From snow-covered cities to the border with Mexico

As light snow fell outside, worshipers gathered at Chicago’s Lincoln United Methodist Church to pray and plan for what will happen when Donald Trump takes office next week, with the president-elect vowing to begin the largest deportation of illegal immigrants in U.S. history. .

“(Jan. 20) will be here before we know it,” St. Tanya Lozano-Washington told the congregation, passing out steaming cups of Mexican hot chocolate and coffee to warm the crowd of about 60 people.

Located in Pilsen, a predominantly Latino neighborhood, the church has long been a center for pro-immigration activists in the city’s large Hispanic community. But Sunday services are now in English only, as private services in Spanish have been canceled.

The decision to move them online was made out of concern that the gatherings could be targeted by anti-immigration activists or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The president-elect has said he will deport millions of illegal immigrants, threatened workplace raids, and reports suggest he may end a longstanding policy that made churches off-limits to ICE arrests.

According to one of the parishioners, American-born David Krusen, “the threat is very real. She is very much alive.”

Cruzena said his mother entered the country illegally from Mexico but has worked and paid taxes in the U.S. for 30 years.

“With the new administration coming in, it’s almost like persecution,” he told the BBC. “I feel like we’re being singled out and unfairly targeted, even though we’ve partnered (with) this country endlessly.”

But across the country, more than 1,400 miles (2,253 km) to the south in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, another community, mostly immigrants, has a very different take on the upcoming inauguration — a sign that Latinos are sharply divided on the issues. illegal immigration and Donald Trump is approaching the US-Mexico border.

“Immigration is important … but the right way,” said resident David Poros, a rancher, farmer and botanist.

“But with Trump, we’re going to do it right.”

The region is separated from Mexico only by the river’s dark, shallow, narrow waters and patches of thick vegetation and mesquite — locals say daily life on the border is increasingly exposing them to what many see as the dangers of illegal immigration.

“I’ve had (migrant) families knocking on my black house, asking for water, asking for shelter,” said Amanda Garcia, a resident of Starr County, where nearly 97 percent of residents identify as Latino, making it the most Latino county. in the US outside of Puerto Rico.

“We had an incident once where a young woman was alone with two men and you could tell she was tired – and being abused.”

In more than a dozen interviews in two Rio Grande Valley counties — Starr and neighboring Hidalgo — residents described a range of other border-related incidents, from waking up to migrants on their turf to uncovering cartel hideouts used for drugs or dangerous high-speed chases between authorities and smugglers.

Many in the predominantly Hispanic part of Texas are immigrants themselves or the children or grandchildren of immigrants. Once a solid Democratic stronghold in otherwise red Texas, Starr County swung in Trump’s favor in the 2024 election, marking the first Republican victory in more than 130 years.

Nationally, Trump won about 45% of the Hispanic vote, a whopping 14 percentage point increase over the 2020 election.

Locals say the win in Starr County was largely due to Trump’s stance on the border.

“We live in a country of order and law,” said Demecio Guerrero, a naturalized US citizen originally from Mexico who lives in the city of Hidalgo, across an international bridge from the cartel-ridden Mexican city of Reynosa.

“We have to be able to (tell) who’s coming in and out,” Mr. Guerrero added, speaking in Spanish a few meters from the tall brown metal barrier that represents the end of the US. “Otherwise, this country is lost.”

Like other Trump supporters in the Rio Grande Valley, Mr. Guerrero has repeatedly said he is “not against immigration.”

“But they have to do it right,” he said. “Like others.”

Trump “is not anti-immigrant or racist at all,” agreed Marissa Garcia, a resident of Rio Grande, Starr County.

“We’re just tired of them (undocumented immigrants) coming in and thinking they can do whatever they want on our property or land and taking advantage of the system,” she added. “It’s not racism to say things need to change and we need to benefit from it too.”

Support for deportations is so strong that the Texas state government offered Donald Trump 1,400 acres (567 hectares) of land near the city of Rio Grande to build detention centers for undocumented migrants, a controversial move described by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas as “mass cages.” , which will “encourage civil rights violations.”

While the parcel of land — nestled between a quiet farm-to-market road and the Rio Grande — is currently quiet, city officials believe it could eventually be a boon to the neighborhood.

“If you look at it from a development perspective, it’s great for the economy of the city,” Rio Grande City Manager Gilberto Milan told the BBC.

“Obviously, it’s a detention area, it has some negatives,” he said. “You can see it that way, but obviously you need a place to accommodate these people.”

The number of migrants arriving through Mexico is falling sharply, with crossings last month the lowest since January 2020.

But the problem is still present on the streets of cities like Chicago, far from the southern border.

It is one of several Democratic-run cities that have passed so-called “sanctuary city” laws that limit local police cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

In response, starting in 2022, Republican governors in southern states like Texas and Florida sent thousands of immigrants north by bus and plane.

Tom Homan, Trump’s pick to head border policy, told a Republican convention in Chicago last month that the Midwestern city would be “ground zero” for mass deportations.

“On January 21st, you’re going to be looking for a lot of ICE agents in your city looking for criminals and gang members,” Homan said. “Count on it. It’s going to happen.”

Many local politicians, including Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and state governor J. B. Pritzker, continue to uphold the sanctuary city laws, known here as the “City Inn” ordinance.

But politics is not universally loved. In November, Trump made gains in many Latin American areas.

Recently, two Hispanic Democratic lawmakers tried to change the ordinance and allow Chicago police to cooperate with federal authorities. Their measure was blocked Wednesday by Johnson and his progressive allies.

For now, the faithful of Lincoln United Methodist are making plans and watching closely as Trump’s plans unfold.

“I’m scared, but I can’t imagine how undocumented people feel,” said D. Camacho, a 21-year-old legal immigrant from Mexico, was among the worshipers at the church on Sunday.

Officials at Mexican consulates in Chicago and elsewhere in the U.S. also said they were working on a mobile app that would allow Mexican migrants to alert relatives and consular officials when they are detained and may be deported.

Officials in Mexico have called the system a “panic button.”

Organizers at Lincoln United are also reaching out to legal experts, advising locals on how to take care of their finances or arranging child care in the event of deportation, and help create identification cards with immigrant family members’ details and other information in English.

And several second-generation immigrants here said they are working to improve their Spanish to be able to convey legal information or translate for migrants being questioned by authorities.

“If someone with five children is taken away, who will take the children? Will they go to social services? Will the family be divided?” said Saint Emma Lozano, mother of the Reverend Tanya Lozano-Washington and a long-time community activist and church elder.

“These are the kinds of questions that people have,” she said. “How can we protect our families – what’s the plan?”