is unfair to citizens and people seeking legal immigration status. “Illegal immigration has serious, long-lasting impacts on every aspect of American society,” according to the group. “It undermines our sovereignty, the rule of law, public safety and imposes tremendous burdens on our immigration agencies. In particular, it exacerbates our legal system and diverts resources from serving those who seek to come to the U.S. legally”….
