CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Growing concern among undocumented workers is being felt by a local Immigration attorney’s office ahead of President-elect Donald Trump taking office Monday.
Immigration attorney Laura Allison Ramos has been busy screening dozens of calls from undocumented workers trying to figure out what their legal options are before Trump takes office.
Ramos said in wait-and-see situations like these, it helps to know your rights.
“They need to know if they have an outstanding removal order,” she said. “If they do, then ICE can use that removal order to expel them from the country without due process and without a hearing, so they need to know where they stand.”
Having items like bill payments, school vaccination records and other supporting documents can help answer legal questions. Ramos said there’s a variety of situations where people can get caught.
“Usually traffic infractions, a light might be out on their vehicle, there’s ICE raids where they go to places where people may be working construction sites,” she said.
3NEWS spoke with two undocumented workers who did not want to be identified. They said that not knowing what could happen next is eating away at them.
“In reality I am very unsure about the future — if it’s going to happen to me or to one of my loved ones,” one woman said.
For some, the proposed uncertainty even limits how they can operate in day-to-day life.
“I also am very afraid that, for example, that the food banks will start to request social security or something similar and then they’ll do deportations or detain you,” said one man.