Seattle area immigration advocates take stock for second Trump administration

Immigration advocates in King County have been preparing for months for a potential legal fight with the federal government.

A second Trump administration is set to take control of the White House in January, and with it comes promises of far-reaching changes to immigration policy. While there are shifting expectations around who could be targeted by immigration enforcement sweeps — from asylum-seekers to people without federal authorization to live or work in the U.S. who have been convicted of crimes — legal groups are advising people to protect themselves now.

That means renewing passports, updating documentation, and getting copies of documents such as citizenship certificates. They’re also reminding people not to speak with federal immigration officials without a lawyer present, and not to allow them into their homes.

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On the campaign trail, president-elect Donald Trump has discredited the legal status of immigrants who have federal authorization to be in the the country but aren't considered U.S. residents or citizens, such as those with refugee status. Advocates worry his administration will target federal immigration programs giving people a leg up in the naturalization process.

“We’ve seen it before,” said Hannah Vickner Hough, a senior immigration attorney for the Washington Chapter of the Council for American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR-WA. “We know some of the tools that are going to be used. We know some of the statutes that are going to cease to exist.”

Matt Adams, the legal director for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, said vulnerable programs may include Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and the less commonly known Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement, which provides legal protection for people who report workplace violations. A second Trump administration could also curtail temporary protected status, which the U.S. grants to people from a designated list of countries who need legal protections.

“What's important to remember is that just because they're vulnerable, [it] does not mean that those who have already applied should not continue forward with those with those applications,” Adams said during an online town hall.

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“If you or a family member or a friend qualify for an immigration benefit but have been delaying moving forward, then now is the time to do so, and to act as quickly as possible,” he added.

The closer someone gets to having a form of residency or citizenship, Adams said, the safer they’ll be — legally — before Trump takes office in January.

The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project is part of the state’s recently launched Migrant and Asylum Seeker Services pilot project, which provides legal consultation for immigrants in Washington, many of whom are asylum-seekers or eligible for temporary protected status.

Since the summer, CAIR-WA has helped six people prepare for a second Trump administration by moving their cases along in immigration courts, even going as far as filing lawsuits to get cases through legal delays.

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Many of those delays are related to a secretive federal immigration vetting process called the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program, which which advocates argue disproportionately impacts people from Muslim-majority countries.

“More often, attorneys are leaning on challenging the government on these delays as a way to get results because the delays themselves are so astronomical,” Vickner Hough with CAIR-WA said.

Norma Ortiz works with New Futures, a nonprofit group which runs a community education center for Burien's Spanish-speaking immigrant community out of an apartment building. She's not a lawyer, but she’s been connecting people to immigration attorneys and services while helping them translate court documents.

A common trend she’s seeing is that many have received extensions on their immigration cases — “but it’s not clear if they’re going to get help or not,” Ortiz told KUOW in Spanish.

Those extensions also come with an increased need for housing and food, on top of legal services provided in Spanish, which Ortiz said are lacking in the area.

In the coming months, her program will likely have to stop services at the apartment complex even though they serve around 25 families at the apartments. That’s partly because of a lack of funding and support, Ortiz said.

“It’s a lot of many little things that our families have to struggle with in the middle of a change in an immigration status,” she said.

“We try to help them where we can.”