Reports that the Trump administration might swiftly carry out an immigration crackdown, perhaps as early as this week, have left some neighborhoods reeling in cities like Chicago.
While the timing and locations of targeted arrests are uncertain, and though Tom Homan, Mr. Trump’s border czar, said as recently as Saturday that “no decision has been made yet,” the prospect of raids has consumed the conversation in Chicago neighborhoods such as Pilsen and Little Village, city leaders said.
“People are terrified,” said the Rev. Emma Lozano, a leader at Lincoln Methodist Church in Pilsen whose congregation includes many Latin American families. She said she moved her services online in recent weeks because wary parishioners were trying to keep low profiles. Some children have been reluctant to go to school, fearing they could come home to find that their parents had been taken into custody, she said.
Ms. Lozano, who has spent decades ministering to migrants, and at times has sheltered undocumented immigrants in the church, said the situation had never felt as tenuous. “The threat has always been there,” Ms. Lozano said, but “this feels massive.”
Around Chicago, one of the cities that has been mentioned as a possible location for the Trump administration’s ramping up of efforts to deport undocumented immigrants, activists have been holding meetings to advise people about their legal rights should immigration agents come knocking. Families have been drafting powers of attorney to make issues like custody and property ownership easier to handle.
The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, a nonprofit, has issued guidance on its website to any Illinois residents concerned about deportation, advising them not to open the door for immigration officers, not to discuss their immigration status with any law enforcement officials and not to sign anything that they do not understand. Families should provide their children’s school with an emergency contact in case parents are detained, the group said.
Byron Sigcho-Lopez, a member of the City Council whose ward includes Pilsen and Little Village, said that he had been flooded with calls from families asking questions about whether they should go to work or send their children to school.
“There’s a lot of fear and concern about what it means for families who could be separated,” he said on Monday. “Families are terrified. In the coming weeks, we will see what the federal government is actually capable of doing.”
Mr. Sigcho-Lopez said he was not sure whether the administration would actually carry out plans to deport large numbers of immigrants, or whether the intention was simply to intimidate.
“We don’t want people to live in panic,” he said. “The Trump administration wants to instill fear.”
He said he was talking with other elected officials about strengthening Chicago’s “welcoming city” ordinance, which prohibits the Police Department from enforcing federal immigration laws.
Doris Aguirre, 59, a mother of two from Honduras who has lived in the Chicago area since 2000 and makes her living cleaning homes, said watching President Trump’s inauguration had left her with a sense of vertigo.
Ms. Aguirre, who does not have legal status in this country, was ordered deported years ago, she said. She is terrified of being separated from her husband, an American citizen, and from her two children, who also have legal status in the United States, she said.
Ms. Aguirre, who was recently treated for breast cancer, said being sent home might amount to a death sentence because she needed regular checkups and hormone therapy to keep the cancer in remission. “I’m afraid, I’ll be honest,” Ms. Aguirre said. “No one is going to come to my rescue.”
That sense of dread is not universal among immigrants in Chicago. Some said that the city had been overly generous toward some newcomers, particularly the tens of thousands of Venezuelans who have arrived over the past couple of years.
Adriana Atilano, 53, a clerk at a liquor store in Pilsen who is originally from Mexico, said many Latinos in Chicago had come to resent its status as a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants. A large number, she said, voted for Mr. Trump in November.
“I feel that many people have taken advantage of the system,” said Ms. Atilano, a naturalized American citizen who declined to say whom she voted for. “They don’t come here to work, but rather to get benefits while people like us work and pay taxes.”
Rene Cardona, 55, a maintenance worker, said he had mixed feelings about Mr. Trump’s immigration plans. He worries for the safety of friends and neighbors who are hardworking undocumented immigrants, he said. “On the other hand, there are people who have come here and committed violent crimes,” he added. “I’m in agreement that they should be taken out.”
Mr. Cardona, who was born in Chicago, said he was fearful of being racially profiled and mistaken for a foreigner if immigration raids became commonplace in the months ahead. For now, he said, he is hopeful the new administration will strike the right balance.
“I’m a man of faith,” he said. “Like a lot of people, I’m leaving it in the hands of a higher power.”
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