Across
the United States, citizens say they have started carrying their
passports with them through their daily activities as widespread
immigration raids create a pervasive climate of fear, and reports of citizens being detained circulate in the media.
The Guardian talked to people living this reality.
Munira Maalimisaq, Minneapolis
Munira
Maalimisaq, a family nurse practitioner who runs a clinic in
Minneapolis, started carrying her passport with her daily on 2 December,
as federal agents surged in the city after Trump repeatedly targeted
Somalis.
Maalimisaq has been a naturalized US citizen for more
than two decades; she came to the US as a child from Somalia. She
previously only carried her passport when traveling in other countries.
Her
clinic, Inspire Change Clinic, with a mission to serve marginalized
communities, is located in an area where ICE agents have been targeting
the local residents. Her patients have expressed fear about coming to
the clinic, leading her to start a rapid response effort to provide more
telehealth appointments and safe rides if needed. When patients check
in at the clinic, more and more have presented their passports rather
than a driver’s license, something she hadn’t seen previously.
“We
have a lot of patients that may be targeted,” she said. “And because of
that, I know that I may come in contact with [federal agents]. And for
that, I want to make sure that I go home safely to my kids and simply
for my own safety, I feel like, if I have my passport and I have my ID
with me, I can show it, and hopefully that itself will be sufficient.”
She
knows some people may be pulled over because they look like immigrants.
In the Minneapolis area, and nationwide, people who are US citizens
have been detained. She notes that she wears a headscarf: “I do look
like an immigrant. It’s not something that I can hide who I am.
“For
me, it didn’t stop me from working and doing everything that needs to
be done, but just taking extra precautions, and the passport was my
safety net,” she said.
“No one should have to carry a passport just to exist safely in their own city.”
– Rachel Leingang
Walter Cruz Perez, Kenner, Louisiana
Walter
Cruz Perez has been a US citizen since 2022, six years after
immigrating to the US from his native Guatemala with legal permanent
residency. He used to never think twice about only carrying his driver’s
license while going about his life in Kenner, Louisiana, running his
successful landscaping and gardening business.
But then the second
Trump administration embarked on its campaign to deport as many
immigrants as possible. Kenner, with a relatively large Hispanic
population, became a focus of that effort when federal agents descended
on the New Orleans suburb in early December. Cruz, 58, began seeing stories in the media of Latino US citizens without their American passports readily on hand being at least temporarily detained by immigration agents.
Cruz
said none of those agents seen scouring Kenner’s streets had approached
him. But if they did, he surmised his accent would betray that he is a
native Spanish speaker as well as an immigrant. He also joked that his
short height and belly could make him seem like a particularly soft
target.
So now Cruz said he is in the
habit of putting his passport in his cellphone case while he tends to
his landscaping in case any of the agents seen scouring the streets of
his city in recent days eventually approach him. He always makes sure to
put it in a zip lock bag to protect it from inclement weather and keep
it in the best shape possible – out of fear an agent may doubt the
document’s authenticity if it gets too worn down.
“It’s
stressful,” said Cruz. “But you see on the news that people don’t have
the chance to identify themselves … so you do what you have to do to
avoid problems.”
– Ramon Antonio Vargas
Carola Lopez, outside New Orleans
Carola
Lopez, an educator who lives outside New Orleans, grew up in the Latino
US territory of Puerto Rico. And despite the fact that Puerto Ricans
are US citizens, she became accustomed to being asked by other Americans
why she and her people spoke Spanish, and even if she paid taxes.
She
said she had been carrying her US passport with her in her car since
the time in 2015 when authorities stopped her for no apparent reason
near Houston while traveling there to watch star singer Ricky Martin –
her fellow Puerto Rican – perform in a concert. And she said she was
making sure to stick to that practice given the ongoing immigration
crackdown as well as the stories in the media of US citizens being
detained temporarily by agents in some instances.
Lopez said she
would never understand “why we have to carry our passports and be afraid
of being detained despite having US citizenship”.
“I bring it around to avoid getting into uncomfortable situations with the authorities,” Lopez said.
She
added: “It’s really sad that we have to do this and that Americans are
living in these times. I never thought I’d feel like I have to prove
where I’m from … and that we are from the United States.”
– Ramon Antonio Vargas
Miguel Rios, Los Angeles
Miguel
Rios, a 49-year-old born and raised in Los Angeles, and his family
started carrying copies of their passports once the immigration raids
began in the region earlier this year. He cancelled planned road trips
to Utah and northern California, and discouraged his parents from going
to large family functions where they might be more vulnerable.
Even
as a US citizen, Rios, who works in aquarium and pond maintenance, was
concerned when the Trump administration began mass sweeps across Los
Angeles. But the turning point came when he heard from an associate at
work that their relative, a US citizen, had been erroneously detained
and taken to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing
facility in the southern California desert. Around the same time, ICE
agents used a moving truck for an operation at a Home Depot near his
house. That was when he decided to carry additional identification.
But
Rios said he felt there was little he could do to protect himself. “My
sister taught me how to go Instagram live, that’s all I got going on … I
have a dash cam on my truck. That’s kind of it.”
The supreme court ruling
that federal agents can stop people in Los Angeles for speaking Spanish
or appearing Latino was particularly upsetting, he said, and it had
been difficult to see the widespread impacts of the administration’s
deportations.
“It’s really scary for the elders,” Rios said.
“You’re tearing families apart. The numbers have come out, it’s not like
they’re catching criminals. You’re going to workplaces – that’s not
where the criminals hang out.”
– Dani Anguiano
Ana, southern California
For Ana*, a middle-aged educator based in southern California, the danger came into focus with the detainment of Andrea Velez.
The US citizen was on her way to work in downtown Los Angeles when
masked men suddenly picked her up and dragged her into a vehicle parked
nearby. The men were US immigration officials. Velez was charged with
assaulting an officer, but the charge was later dismissed. During the
incident, her mother and sister watched nearby but were afraid to
intervene.
Ana, a US citizen and the daughter of Mexican immigrants, watched the news coverage, horrified by what Velez experienced.
“I
thought if that happened to her that could happen to me. That could
happen to anybody who looks like me or sounds like me,” she said. “If
I’m just buying a taco at a taco truck, speaking Spanish. You never
know. It’s just a reminder you are not what they consider fully
American.
“I know I am. [But] this is an administration that says ‘you don’t belong’.”
Now,
she carries her passport and ID at all times: “I’m a citizen but
nonetheless I feel the need to carry my damn passport.” She’s gone to
marches and talked to city council and tried to ensure her students, who
have family members who have been deported, know their rights. But she
fears the erosion of basic human rights and due process in the US.
“This is a very dangerous moment,” she said.
– Dani Anguiano
*Ana asked for her last name not to be used because she’s afraid for her safety and fears she will be targeted for speaking out
