Lincoln, Nebraska
Cnn
–
Sleep is difficult to find due to constant fear and uncertainty. But, she says, it’s better than the alternative: “If I go back to Honduras, they will kill me.”
The third week of the new term Trump is the third week of G.’s insomnia. His lawyers tell her that she should be ok – that the asylum process that she started a year ago should protect her. But G follows the news closely, constantly hears rumors about ice observations and retreats to the rhetoric of President Donald Trump on people like her.
“CLARO, if POR SUPUESTO,” she replied when they were asked if she was worried to be expelled by Trump despite a long-standing case.
“Of course, that’s for sure,” is the English translation. “Because he tries to implement fairly strict policies with immigrants in general, and I think even more with people who have just entered the country. At least with the program with which I entered, there is a certain instability, so to speak. So, of course, this increases anxiety and concerns. »»
G entered the United States a year ago, using a phone application at customs and border patrol – CBP One – designed to rationalize and more effectively manage asylum allegations. Trump eliminated the application on his first day in power, and his immigration advisers often criticize Biden’s policies and speak of identifying and expelling migrants who recently entered the United States.
G was a journalist in Honduras, and his relationships on political corruption and the collusion of the government with violent gangs have done so, she said, a target of harassment and violence of the regime.
“In no case can I come back in any case because I would risk my life and the life of my family,” she said. “With Trump in power, everything I have achieved so far is at risk. He will probably examine my case and force me to come back – something that I cannot allow. This is my greatest concern.
G shared his story – and his fears – only after agreeing to protect his identity. She lives in Nebraska Now, a red state that supported Trump by more than 20 points, where we have found an immigrant community filled with indignation and fear. These immigrants and their defenders are convinced that the repression of Trump’s application arrives in their community sooner or later.
“Fear is real among us,” said G.
Our visit to the Nebraska is part of our evolutionary project “Tour on the map”, launched in August 2023 to follow the presidential election of 2024 through the eyes and experiences of voters who live in key areas or are part of the blocks critical voting. Now, with Trump back in the White House, we will stay in touch with these voters as well as to add to the group – and to our target states – to follow the key political initiatives of the new administration.
The Republican Governor of Nebraska, Jim Pillen, praised Trump’s repression and offered state resources to help the federal authorities. The governor refused an interview request during our visit to the Nebraska, but provided CNN a declaration which said, in part: “Criminal foreigners, weapons, fatal drugs and the trafficking in human beings infiltrated the communities from Nebraska. I am with President Trump and I published my own decree to ensure that the agencies of the state of Nebraska do the same. »»
Police leaders of the two largest cities, Omaha and Lincoln, qualified the application of immigration a federal problem and said that their resources would not be used to help federal repression. Likewise, officials of public schools in these cities said their priority was that students welcome, regardless of their status.
Mary Choate, an immigration lawyer in Lincoln, said that fear and uncertainty had parents worried about sending their children to school or attending services offered to them as English lessons.
“We really want to keep the immigrants and the refugees involved in the community because they are so integrated into our community,” said Choate, executive director of the Center for Legal Immigration Assistance. “But it was very difficult for them to be able to do it because they fear getting out of their houses.”
There is no consensus figure on the number of undocumented immigrants live in Nebraska. Estimates vary from 30,000 to 75,000. Always tiny compared to, let’s say, in California, Texas, New York or Illinois.
But the total population of Nebraska exceeds just over 2 million and several of its main industries are desperate for workers. Nebraska is second behind Texas in the production of American beef, sixth in pork, and its nickname of the state of Cornhusker talks about its status as an agricultural giant.
“Trying to find a good, motivated and reliable help is a challenge,” said John Hansen, president of Nebraska Farmers Union. “So, depending on how the president goes on this subject, this could be a potentially very, very negative impact.”
Even more, perhaps, as Trump threatens to impose new prices on imports from Canada and Mexico, which have been delayed by one month. Hansen said any disturbance in the American food supply chain caused by immigration repression could be painful for businesses and consumers.
“If we have a hitch in the Get-Along in Nebraska, it is a fairly large state of transformation that goes, it will feel in the food chain,” said Hansen. “And we are not unique to other states.”
Hansen, a Democrat, has been president of Farmers Union since 1989. He is aware that immigration policy has long been political sands.
“Do we need better application?” I think we do it, ”said Hansen. “But we know, there is, there is a constructive way to do it, and there is a less constructive way to do so.”
By that, Hansen means that he thinks that real reform would include better border security and a path to status for undocumented immigrants who have not committed any crime since the United States illegally crossing.
There were proposals for this purpose during the George W. Bush administration, and again during the Barack Obama administration.
At the time, the study ideas included allowing undocumented migrants to stay in the United States and put themselves on the path of status and even citizenship. Several ways to include responsibility have been discussed, such as paying additional taxes or another penalty, or perhaps being placed in a longer line for citizenship.
But immigration is one of the questions on which the GOP Trump’s remake is the most dramatic. Demanding the homeless return home is now the overwhelming feeling of the Republican Party and there are few discussions on the GOP at the moment of the new wider immigration legislation.
“Trump is mainly a disruptor,” said Hansen. “He is not a fixer. … Hyper partisanry is not useful, not constructive. This does not solve the problems.
The Trump effect is hardly confined to Washington.
“If you are illegally, please leave,” is the point of view of the republican senator Kathleen Kauth. “Go back, go through the process legally.”
Kauth sponsors legislation to demand that Nebraska employers verify that their workers have legal status. She considers the proposition as common sense. But she recognizes that the emotions of the national debate on immigration could complicate efforts to attract local democratic support.
“I think that whenever you have polarization, you know, people tend to go on their side and to stick to it,” Kauth said in an interview with Nebraska State Capitol. “I am really more worried about Nebraska and concentrate, what do we need at Nebraska to understand the problem?” How can we make sure that we keep people who are not legally here to take jobs from people who are. »»
Kauth recognizes that Nebraska needs more workers. But she thinks that the state could manage any disturbance caused by the stricter application of immigration. On the day of our visit, Kauth also met the head of a program that helps people recently released from Prison Find Work.
“I am very important in the second chance employment,” said Kauth.
In any case, his point of view is that following the law is essential.
“I consider it to be a fruit of the poison, the poison apple, the poison tree, whatever the legal definition,” said Kauth. “If your first act is to violate the law, you have become a criminal. And so, everything after – even if it is well intentioned, even if it is wonderful – please go back and go through the process, because we want you here, but we need you to do it good way. And I don’t think it should ever change.
This feeling – in Washington and Lincoln – has the community of immigrants on board.
“It is a scary moment for my community,” said a man that we agreed to identify only by his nickname, Gin.
He was brought to the United States illegally when he was a child, but now has a green card and works for citizenship. “This is what the American dream is, not fear,” said Gin.
But Gin said he had a family and friends who are not documented and who feared that a journalist was talking to make immigration and customs’ application (ICE) objectives.
“Where is it going to end?” Asked Gin, describing how a rumor on ice activity can trigger a wave of nerve calls and sms. “It starts as, have you seen immigration, have you seen this?” And you see fear in people’s eyes, just the fact that they cannot go out at the store, they cannot go to choose the grocery store, or even hospitals. “”
Gin wants Trump to associate the safety of stricter borders with a form of amnesty on the model after the approach that President Ronald Reagan took four decades ago.
But he knows that it is beyond pious wishes.
“His first mandate was more, as, let’s see if it can happen,” said Gin. “This year, it’s more – I’m going to do it. … Certainly more aggressive.