LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Isaac Velasquez knows what it’s like to be undocumented in the United States.
The Guadalajara, Mexico native was in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program before getting permanent U.S. residency, joining the U.S. Army and earning his citizenship.
But when he hears President-elect Trump talk about implementing the greatest mass deportation program in the history of the country, the UNLV history major said fellow Latinos are on edge.
“I think that the Latino community is very nervous about what’s going to happen, mainly because we don’t know how it’s going to happen,” Velazquez said.
The reality is, we don’t know how it’s going to be done, and I think that’s the biggest thing that’s bringing anxiety to the community.
As Trump prepares to take the oath of office on Monday, immigrants in the country illegally are gearing up for what might happen. Groups that help locals said they are seeing more clients asking for help.
“We’re definitely hearing from people who are nervous and scared,” said Michael Kagan, a professor at UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law’s immigration clinic. “We focus on deportation defense, so if there is a ramp-up in deportations, we know we’ll be on the front lines.”
Kagan said he’s hearing especially from UNLV students, some of whom are in the country without authorization themselves or whose family members are undocumented.
That really hits us right in the gut, because this is our campus, this is our community, these are our students. I want my students to worry about whether they’ve done their reading. I do not want them worried about deportation.
Peter Ashman, a longtime local Las Vegas immigration lawyer, said he’s also seen an uptick in clients.
“A lot of people are very scared and they’re worried,” Ashman said. “You know, a lot of people have their whole lives invested in the United States. They have homes here. They have family. They have businesses. It’s not like they can just simply pack up a duffle bag and head south.”
For Trump and many of his supporters, the issue is simple: While they encourage legal immigration, those in the country illegally have broken the law by coming to the country without authorization or overstaying legal authorization. While most immigrants abide by the law thereafter, some commit other crimes— which Trump highlighted on the campaign trail to bolster his initiative to deport illegal immigrants, finish a southern border wall and better secure the border.
That issue was one of the key topics in the 2024 campaign that Trump repeatedly used to his advantage.
Fear of the unknown
Part of the uncertainty in immigrant communities is that no one knows how the incoming administration is going to handle Trump’s deportation promise. Authorities could start by targeting illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes, for example, since those people are easier to locate and are already in the system.
Last week, the House passed the Laken Riley Act, a bill named for a woman murdered by an immigrant in the country illegally. It would allow federal authorities to arrest illegal immigrants who commit state crimes, including shoplifting, and allow states to sue the federal government for crimes committed by immigrants on immigration parole or who were ordered deported. That bill passed 251-170, with some Democrats — including all of Nevada's House delegation — voting in favor.
Or, the administration could try to deport everyone they can identify who is in the country illegally, including those immigrants who have not committed other crimes.
Ashman said the latter option would be nearly impossible.
“Well, you know, 20 million is a pretty big number and I don’t really know that there’s enough money in the U.S. budget to pay for the deportation of 20 million people,” he said. “So, I don’t think that’s realistic.”
Even if it could be done, it might have unintended consequences, said Athar Haseebullah, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada. He said mass deportations could end up costing the state and the country.
“I mean, it’s disastrous for the entire state of Nevada for a multitude of reasons,” Haseebullah said.
In 2022 alone, the last time this was sort of documented, undocumented immigrants paid $500 million in taxes.
Nationally, he said, a study showed the number was $100 billion.
“When we look at the tax revenue alone, those are astronomical sums of money that are not replaceable,” he said.
Ashman and Kagan say they will fight deportations on behalf of their clients by standing up for their rights in court; all immigrants have the right to contest their deportation on a variety of grounds, they continued.
“We’re going to insist on the safeguards of the American court system and American democracy and hope that those hold,” Kagan said. “If we see things happening that we don’t like to people in our community, don’t wait. Speak up. Politics still matters.”
Making a list
In the meantime, according to Kagan and Ashman, immigrants in the country without authorization should consider preparing themselves before the government starts to mobilize after Trump takes office.
Among their recommendations:
- Important papers such as birth and death certificates, marriage and divorce papers, deeds to homes, car titles, identity forms, and similar documents should be organized and together in a safe place.
- Keep a list of current medications on hand; if a person is detained, that will be helpful to ensure they don’t miss out on medicine.
- Create a power-of-attorney for the care of children in case parents are detained or deported, and someone else has to pick them up from school or make medical decisions for them.
- Consider a trust for property such as homes so a trustee can manage it if a homeowner is deported.
- Most importantly, consult a good immigration attorney since that area of the law is incredibly complicated.
Other community groups are also available to help, including the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada. The center offers occasional “know your rights” classes that are free and available to the public, where people can ask questions and get vetted information.
The center recommends checking out its Facebook page or visiting its website here.
Unwelcome to America
Velazquez said he served as a transportation officer in the Army and continues his service in the National Guard. But he asked if he feels welcome in the country he’s volunteered to fight and perhaps die for, and he said no.
“I do not, because I believe that to an extent, you know, I was fortunate enough to go through the DACA, get my residency, become a citizen through the Army,” he said. “But what I think about a lot is, what if I wouldn’t have done that, right? Would I just be a number, another number?
“I’m serving my country,” he added.
I’m patriotic about this country. I love this country. You know, there are a lot of things that I would like to change, but it all comes down to politics, right? So for somebody to come and start using us as a tool to advance their political career, to me, it’s just an unfortunate thing that I feel that we shouldn’t have, as a minority or as a group of people should not have to deal with.
Legal versus illegal immigration
Republicans, including Trump, repeatedly stress they want to encourage legal immigration, including immigrants with skills who come to the country to fill high-tech jobs.
After some on the right criticized Trump advisor and SpaceX founder Elon Musk for his support of the H1-B visa program, which allows skilled workers to come to the United States, Trump ended up siding with Musk. And Trump said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he was open to allowing so-called DREAMers — who were brought to the country illegally as children but who have grown up in the United States — to stay.
But Trump also said in that interview that mixed-status families – in which children may be U.S. citizens but their parents may not be – would have to choose between leaving the country together or separating the family.
Still, polls seem to show widespread support for mass deportations.
A Scripps News poll released in September showed 54 percent of voters support mass deportations, while 42 percent oppose the idea.
An October poll by Marquette Law School found 58 percent favored deportation, with 42 percent opposed. (In the same poll, however, when asked if immigrants who had been in the country for a number of years, have jobs and have not committed crimes, the support for deportation falls to 40 percent with 60 percent opposed.)
A Gallup poll in June found 47 percent favoring deporting all illegal immigrants, with 51 percent opposed. (That same poll found 55 percent of voters think all immigration to the U.S. should be decreased, with 25 percent saying it should remain unchanged and 16 percent saying it should increase.)
Still, others argue polling on the question lacks nuance regarding a complex issue. A story in Vox argued that polling was seemingly pro-deportation misleading.
But, Republicans point out that Trump talked frequently on the campaign trail about his deportation plans— winning the election, including swing states such as Nevada with large immigrant populations.
Still, Ashman said poll questions may not get to the heart of the issue: most people in Southern Nevada know somebody who’s an illegal immigrant, and their views might change with that knowledge.
“I don’t think the people that believe that everyone should be deported really have understood what that truly means,” he said. “And if you break it down and say, yeah, but you know Maria, your next-door neighbor, that your kids play with their kids, she’s an illegal immigrant? [They’ll say] No, I had no idea. No, no, she’s a good person. We don’t want her to go.”
Or, as Kagan puts it, “If you have walked 20 feet, you have passed an immigrant in Las Vegas.”
Path to citizenship
For Velazquez, his own experience is a guide to a policy he prefers.
“I think that a pathway to citizenship would be the best way to get things done,” he said.
More than anything, I think there should be a pathway to citizenship, right? I think that they should have, maybe some sort of, you know, workers authorization. Keep some tabs on them and make sure they’re doing the right thing. Once they pass a little process, a process of that nature, they could jump into residency and then from there, they could jump into citizenship.
Some Republicans have argued such a process would reward people who came to the country illegally over people waiting in line to become citizens through the lawful process. Efforts to get conservative members of the GOP to agree on that issue have failed repeatedly.
During George W. Bush's presidency, a guest worker program idea collapsed amid Republican opposition. In 2013, a bipartisan Senate immigration reform bill passed 68-32 but died in the GOP-controlled House without a vote. Last year, another bipartisan immigration bill — one that pointedly did not contain a pathway to citizenship — died in the Senate after it came under Republican criticism.
Velazquez said the debate would change if more people got to know immigrants, including ones here illegally.
“I think the best thing I could give as advice is meet people. Talk to them, learn about their life, you know? Talk about their struggles,” he said. “And you will see that we are just like every other American, right? And if we were given the opportunity, we would do a lot for this country.”