As Trump immigration crackdown comes into focus, anxiety grows along with anger
Cristina Reyes eyed her daughter toddling about on a patch of grass while waiting for the trolley that would take them to their Lynwood home. The 33-year-old has stuck to public transportation ever since someone stole her car last year. She and her husband contemplated buying a new one, but worried it would go to waste.
“I told my husband, ‘Let’s be prepared. Let’s just save our money in case they end up sending us back. We can at least have something to start with.’ ”
The two have been in the United States illegally since leaving Puebla, Mexico, more than a decade ago. They raised three children in a predominantly Latino community and shared little anxiety about their legal status.
But they, along with millions of others now at risk of deportation, have had their sense of stability shaken by President Trump’s executive orders on illegal immigration. Fueled by fear, they are a population afloat in precarious waters, forced to rethink their daily routines and rewrite their futures.