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Migrant Group To Undocumented Texans: Prepare For Deportations

Crime and Justice News

You must have a plan, Joaquin Garcia told a crowd of immigrants. “Who’s going to pick up the kids from school?” Garcia asked. “Payments on the house, car payments, house bills, the property title –– all of that has to be in your plan.” For the thousands of undocumented immigrants living in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, deportation is a risk they live with every day. That risk sharply increased after Donald Trump won a second term in the White House after spending years campaigning on the promise of mass deportation, the Texas Tribune reports. Garcia is the director of community organizing for La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), a group that has supported immigrants, farm workers and Hispanic Texans for decades. The meeting last week was part of a “Know Your Rights” campaign that the organization is leading and that other groups across Texas are hosting ahead of Trump’s inauguration. “We know that President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t take office until January 20,” Garcia said. “Right now is the best time to prepare ... “Who is going to be in charge of carrying out your life, so to speak, when you’re facing deportation and you’re stuck in detention?”


Texas is home to 1.6 million undocumented persons — the second-highest number in the U.S. behind California –– and the state’s Republican leaders strongly signaled they would readily work with the Trump administration in its deportation efforts. Demonstrating what rights they had in certain situations, Garcia and staff member Marcela Alejandre performed skits depicting different scenarios that undocumented residents could find themselves in such as a traffic stop and being detained for possible deportation. As scenarios played out, LUPE staff asked those in the audience to think about what they could do in those situations or how they could avoid them. Questions lingered among the audience. People raised their hands to ask what information they are required to disclose if they’re detained, what legal trouble a citizen could face if they lived with undocumented residents, and whether there were any benefits to self-deportation. The LUPE staff didn’t have all the answers and urged them to consult with an attorney for guidance.

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