Immigration Advocates Prepare to Fight Donald Trump’s Mass Deportation Plan

Over 210,000 migrants arrived in New York City between early 2022 and summer 2024, pushing city resources to their limits as the historic gateway to the United States tried to find beds, food and financial aid for many who had crossed the southwest border.
For many of those new arrivals and the hundreds of thousands of other undocumented migrants in New York State, the future appears even more uncertain with President-elect Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations of illegal immigrants on the horizon.
On Thursday evening, hundreds gathered near Manhattan’s courthouses alongside immigration advocacy groups and union members, worried about the future. Chants of “Stand up, fight back!” rang out from the crowd.
Among them was Jorge Paz Reyes, a Honduran man who arrived in the city 13 years ago as an undocumented immigrant child. He now works for the immigrants’ rights advocacy group Mixteca in Queens.
“I’ve been surrounded by the immigrant community, my family’s mixed status, and right now, the election of Donald Trump really means a lot of threats for that community that has always been there for me, that I’m part of,” he told Newsweek.
“So, I think it’s really important for me to advocate for them, to be present and also right now, I do have the privilege that I have documentation now, so it is also part of my duty to use my privilege to advocate for those who don’t.”
While migrants arriving during the most recent surge at the U.S.-Mexico border spread out across the country, many came to the Empire State, partially helped by the actions of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s bus program to send them to sanctuary cities.
With an estimated 4.4 million immigrant residents, making up 12 percent of its population, New York has held onto its status as a destination for migrants, which began with the first European settlers and extended into the era of Ellis Island.
Despite some protections for migrants, including sanctuary city policies in NYC, which protect them from federal government overreach, advocacy groups are urging lawmakers to do more before January 20, 2025.
The New York Civil Liberties Union, part of the ACLU, wants the state legislature to pass four pieces of legislation that are sitting with senate committees:
State Senator Andrew Gounardes, who sponsored the New York For All Act, told Newsweek in an emailed statement that Trump’s election made the passage of the bill “unquestionably” urgent.
“Trump has made clear he wants to carry out a hard-right agenda that would tear apart families by carrying out sweeping raids, deputizing police to detain immigrants on a mass scale and literally lock them up in camps before deporting them,” Gounardes said.
“But the truth is that separating families, and sowing fear and chaos in communities, does nothing to ensure public safety or fix our broken immigration system.”
Governor Kathy Hochul and New York Attorney General Letitia James promised Wednesday to enshrine protections for migrants, but they did not provide specifics.
Newsweek reached out to Hochul’s office for comment via email on Thursday.
New York City does offer some of these protections, as well as emergency food and shelter, childcare, and some health benefits, regardless of status, but it does appear to have limits.
Some programs, like a debit card for food purchases and the city’s hotel shelters, are being wrapped up in the coming months. In July, a bipartisan group on the city council pushed for the sanctuary city designation to be dropped to slow the influx of new arrivals.
NYC Comptroller Brad Lander told Newsweek in a statement Friday that the city’s sanctuary laws had not changed.
“Our local laws have not changed: the City of New York does not conduct immigration enforcement and City services are available no matter your immigration status,” Lander said. “As Chief Accountability Officer, I will make sure the City follows the law and continues to stand up for New York values as we face attacks from the incoming Trump Administration.”
The New York Immigration Coalition, which organized Thursday night’s rally, handed out hundreds of information sheets in various languages, explaining migrants’ rights and what to do should U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement come knocking.
“We want to make sure that our community knows that regardless of their immigration status, whether they’re undocumented or not, everyone has rights,” Janice Northia, manager of community engagement at NYIC, told Newsweek.
“Right now, the question that people have in terms of what Trump has promised is ‘can they do that?'” Northia added. “The sad reality is we know if he puts in an executive order to do mass deportations, they can do that, but we also have the power of the people coming together.”
Deportations are not a new phenomenon. During his first term, Trump deported fewer migrants than former President Barack Obama and current President Joe Biden. At last, the Biden administration has removed around 4.7 million people from the U.S. since early 2021.
For Paz Reyes, Tuesday’s result and Trump’s promise of mass deportations at levels never seen before present a much darker future for the undocumented in his community.
“Being a migrant has always been politicized in the United States,” he said. “But now, with this election, it becomes politicized and also vilified.”