LOS
ANGELES — First came the anxious calls in the days after the election
of President Trump. Now, people begin lining up before 8 a.m. and crowd
the waiting rooms inside the Mexican Consulate here.
Mexican
citizens come to renew passports that have been unused for more than a
decade. They desperately ask lawyers if they can do anything to help
them stay in the United States. They register their children for Mexican
citizenship, just in case they are sent back and decide to move their
whole family with them.
When the consulate began to get reports of dozens of Mexicans being arrested by immigration officials
last week, they immediately dispatched lawyers to the federal detention
center downtown. Officers closely monitored social media,
simultaneously trying to get information and quash unfounded rumors. In
one case, they helped a man whom immigration officials had quickly sent
to the border for deportation return to Los Angeles for a hearing in
immigration court.
These
are demanding times for the 50 Mexican consulates scattered throughout
the United States. With Mr. Trump’s promise to crack down on immigrants
living in the United States illegally and an executive order that vastly expands who is considered a priority for deportation, Mexicans living here illegally are increasingly on edge.
Continue reading the main story
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
And
consulates are moving quickly to help. As official representatives of
the Mexican government in the United States, the consulates can provide
legal guidance and resources for people and families dealing with
immigration issues. Mexicans make up about half of the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants.
The
relationship between Mexico and the United States is at its lowest
point in years. After a 35-year-old mother of two American citizens was deported in Arizona
last week, the Mexican government warned their citizens living in the
United States of a “new reality.” It urged “the entire Mexican
community” to “take precautions” and be in touch with the nearest
consulate.
Mexican
officials say they are eager to keep families already living in the
United States together. There are economic concerns too: Mexicans living
abroad send more than $25 billion back home, with most of the money
coming from the United States, according to Mexico’s central bank.
Perhaps
nobody is as busy as Carlos García de Alba, the consul general in Los
Angeles, one of the largest offices in the country. He has begun to
train nearly every employee in basic legal services and expects to bring
in many more immigration lawyers. Still, in recent months, Mr. García
has felt torn between his efforts to increase services to worried
constituents and trying to calm their nerves.
“We
don’t want to provoke and feed a kind of paranoia among our nationals
here,” Mr. García said in an interview. “There is a kind of psychosis,
people are really scared. Up to now we haven’t seen anything that is
really different than the last several years, but the environment is
making people panic and they are completely fearful. They want to know
what is going to happen and how to protect themselves.”
In
the last week, the Mexican government has created a 24-hour hotline to
help answer any questions for Mexicans in the United States. Last month,
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced that he would spend $50
million to pay for lawyers at every consulate to help people facing
deportations. And consulates have been distributing fliers detailing
what to do if someone is approached by deportation agents — advising
them not to open their doors without proof of a warrant or speak to
officers without a lawyer.
Foreign
service officers who have spent decades in the United States said in
interviews that they had all encountered increased anxiety among
undocumented immigrants, as several states have passed their own laws to
deal with illegal immigration. But they said this was the most hostile
national atmosphere for Mexicans in recent memory, making their jobs
both more difficult and more urgent.
Scared
by rumors and rhetoric, some consulates have heard of immigrants taking
drastic steps to avoid authorities, like keeping their children home
from school, quitting their jobs or selling their homes for cash. And
many immigrants may not immediately consider turning to the Mexican
government for help.
“There
is an inherent feeling of vulnerability that comes with being
undocumented in this country, and that vulnerability moves you to get
away of anything that is official government,” said Carlos González
Gutiérrez, the consul general in Austin, Tex., who estimates that about
half of the 200,000 Mexicans living in the region are undocumented. “The
first challenge for us is to make sure that immigrants understand that
the consulate is a safe place where they can get accurate information.”
Like
other consuls, Mr. González has tried to assuage fears by appearing
frequently on Spanish-language television and radio, offering
information that American officials may not be willing to share. He has
been careful to emphasize that the operations appeared to be targeted,
not widespread raids as some feared, but also pointed out that several
people without criminal records had also been arrested.
Many
of the consulates’ most pressing concerns now are defensive. In several
cases last week, immigration agents were “unwilling to provide our
nationals with the option to talk with our consulate and the obligation
to notify us,” said one Mexican official, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity because the issue was still under investigation. Under the
Vienna Convention, a 1963 international treaty, any citizen of another
country should be offered a chance to speak with their consulate.
Felipe
Carrera oversees the department of protection in the Los Angeles
consulate, where dozens of lawyers assist with immigration cases. For
years, the office has sent a lawyer to the federal immigration center
daily, monitoring who is taken in and talking to as many as 15 people a
day. Minutes after he heard reports of dozens of arrests last week,
several lawyers went there to talk with as many Mexicans as they could.
“Our
main purpose is to find out if there have been violations of due
process,” Mr. Carrera said. “People need to know they have
constitutional rights. We want them to know about the Fifth Amendment
and make sure they are properly advised about what happens if they plead
guilty.”
Claudia
Franco, the consul general in Phoenix, said much of her time these days
was spent offering a kind of psychological support to immigrants,
answering basic questions and calmly listening to their fears. “We want
people to consider worst-case scenarios, to be prepared and have a
plan,” she said. The round-the-clock national hotline, based in Tucson,
received more than 1,500 calls one day this week, more than double than
the average number of calls before Mr. Trump was inaugurated.
Consulates
throughout the country said requests for legal assistance had also
spiked in the last two months — some come from people who received
deportation orders years ago that were never enforced. Others have
criminal convictions for using fake Social Security cards; still others
may be eligible for special visas because they were victims of domestic
abuse or other crimes.
“Most
people do not understand what their legal options are,” said Javier
Díaz de León, the consul general in Atlanta. “There are a number of
people who don’t really have a legal recourse, but it’s much more
preferable to know that before you get detained so you can make a wise
decision.”
While
many people are looking for advice have plans to stay here, many
parents of American-born children are now registering them for Mexican
citizenship — a kind of insurance in case they are deported and want
their children to join them. The Mexican government has offered this
kind of dual citizenship for more than a decade. Before the election,
Mr. Díaz said, the office handled about 15 applications a day, now they
receive double that.
Other
offices have experienced similar increases. Monica Sanchez, 26, came to
Los Angeles from Morelia, Mexico, more than 10 years ago. Although she
has stayed out of legal trouble, she said she was constantly worried
that things would change quickly and she would be forced to move back.
“I
want to do something, whatever I can do to feel safer and less scared,”
she said. “We all want help to take the control we can get, to have
some power.”
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment