By AMY TAXIN and SOPHIA TAREEN
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Winston Leiva rattles off a long list of things immigrants should do to protect themselves against President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to conduct mass deportations when he returns to the White House.
Make a plan for someone to care for your children if you are arrested. Don’t open the door unless authorities slip a signed judicial warrant under it. And above all, exercise your right to remain silent.
“We already know this administration,” Leiva told participants of a bilingual workshop in Los Angeles for immigrants who want to stay in the United States. “The truth is we don’t know to what extent it will affect us.”
The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights meeting, in a conference room decorated with a colorful mural of civil rights icons and a large American flag, is one of many taking place nationwide as immigrant advocates steel themselves for Trump’s second term. It’s déjà vu for those who sprung to action during Trump’s first four years, when he changed the nation’s immigration system arguably more than any other U.S. president.
Advocacy groups from Utah to Massachusetts have hosted know-your-rights trainings to teach immigrants how to protect themselves, their friends and families from Trump’s promise to start deportations on his first day back in office. The efforts are underway in immigrant-friendly states including California and Illinois — which both enacted protections for immigrants in response to Trump’s focus on enforcement during his first administration — and those with more stringent laws affecting immigrants such as Florida.
Connecticut Students for a Dream, an advocacy group for undocumented youth, recently held a session in the city of Danbury, which is home to immigrants from Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere. Organizers advised that you don’t have to speak with immigration agents if they knock on your door, and warned in a Facebook post: “If you…
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