I spent today talking with people and listening to others discuss the experiences of Latinos in Trump’s America.
The most common theme by far was the fear and terror that comes with being part of a community being targeted for mass deportation.
I heard stories about the fear of construction workers snatched off the streets of Alexandria during a break on the job, and about children afraid they’ll come home from school to empty houses after the government takes their parents away.
Many Latinos, regardless of their immigration status in this country, are afraid to go to work. They’re afraid to look for jobs and tap into local programs popping up to help them.
The psychological consequences of all this, especially for the children, is worrying, to say the least. Then there are the material economic consequences of living in the shadows or the fear that you’ll be forced into them.
Virginia is home to more than a million immigrants, including 501,000 who are non-citizens and about 275,000 who are undocumented, according to a report from The Commonwealth Institute. To the people who support Trump’s mass deportation program, consider this: people who are undocumented paid nearly $690 million in Virginia state and local taxes in 2022.
Many of these folks work in construction, the food industry, or in childcare — grueling, thankless jobs in the best of times. But now, some of these workers know that the act of simply commuting to work means they risk being profiled, harassed, and even detained just for trying to earn a paycheck that barely pays the bills anyway.
And of course, for far too many, the fear has become reality.
The silver lining, if there can be said to be one, is that for many Latinos, this fear, great as it is, is fueling an even greater determination to fight back against the injustice of the Trump era. Such is the case for Canek Aguire, the son of Mexican immigrants and a third-term member of the Alexandria City Council.
Aguire spoke at a “Latinos for Spanberger” rally at Los Tios Grill in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria earlier today. He shared some of the stories I mentioned above but in a manner that energized the packed restaurant.
“My resolve has never been stronger,” Aguirre said.
