Throughout his presidential campaign and leading up to his second term, President-elect Donald Trump has shared plans for mass deportation of immigrants living in the U.S. with a deportation force that would involve federal, state and local law enforcement agencies on a scale not seen in recent history.
Many Latinos in the Tri-Cities voted for Trump despite those concerns. Some told the Tri-City Herald that they hope he keeps his promises on improving the economy and falls short when it comes to targeting immigrants.
There are more than 246,000 undocumented immigrants in Washington state, according to 2019 data from the Migrant Policy Institute, and 139,000 are from Mexico.
The Pew Research Center estimated that Washington’s population of undocumented immigrants was as high as 325,000 in 2022.
Ana Orozco is the manager at Llane’s Boutique, a formal dress store in downtown Pasco, where she’s worked for seven years.
She immigrated from Mexico to Oregon with her parents and siblings when she was 14. She married, moved to Kennewick and now has three children.
Like many immigrants, she and her family came to the U.S. for a better future.
Legal immigrants include naturalized U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (green card holders) and temporary lawful residents like those with temporary visas for education or work.
Undocumented immigrants may also receive temporary protections under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status.
About 14,000 Pasco residents, or 17% of the city’s population of about 80,000, are foreign born, according to estimated 2023 census data.
That compares to 11,000, or 13%, in Kennewick and 5,400, or 9%, in Richland.
Pasco’s foreign-born residents include about 5,300 naturalized U.S. citizens and 8,700 who are not citizens. That includes lawful permanent residents, temporary migrants, refugees and asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants, according to the census.
Orozco is a U.S. citizen.
It was her fourth time voting for president in the general election this November. This time, she was conflicted about which candidate to choose.
“I had to decide between the people I love and the economy,” she told the Tri-City Herald.
She said that while she is angered by Trump’s racism and anti-immigrant ideals, she voted for him because of the high cost of living.
She hopes her young children will eventually be able to buy homes and believes that the economy will become more stable with Trump as president.
What concerns Orozco about possible mass deportation is how it could affect her family and friends who are undocumented.
Orozco’s aunt has lived in the U.S. for more than 23 years and does not have legal status. She is the only one of her family members without legal status.
“Our families are here,” Orozco said. “Our lives are here. There is nothing for us back in Mexico.”
She is also frustrated that Trump has helped spread the misconception that undocumented immigrants are criminals.
Being undocumented in the U.S. is not a crime under local, state or federal law.
What mass deportation could look like in Washington
Trump’s proposed immigration policies would affect communities across Washington state, including the Tri-Cities. Thousands of undocumented immigrants would be uprooted after living and working in the state for years or even decades.
Washington was designated as a sanctuary state in 2019 through the Keep Washington Working Act. It prohibits most local officials from participating in federal immigration enforcement.
For example, local authorities are prohibited from questioning people about their immigration status or place of birth, unless directly connected to a criminal proceeding, and local and federal jails are prevented from complying with federal “immigration holds” when an immigrant is to be released from custody.
Washington is one of 11 current sanctuary states in the U.S.
But the sanctuary law would not prevent federal authorities, like the National Guard or military, from proceeding with mass deportations in Washington.
While some Latinos don’t believe Trump will be able to carry out the sweeping mass deportation he’s described, history shows its happened in the U.S. before.
Mass deportations of Mexican immigrants from the U.S. date to the Great Depression, when local, state and federal governments began a wave of deportations rather than include Mexican-born workers in New Deal welfare programs under then-President Herbert Hoover. It was called the Mexican Repatriation program.
According to historians, local governments and officials deported up to 1.8 million people to Mexico, 60% of whom were U.S. citizens of Mexican descent, during the 1930s.
Vanessa Gutierrez is the deputy director at the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, a Seattle-based nonprofit that provides legal services to immigrants, as well as advocacy and community education.
The organization has been active for 40 years and their closest offices to the Tri-Cities are in Granger.
She told the Tri-City Herald that the groups that are most vulnerable to deportation are those who have already received removal orders and criminals in jails and prisons, even if they have legal status.
Gutierrez said she also expects an uptick in expedited removal, a process that deports certain undocumented immigrants without a due process immigration hearing.
The expedited removal policy was expanded in July 2023. Most undocumented immigrants who cannot prove they have resided in the U.S. for more than two years potentially would be subject to expedited removal.
Latinos respond
Margarita Lopez and Exenia Torres are Latina students at a beauty school in downtown Pasco where they are learning to be manicurists.
Lopez told the Tri-City Herald in Spanish that she voted for Trump because the cost of living is high and she’s feeling the impact of inflation on expenses like gas and groceries.
She also said she believes that Trump will not be successful following through with mass deportations without congressional approval and other government oversight.
All of Lopez’s family members have legal status.
Torres, who didn’t vote in the general election, said she has relatives and friends who are undocumented and is concerned about Trump’s immigration policies affecting them.
“It is scary. But America needs Latinos in the workforce,” Torres said. “They’re going to fight against deportation.”
La Posada East and West on Lewis Street in Pasco are farmworker housing sites operated by Sea Mar Community Health Center.
La Posada manager Ramon Mota immigrated to Washington from Mexico in 1992. He has seven adult children.
He manages housing for H-2A farmworkers who have temporary visas that allow them to legally work on Eastern Washington farms. They typically travel to the U.S. from Mexico, Venezuela and other countries to work starting in the spring, before they return to their home countries in the late fall. The workers often return year after year.
Mota told the Tri-City Herald in Spanish that he voted for Vice President Kamala Harris and voted for Democrats across the board in the general election.
He said that he was hopeful that Harris would be elected as the first female U.S. president after recalling that Mexico elected its first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, in June.
Mota worries that H-2A workers will not travel to states like Washington for agricultural work out of fear of Trump’s immigration policies, triggering seasonal labor shortages for Washington farms.
Lopez noted that the previous Trump administration deported fewer people than were deported under former President Barack Obama, which influenced her vote.
Obama carried out more than 5 million deportations during his presidency, according to the Department of Homeland Security, compared to 1.5 million during Trump’s presidency.
Deportations were likely higher during Obama’s presidency because his policies narrowed enforcement on two key groups: the deportation of criminals and unauthorized border-crossers.
Trump deported fewer people, but was hyper-focused on controlling immigration, building a U.S.-Mexico border wall, and banning entry or limiting travel by people from Muslim-majority countries.
Supporting immigrants in Tri-Cities
“No immigrant was spared when it came to trying to find any angle to slow legal and illegal immigration down, or make things more difficult or even impossible,” Pasco immigration lawyer Eamonn Roach told the Tri-City Herald, referring to Trump’s first term.
Roach said Trump’s “Muslim ban” and separation of families at the southern border in an effort to deter migrants were constitutional and human rights violations.
Trump used tactics like random immigration raids at businesses, an approach that could unintentionally affect workers with legal status.
“For what Trump is trying to do — scare people and draw up fervor — workplace raids look good, but ultimately they’re not very effective,” Roach said.
Gutierrez expects that immigration raids and audits of businesses thought to be employing undocumented immigrants will continue during Trump’s second term. She said that the agriculture and service industries are likely targets.
A majority of Roach’s clients are undocumented Mexican immigrants hoping to gain legal status.
At Roach & Bishop, he helps with the processes of obtaining legal status through documentation including family- or employment-based green cards and work permits, DACA, H-1B temporary visas for foreign-educated workers and J-1 exchange visitor visas.
“People are definitely scared of the unknown,” Roach said. “Trump talks a lot and even though he doesn’t follow through on most things, he does follow through on some things. This has been a pretty big part of his platform.”
In response to Trump’s re-election, Roach is educating his clients and helping them determine a path forward.
“I’m explaining to them the law as it relates specifically to their situations,” Roach said. “Even though Trump will be president, he can’t change the law.”
“If somebody has the ability to change their temporary status, I’m telling them not to delay.” Roach gave the example of someone gaining legal status by marrying a U.S. citizen or through their child, if they are a U.S. citizen.
“The main issue is that everything takes so long with immigration. Everything is long, everything is hard and everything is expensive.”
He said it takes almost five years to get a green card, for example, if an undocumented Mexican immigrant marries a U.S. citizen. They typically then have to travel and present themselves at the U.S. Consulate in Mexico as part of consular processing.
Roach currently has 21 people on a list to receive a green card. Sometimes that list grows to 80 or more.
Undocumented immigrants are encouraged to continue to apply for legal status or keep their existing applications active.
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project officials reported in a post-election virtual public meeting that some immigrants in Washington have concerns about their home addresses being available the federal government by way of the applications, but staff said they shouldn’t withdraw their applications.
“It might be their best chance at protection,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez recommended gaining information and advocacy through the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network. Locally, Roach suggested people access support and resources through the Tri-Cities Immigrant Coalition.
