‘IT’S GOING TO BE A RUDE AWAKENING’: HOW IMMIGRANT AID GROUPS ARE PREPARING FOR TRUMP’S CRACKDOWN
RAICES processes thousands of immigration, asylum and refugee cases each year and has offices statewide, including in Dallas, according to its external affairs officer, Faisal Al-Juburi.
Over the last eight years, Al-Juburi tells The Barbed Wire he’s seen the immigration system get progressively worse for those seeking asylum, as well as the immigration professionals attempting to help them — while both have been forced to grapple with a broken and overwhelmed system.
“The U.S. spends billions more on border militarization, from CBP to ICE, to criminalize and incarcerate asylum seekers than they do on our immigration court system and USCIS,” Al-Juburi says. “They’ve done little to nothing to address the backlogs that have existed and that cause the system to buckle under pressure. I think that shows where our national values are at.”
With Trump back in office, Al-Juburi isn’t hopeful there will be much progress in chipping away at a mountain of asylum cases. “Every day, there are civil servants out there trying to make a dent in it,” he says. “But now we’re in a scenario where it looks like things are only going to get worse. You want to be optimistic, but there’s no sign that any of these pain points will be alleviated, and instead, they’ll only be exacerbated.”
Navigating these changes in Texas adds yet another complication for the lawyers at RAICES and other immigrant legal aid groups. Gov. Greg Abbott’s controversial approach to border enforcement, including the costly and legally fraught “Operation Lone Star,” has earned Trump’s stamp of approval, with the president singling him out in his inauguration speech as a “leader of the pack.”
Al-Juburi also points to Abbott-backed legislation, like SB 4, which passed last year, categorizing “improper border entry” as a criminal offense, and allowing police to question and arrest anyone they believe entered into Texas illegally. The law does prohibit police from making arrests in public/private schools, churches and places of worship, and healthcare facilities, though this Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced they had rescinded Biden-era guidelines concerning “sensitive” areas.
