Migrants live in fear, while Trump threatens a temporary status program

Chicago – In the past two years, Carlos Carpio has created a life in Chicago, a city that he now loves. He works in a factory, rented an apartment and found friends. He goes to church every Sunday and is part of the community here.

For Carpio, who is legally a Venezuelan immigrant in the country with temporary status, this week smoke shattered when Donald Trump became president, and rode into office to promise the greatest mass deportation that the United States have ever seen.

“There is so much afraid of what Trump said and now what he is doing,” said Carpio, 50. “I have been living in fear since the day on which Trump became president.”

Carpio is one of the approximately 1 million people in this country who have a so -called temporary protected status or TPS, which gives them the right to temporarily stay in the USA due to unrest and natural disasters in their home country. His should run out in April, but the Biden administration at the beginning of this month extended this protection for another 18 months for people from Ukraine, Sudan, Venezuela and El Salvador.

The TPS program was used by administrations that return to George HW Bush. People with TPS have no ways of legal residence, a forerunner of citizenship without leaving the country.

In an executive campaign on Monday, Trump called for a review of TPS and for federal officials to check whether the program is “adequately limited”. In his first administration, Trump also made the end of TPS for some countries a goal and argued that most countries of the program have recovered from the associated disasters or conflicts and that the status had been calculated beyond the needs for years.

“We are all afraid”

Venezuelan migrants with TPS informed NBC News that her life was ruled by fear. Others said they wanted to concentrate on living one day after the other, but in the end they are still very afraid of being returned to their home country.

“I have the feeling that what I have achieved here so far means nothing. I’m so sad and frustrated, ”said Carpio.

Trump, which would revoke TPS, would face legal challenges. He could also refuse to continue this protection beyond the 18-month extension bids and thus potentially legitimate people like Carpio for the deportation. The matter complicates that Venezuela is currently not accepting deportants from the United States.

Carpio has withdrawn from his once lively life. Now every day is full of fear and uncertainty. He prays that no strangers knock on his door. He was off after working with his friends and liked to make concerns, but now we always go home directly and avoid taking the train or bus, he said. You are now bringing all of your documents everywhere.

When he had to go to the bank this week, Carpio said, he counted the seconds and looked over his shoulder and tried to go as soon as possible. He found food before the inauguration, hoping to delay the next time he has to shop.

In the factory in which he works, it constantly whispers about what Trump is doing and what he could do next.

Even the church no longer feels safe. He and his friends are worried that he will take part in their usual Sunday service after the Trump government announced to end a long-term policy that prevented the federal immigration authorities from arresting migrants in churches, schools and hospitals.

“We are all afraid. We all wear this fear and fear, ”he said.

Live in the floating

Daisy, a 36-year-old Venezuelan migrant, who has been in Chicago for about two years, said the city has changed its life for the better and she is grateful that she “met so many people here” from a variety of countries.

“I have the feeling that this is my home. I love Chicago, ”said Daisy, who asked that her full name is not used for fear of reprisals of immigration. “I want to be here.”

She also said TPS that she felt “tortured” since she saw Trump’s executive commands about immigration. She wishes she could return to the calm and security she felt this week.

“I’m afraid I don’t even want to go out. I was really afraid to go to work. I prayed to God to get through, ”she said.

Daisy said that after all the changes to immigration policy, she was “very confused” and “always doubts” when she is safe. Her life is about going back from home and going back, while her employees warn other migrants to stay at home.

“We will not go out and do a lot of things of our choice,” she said. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know what to think. “

Some migrants pursue a different approach and say that they do not have their lives governed by fear and will live a day after the other if they know that they are for the time being in the USA with legal, albeit temporary status.

Jhovanny Jiménez, a Venezuelan migrant with TPS and an open asylum case, said that he had spent his time in Chicago to help other migrants by preparing their legal documents such as asylum applications and work permits. He has been in the city for about three years.

The 43 -year -old Jiménez has transformed his apartment into an office for his customers. The door is covered with red packaging paper with white and green flowers and a red arc. There is an open Bible and intersection on a small table near the living room, where Jiménez welcomes its customers. This week there was still a Christmas tree nearby.

He sits opposite you at a desk that is covered with a red -white tablecloth and a Christmas star plant. Behind him are his references and diplomas from his time in Venezuela, where he was a professor of biology.

Jiménez said Land. “

Jiménez said he had fled from Venezuela for political persecution and threats in his life. “Otherwise I wouldn’t exist anymore.”

For migrants like him, he said: “We cannot panic. We have to have a firm conviction in what we want to do here in Chicago, a firm conviction, and if you do things right, you shouldn’t have to be so afraid. “

He hopes that Trump focus on the deportation of criminals and threats to national and public security.

“I put it in God’s hands,” he added. “We are ready here to legally continue.”

What Jiménez keeps awake at night are fears that he may be able to return to Venezuela one day.

Jiménez said he couldn’t sleep for three days during the presidential election in Venezuela. Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner, but the announcement was convicted worldwide with allegations of election fraud for a lack of transparency and oppression of the opposition.

“I’m afraid for the future. I can’t step on the Venezuelan soil, ”he said, becoming emotional. He added that he could be arrested, tortured or killed.

Oscar Peñalver Sanchez, a Venezuelan migrant who has been in Chicago for more than two years, said he agreed to deport Trump’s plan to deport criminals from this country. He said he did not think that law -loving, hard -working immigrants should suffer with a form of legal status.

“I have nothing to hide,” said Peñalver Sanchez, 46, who also has TPS. “I want to establish myself as an American.”

He doesn’t want to “live in fear and be constantly stressed because stress kills,” he said. “Everything I can do is to work and the right thing to do.”