President Trump's overhaul of immigration law enforcement, from deportation to detention policies, has many people in Harrisonburg’s immigrant community worried. But local advocates and institutions have been preparing. WMRA’s Calvin Pynn reports.
More than 17% of Harrisonburg’s population is made up of immigrants, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. And with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency - also known as ICE - expanding their operations following orders from Trump, that’s left many in the community on edge.
[sound of Angel Luna Anavitate on megaphone]
Angel Luna Anavitate is an immigration attorney in Harrisonburg, and his mission over the past month has been to inform the public of their rights if an ICE agent knocks on their door.
ANGEL LUNA ANAVITATE: These are the red cards, I know you’ve heard about them, they’ve been going around…
He recently distributed cards outlining those rights at a march in support of the city’s immigrant community.
ANAVITATE: They don’t have to talk to an ICE officer, they don’t have to identify themselves, they don’t have to give them their status or give them any kind of documentation of where they are or where they’re coming from. If ICE doesn’t have a warrant for your arrest or a warrant to search you, they are not supposed to go against you.
ICE has operated a local field office in Harrisonburg since 2005. That’s been used primarily for check-ins, but Anavitate said its operations have expanded along with enforcement priorities.
ANAVITATE: I haven’t seen any raids at the time, of ICE, but I do know they are actively working on looking for people that have certain charges such as DUIs, assault and battery.
According to Anavitate, ICE agents have been working with the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Department to enforce the new laws. Among them is the Laken Riley Act, which requires the federal detention of undocumented people accused of theft and violent crimes.
The sheriff’s office could not be reached for comment. Anavitate said that anyone arrested on those types of charges is generally detained at Rockingham County Regional Jail, which has him concerned about the department’s collaboration.
ANAVITATE: I do know that they are communicating with ICE because if you don’t have a social security number, they will go ahead and issue a detainer – ICE will issue a detainer -- and ICE has 72 hours to go ahead and pick up that person.
Local agencies supporting Harrisonburg’s international community have also been hard at work preparing for the possibility of mass deportation attempts.
Church World Service, which facilitates refugee resettlement in the city, has had to quell fears of families who feel they may be targeted. Their director of integration programs, Rebecca Sprague, said the Trump administration’s recent slashing of federal funds has made it difficult to do their job.
REBECCA SPRAGUE: Oh yeah, two-thirds of our staff today got furloughed.
Despite the setback, they’re still working to uphold their commitments to the people they’ve helped to resettle.
SPRAGUE: We brought them here. We made promises. Our country brought them here. Our country said that, you know, they’d have these supports, and we’re going to make sure that they do.
The president’s removal of protection for sensitive spaces, such as churches, has also made it possible for ICE agents to enter school grounds in order to detain undocumented students.
With a number of immigrant students in Harrisonburg City Public Schools, Superintendent Michael Richards said staff had been preparing well into last semester for a second Trump presidency.
MICHAEL RICHARDS: Our emphasis is always on student safety. And students need to not only be safe, but feel safe. And many of them don’t feel safe right now.
Richards sent letters to parents outlining the steps teachers and staff have been trained to follow should an ICE officer enter school grounds.
RICHARDS: An ICE agent can’t just go into our school. They have to ring the buzzer like anyone else, and staff will inform them that they need to sit tight while a school official or the school attorney greets them and talks to them, and what we’d do in that case is ensure that they have a judicial warrant.
If an agent does have a judicial warrant, then school officials have to work with them. But Richards stressed that those warrants cannot be obtained on a whim, and require approval from a federal judge.
RICHARDS: Which would mean that there would be some reason for this agent to want to make contact with this particular, hypothetical student.
Still, students have been worried about participating in activities off school grounds such as sports and field trips. Sal Romero, HCPS’s chief of staff, said the same rules still apply.
SAL ROMERO: Anything that is sanctioned by the school system, and while the students are under supervision, we remain committed to keeping them safe and following the same protocols that we’re following as if they were in the school.
Both within the schools and outside in the community, Romero and other leaders have organized a network of local employers, nonprofits, and others to support immigrant families with students in HCPS if they encounter ICE.
ROMERO: The groups that I’m referring to are considering putting in a tip line, you know, having a volunteer-based group that will be driving around the city, attending to any rumors of any ICE presence, anything like that. … It’s really the way to cover some of those areas that we as a school system don’t have a whole lot of control over.
