DC-area immigrants face challenges under Trump administration

President Donald Trump s return to the White House brought along a sweeping immigration crackdown when he declared he would deport the worst of the worst That pledge has led to raids and arrests by U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents including several people at the moment detained with no criminal convictions According to a Department of Homeland Safety summary in September over million people have been deported or willingly left the United States since Trump s inauguration A Pew Research Center analysis revealed that as of June of the U S labor force were immigrants down from with Trump s anti-immigrant actions becoming a main factor for the drop Those actions have brought fear and anxiety to the immigrant communities throughout the nation WTOP spoke with members of the D C region s immigrant locality for their feedback on Trump s moves against immigrants and how the locality has responded Finding work Jos arrived in the United States from Mexico in He s been living in the D C region for over a year working either for companies in plumbing-related jobs or for the Workers Co-op Without Borders through CASA one of the largest immigration rights organizations in the country While he has been able to find work Jos notified WTOP he knows countless of his friends and co-workers are struggling to make ends meet I have heard that for plenty of people jobs are scarce because of what s happening Jos explained in Spanish Yet the latest leadership shutdown is affecting Jos and others as work has dried up A lot of the work the companies got was from authorities workers Jos announced And now they don t want to spend Risks of being profiled Cesar Garzon a naturalized citizen from Venezuela works for a worker-owned landscaping company the Swamp Rose Co-op based out of Silver Spring Maryland He reported while the economic outlook led to chosen cancellations he and his gang have remained busy with steady work for the last eight months However Garzon admitted it has been harder to find people who can help provide an additional hand There has been a reducing workforce Garzon declared A lot of people have kind of decided to either leave or they re just not working With the current political environment Garzon commented he and his co-workers established specific strategies in occurrence they are wrongly identified during a attainable interaction with an ICE agent including setting up a contact person We face the risks of being profiled and of discipline that s not fun Garzon announced New skills to find new jobs Lindolfo Carballo senior director of the society economic enhancement department for CASA informed WTOP that he has seen an uptick in immigrants applying for jobs at the organization s job centers However he has also seen an increase in immigrants attempting to learn skills for different types of work But there is still certain fear in the population Carballo reported the Trump administration s continued actions are making it complicated for employers to hire workers and for workers to find jobs The truth of the matter is that there is a need for workers he announced It s a very large need of workers Carballo encourages those immigrants who are still in the U S to continue fighting for their rights We need to fight back Carballo commented We need to be resilient We need to stand up for our rights and of module right now it s very complicated But we know that we will overcome The Associated Press contributed to this analysis Source