'We Are Unafraid': NYC Immigrants Defy Trump's Raid Threats

JACKSON HEIGHTS, NY — Defiant New York City immigrants pledged to protect their neighbors from deportation on Monday, days after President Donald Trump called off nationwide raids targeting people in the country illegally.

"Trump, you can tweet whatever you want, but this you know: We are here to stay. We are unafraid," Megha Lama, a community organizer with the nonprofit group Adhikaar, said at a Monday rally in Jackson Heights's Diversity Plaza.

"We won't be swept up in your political games and won't stay quiet about the injustices we are witnessing and actively fighting against every day."

Trump announced on Twitter last Monday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would start removing "millions of illegal aliens" from the country the following week. The massive raids targeting immigrant families who have been ordered deported were expected to start early Sunday in major U.S. cities, The Washington Post reported Friday.

But the Republican president said in another tweet on Saturday that he had delayed the operation for two weeks to give Democrats and Republicans a chance to address problems at the southern U.S. border. He said he did so "(a)t the request of Democrats."

Trump's initial threat of raids spurred immigrant New Yorkers to call the city government and local organizations for help, said Tania Mattos, the co-founder of the activist group Queens Neighborhoods United.

Immigrants have started making plans to have other adults take care of their children, and it's important that they get others to pay their rent or handle their finances in the event that ICE comes after them, Mattos said. Lama said her group plans to put on weekly events to educate immigrants about their legal rights.

Trump's reversal created a sense of confusion among immigrants about why the change had been made, some of whom "are not even getting the news," Mattos said. There's also a sense of distrust toward a president who has shown himself to be a "complete liar," she said.

"We don’t know if he’s just fooling us again, but that’s why we have to be ready and our families have to be ready," Mattos said.

Some activists emphasized that the threat of deportation is not new for the city's immigrants, as immigration enforcement ramped up under President Barack Obama but escalated sharply after Trump took office.

ICE officers in the city deported 2,593 people in the 2018 fiscal year, a 150 percent increase from the last year under Obama, according to a report City Comptroller Scott Stringer released in February.

Advocates described Trump's deportation threat as a political tactic meant to scare immigrants while furthering his narrative about a crisis on the southern border.

"Last year it was the caravan, and this year it's, 'Let's get into people's homes and separate them," said state Assembly Member Catalina Cruz, a Queens Democrat who came to the U.S. from Colombia as a child. "This is all meant to help this president get a little bit of money for his re-election, because he continues to play with the lives of immigrants as if we were just a piece, a part of the puzzle to make sure that he continues to get re-elected."

An ICE spokesperson did not immidiately respond to a request for comment on Monday.