NEW JERSEY

Trump Tracker: Immigration at 100 days

Monsy Alvarado
Staff Writer, @MonsyAlvarado
Kevin Brown of the Service Employees International Union, Kelly McDonald, of Montclair, and Jessica Sporn, of Montclair, chant in protest of the travel ban before the start of a press conference, Thursday, March 16, 2017, at Newark Airport, in Newark, N.J.

About this series: The Record and NorthJersey.com have launched the “Trump Tracker,” a four-year series that will follow 14 issues important to North Jersey taxpayers, residents and companies – big and small – that could be affected by actions taken by President Donald Trump’s administration.

The intent is not to characterize whether the actions move a particular issue in a positive or negative direction. Rather, it will chart the results of policies created, modified or discontinued over the next four years and how they affect life in New Jersey.

The Trump Tracker will measure changes and trends on such issues as health care, immigration, transportation, job creation, the military, political influence, energy and the environment, regulations, the Newark seaport, infrastructure, passenger rail, taxes, homeland security and the social safety net.

We will update certain topics at least once every three months, offering insights into  the new administration, its policies, its actions and the trickle-down effects on New Jersey.

**********

There was a flurry of activity on immigration issues during the first month of President Donald Trump's administration, and while most of his policies have not been fully implemented, they have had a significant impact on the daily lives of undocumented immigrants.

In this Aug. 31, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during a joint statement with Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto in Mexico City.

Just days after he was sworn into office, Trump moved forward on his promises to tackle illegal immigration by signing executive orders that directed a wall be built at the U.S. Mexico border and called for the hiring of 15,000 additional border patrol and immigration officers. He also ordered funding to be cut to sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities. He banned the entry into the United States of people from seven countries where the majority of residents are muslim.

But two attempts at the so-called muslim ban have been blocked by the courts. A federal judge this week stopped his attempt to take away funding from sanctuary cities. And while Trump boldly promised in the campaign that Mexico would pay for the wall, he has pressed Congress for $1.4 billion in funding to get the work started. Meanwhile, the hiring and training of 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and 5,000 more Customs and Border Protection agents could take years, according to Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

This file photo shows a truck driving near the Mexico-U.S. border fence, on the Mexican side, separating the towns of Anapra, Mexico and Sunland Park, New Mexico.

“He has tried to do a lot and it hasn’t worked,’’ said Muzaffar Chishti, Director of the Migration Policy Institute office in New York,  based at New York University's law school.  “A number of things that he has issued executive orders on, whether it’s the border, whether it’s interior enforcement, or sanctuary cities, or whether it’s the travel ban, there is more noise than there is bite.”

Trump supporters in New Jersey say he has accomplished much in his 100 first days. They point to the drop in the number of people trying to cross the southwest border since he was sworn into office, and laud him for his appointments, including that of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who also has a hard-line stance on immigration.

"Trump is a negotiator and he knows what to do and how to get it done, and this country needed to stop the thousands and thousands of people coming into this country illegally,'' said Susan Winton, a Wyckoff resident who, along with her husband Joel, founded the West Bergen Tea Party.


BUILDERS: NJ companies want to help build Trump's wall

PAYING FOR IT: Flood insurance surcharge to fund wall raised at hearing

Trump's aggressive rhetoric during the campaign and as president, has instilled fear in the immigrant community, and one of his executive orders has paved the way for more arrests of undocumented immigrants because it expanded the categories of who would be subject to priority deportations. The categories include those charged with or convicted of a crime, those subject to a final order of removal, or undocumented immigrants who have “abused” any program related to receiving public benefits. The order also gives immigration officers the power to decide if a person should be detained based on whether they believe the person poses a risk to public safety or national security.

HOSPITAL CONCERNED: Trump policies worry healthcare providers

DEPORTATION DELAYED: Union City man facing action gets an extension

REASSURANCE OFFERED: NJ schools tackle immigration fears

Those changes in enforcement priority have contributed to a growth in the number of people arrested by immigration officers between January until March 30th, when  21,362, people were taken into custody,  an increase of  32 percent compared to the previous year,  Chishti said. The arrest of people with no criminal record more than doubled to 5,044 in 2017, while those detained with criminal records increased by 15 percent, he said

"They are removing more people and more people in odd places where the Obama administration would never have arrested people,’’ he said. “The mix of people now being picked up is different."

Of the estimated 11 million immigrants without legal status living in the United States, about 500,000  reside in New Jersey. Many of them have made changes in their daily lives because of Trump's policies and increased reports of arrests by immigration officials.  In Passaic, where around 40 percent of its 70,618 population is foreign born, according to estimates from the 2015 American Community Survey,  city officials have seen fewer families showing up to appointments for the Women, Infants and Children federal assistance program.

In Palisades Park, businesses frequented by day laborers from Central and South America have seen less customers, and clients who do stop by are spending less money, business owners said. Anastasia Mann, the former director of the Program on Immigration and Democracy at the Eagleton Institute at Rutgers University, said she's heard that business owners who employ undocumented immigrants are also concerned about Trump's policies.

Immigration attorneys said they have received calls from parents worried about what will happen to their children if they are picked up by immigration authorities, and others who are concerned about their businesses and who will operate them if they are detained.

Angie Santana, 30, of Garfield, sits alone in the waiting room filling out documents before her visit at WIC. The WIC office in Passaic which has seen a decline in the number of people who are participating in the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children. officials believe the decline in Passaic, home to a large immigrant population, is likely due to trump's executive orders targeting illegal immigration

“What I’ve seen is a fear level heightened… much like I haven’t seen in a long time, ‘’ said Lawrence LeRoy, an attorney in Newark who serves as the chair of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.  “And legal people, just coming to see me about doing things that they never would have thought of having a lawyer do before. A simple application for citizenship, or even somebody saying I’ve been here for 40 years, I have a green card, I have never been arrested, and I work and I want to travel to see my grandmother and can I travel? These questions we are seeing that we have never seen before.”

In his first week in office Trump signed and order which banned citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the country, and temporarily suspended the refugee program. The ban was blocked by the courts after protesters gathered at airports, including Newark Liberty International Airport, to denounce the policy. In March, Trump revised the travel ban to include nationals from six Muslim majority countries, but that executive order, too, was halted by a federal judge.

A U.S. Border Patrol Agent returns to his vehicle after checking the scene of a brush fire along the Rio Grande River in Brownsville, Texas, Wednesday, April 5, 2017.

Border apprehensions have plummeted since Trump took office – a sign, officials said, that fewer people are attempting to get into the country illegally. In March, 16,600 people were stopped or deemed inadmissible at points of entry, a 30 percent reduction from the prior month – and a 64 percent decrease from the year before, according to figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

"People have altered their behavior in response to what they believe is going to be the Trump policies,’’ Chishti said.

On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to end what he called President Barack Obama’s “illegal”  executive order that shields from deportation undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children. More than 770,000 young immigrants across the country participate in the program, including 21,397 from New Jersey.

Hina Naveed 26, originally of Pakistan, came to the U.S. undocumented. She gained DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and became a nurse. She spoke at an event  at Rutgers in November.

After he won the election,  Trump backtracked and said that he was going to “work something out” for the recipients of the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. And then in a press conference in February, he said that it was a difficult subject for him.

"You have these incredible kids in many cases, not in all cases, in some of the cases they are having DACA and they are gang members and drug dealers too. But you have some absolutely incredible kids, I would say mostly,’’ he said. “This is a  very very tough subject we are going to deal with DACA with heart."

DACA: New Jersey DREAMers face uncertain future

Meanwhile, DACA recipients say that they are always thinking about what the future may bring. Milagros Grados, a Paterson resident who attends Rutgers University-Newark, said she's constantly on guard, and recent reports that a 23-year old DACA man was deported to Mexico hasn't helped.

"This event has made both my community and me feel very unsafe,'' she said. "I still feel like a target, we do not know what he could do next."

Pedro Sabillon, a design and structural engineer, who graduated from Rutgers University-New Brunswick two years ago, said its never far from his mind. Sabillon came from Honduras at the age of 13. "When Trump took over, people started thinking of worse case scenario, and where we would go,'' he said. "If something happened my career would be stalled."

In his executive order aimed at protecting the country from foreign terrorists, Trump called for the suspensions of the refugee resettlement program for 120 days, and indefinitely blocked Syrian refugees from the United States. That part of the executive order has been blocked by the courts, and refugees continue to enter the United States.

But the order also reduced the number of refugees that would be allowed to resettle in the United States from 110,000 last fiscal year, to 50,000 in fiscal year 2017. As of April 21, the number of refugees that have entered the country is 41,553.

SOCIAL SAFETY NET: Trump's pledge to protect programs at odds with party

REGULATIONS: Trump targets rules, but questions remain about which ones

JOBS: Trump could boost jobs, but no quick fix for manufacturing

ENVIRONMENT/ENERGY: Clean Power Plan, Superfund and offshore drilling all could change

TAXES: Trump, GOP have different ideas for reform

MILITARY: Veterans healthcare, troop levels, weapons all face changes

SEAPORT: Tariffs could hurt import/export at Newark port

EDUCATION: School choice, Common Core repeal on Trump's list

POLITICAL INFLUENCE: Blue state in a red Capitol: How will New Jersey fare?

INFRASTRUCTURE: Bridges, roads and rail all need funds for repair

HOMELAND SECURITY: TSA screening wait times, federal funding top list of questions

HEALTHCARE: Coverage for 700,000 at stake in New Jersey

RAIL: Repairing, upgrading rail would impact thousands of commuters