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Panic first came through the phones. Then the front door.
Hours after tallies solidified President-elect Donald Trump’s victory more than a week ago, staff at Long Beach’s Filipino Migrant Center say they were flooded with telephone calls and visits.
Romeo Hebron, executive director at the center, said people showed up terrified. Under the specter of being targeted by the next president’s administration, many asked if they should pack up and leave the country.
“‘Will there be mass deportations? And when will that happen?’” Hebron recalled.
Two months remain until the Trump Administration’s official start on Jan. 20 and residents, attorneys and elected officials in Long Beach and across California say they are preparing for a slate of federal immigration policies they fear will separate millions of U.S.-born children from their foreign-born parents, cripple local economies and send thousands into a truncated legal system already gridlocked by backlogged cases.
At the Filipino Migrant Center, a news report circulated of Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Jose Manuel Romualdez, who advised Filipinos unlikely to obtain legal status to “not wait to be deported.”
“Because there are many cases where, once you are deported, 99% you will never be able to come back to the United States,” Romualdez said in a virtual call with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.
In speeches during his campaign, the former President has promised to deploy National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, resume construction of a border wall and commence a large-scale detention and deportation of undocumented migrants, at a rate his running mate J.D. Vance estimated could average one million people per year.
Trump is also expected to reintroduce things like the “remain in Mexico” program, which requires migrants to stay in Mexico while awaiting a court date, as well as revise asylum restrictions and revoke Biden-era humanitarian parole programs, like Temporary Protected Status.
Broadly, it’s difficult to know how many locals could be affected by such programs, but it’s likely in the tens of thousands. The most recent U.S. Census counted nearly 55,000 Long Beach residents who are noncitizens — either lawful permanent residents, under Temporary Protected Status, awaiting their court date, DACA recipients or without status altogether.
Details remain sparse from an administration promising to carry out the “largest deportation operation in American history,” leading some immigration experts to say it is unclear what exactly will happen come January.
“At the end of the day, it is a bit of a wait and see,” said Sanger Brito-Lyon, an immigration attorney in Long Beach. “As much as the new administration may wish to deport more people on a faster timeline, there will be logistical hurdles.”
Brito-Lyon, who began his practice in 2017, said it’s likely the administration will first enact smaller “headache” policies that aim to slog and complicate applications for citizenship, green cards and benefits.
One example from Trump’s first term, he said, was the “N/A Rule,” which allowed agencies to reject applications if any boxes were left blank. “If you didn’t have every single blank space filled out, they would reject your case,” he said.
Otherwise, cases will likely pile up, adding to the more than 133,000 cases backlogged in Los Angeles County.
Amanda Schuft, director of legal services at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center in Los Angeles, said that immigration court proceedings already take anywhere from two months to several years, depending on whether the person is detained and if they’re seeking an appeal.
“I have been an immigration attorney for ten years, and I have some clients that I’ve had pretty much the length of that time,” Schuft said.
With delays all but guaranteed, the Trump Administration is expected to look for ways to expedite removal, at least for some migrants.
In its first term, the Trump Administration attempted to expand who qualified for expedited removal from people who’d been in the country for two weeks to two years. Due to limitations within ICE detention facilities, it “was expanded but never executed on a large scale,” Schuft said.
Before an Aurora, Colo., crowd last month, Trump said he plans to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime power allowing the president to arrest, imprison or deport immigrants considered enemies of the U.S. Those who attempt to return to the U.S. would be served with 10-year prison sentences without parole, he said.
This is where it will likely turn into litigation, Brito-Lyon said, which will be both timely and costly — $968 billion over a decade to hypothetically deport everyone in the U.S. illegally, according to the American Immigration Council.
And while the law center, which is representing 50 active cases in Long Beach, is “very concerned and realistic” about what can happen, Schuft said they’ve “seen the limitations of staffing and budget” in the prior administration.
“There are, of course, unknowns about what’s going to happen,” Schuft said. “But will — on Day One — there be staff and budget in place to carry out mass deportation? Probably not.”
Those who have been in the U.S. for years and do not live near the border have a right to removal proceedings, she said, just as municipalities, like Los Angeles and Long Beach, have a right not to cooperate with federal agents.
A mass deportation operation would require many more officers, detention facilities and judges to take on the increased workload. Trump’s newly picked “border czar,” Tom Homan, said last week the administration will increase workplace raids under the banner of fighting illegal labor and sex trafficking.
The administration has also warned it will apply pressure on “sanctuary cities” that attempt to stymie or stall their plans. “If sanctuary cities don’t want to help us, then get out of the way, because we’re coming,” Homan said in a “Fox & Friends” interview.
But any raid in a sanctuary city would have to be done by federal agents, Schuft said.
“Long Beach and Los Angeles would not be cooperating and we expect our community leaders in these cities and counties to stand up for families, neighbors and coworkers,” she added.
In separate statements Friday, the Long Beach Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department both said they will not assist federal agencies in deportation plans. Incoming Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell made a similar statement a week prior.
“The LBPD does not enforce civil federal immigration laws in accordance with existing policy,” the department said in a statement late Friday. “Our priority is to maintain the well-being and security of our entire community, without compromising public trust.”
In 2017, the City Council approved the Long Beach Values Act, led by then-Councilmember Lena Gonzalez (now in the state Senate), current city Mayor Rex Richardson and now-Congressman Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach.
It aligns the city’s position with the state version, the California Values Act, or S.B. 54, which ensures that no state and local resources would be used to support federal immigration enforcement.
Garcia, who emigrated from Peru as a child, said Friday their intention with the ordinance was to “ensure that immigrants in our community were safe, were respected and recognized.”
The former Long Beach mayor said he’s confident that when the moment arises, the current council will protect its undocumented community.
“I think that’s really important at this moment that we’re very clear-eyed about the dangers of what Donald Trump wants to do and this idea that he wants to raid businesses and raid homes and neighborhoods,” Garcia said. “I think it’s really a moment that is going to require strong leadership from our city, and I’m confident that they’re going to meet that challenge.”
And preparations remain underway.
In April, the city expanded its Long Beach Justice Fund to $1.4 million, a 27% increase to its prior year budget. The program, which helps undocumented or pending status residents obtain work permits and visas, has represented more than 70 clients, including 16 children, and closed 15 cases with another 51 pending.
At the state level, California leaders and immigrant rights organizations are expected to convene early next month after Gov. Gavin Newsom on Nov. 7 called for a special session to review state immigration policies. Sentiments were echoed by California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, who vowed to defend the state’s policies in court.
“I can promise to the undocumented immigrant community in California that I and my team have been thinking about you for months, and the harm that might come from the Trump Administration 2.0,” Bonta told reporters in a Nov. 7 press conference. “We’ll do everything in our power and use the full authority of our office to defend you.”
And locally, nonprofits and law centers are prepping “Know Your Rights” seminars and workshops, to remind residents of their due process. At the law center, Schuft said they are preparing their “Welcoming Project” which comes with pamphlets of what to do when ICE agents come into your workplace or neighborhood. “People who are dedicated to this type of work, this movement and organizations like ours are ready to mobilize and protect our communities and do everything we can to be ready,” Schuft said.
And at the Filipino Migrant Center, Hebron said it’s a fine line to walk between preparation for possible federal actions while also not further stoking people’s fears. For now, he’s continuing to help locals find work, file wage claims and live their lives.
“There’s a sense of fear and a sense of uncertainty that people are feeling,” he said. “We want to acknowledge people’s feelings, but at the same time, we don’t want widespread panic or fear to kind of settle in.”
And at his firm, Brito-Lyon said there’s only so much he can say beyond “we have to wait and see.”
But it is more so the fear, especially right now, that is the biggest challenge.
“People are just afraid,” he said.