COMMUNITY

Salem’s Latino immigrant community finds resilience amid uncertainty over Trump policy changes

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It was standing room only during Spanish mass at Salem’s St. Joseph Catholic Church on a Sunday in late January. Local flea markets like La Pulga Original on Northeast Fairgrounds Road bustled with people buying groceries, waiting in line for charcoal grilled chicken or browsing the maze of colorful stalls.

Latino immigrants in Salem going about their weekend business reported varied feelings as President Donald Trump gears up for what he’s promised will be the largest mass deportation in American history.

Many, especially those who have been in the United States for decades, said Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and threats of deportation are nothing new. Some told Salem Reporter they felt that as long as they are law-abiding then they have nothing to fear, or said the media is exaggerating the threat.  

Local leaders who work with immigrant families said they are hearing mixed concern among the diverse local Latino community, which includes many families that have a mix of U.S. citizen and immigrant members, including some without legal status.

Many said a common theme is resiliency: people are seeking information about their rights under Oregon law and what to do in case of an immigration raid. 

“Our community has fears but they are not fearful. They are not fearful because we immigrants from Latin America, we have seen this before. We come from countries where we had to deal with dictators or corrupt governments and so we know what to do,” said Francisco Lopez, who is a longtime Salem resident originally from El Salvador and the director of Ciudadanía en Oregon, a nonprofit offering free citizenship classes.

About one in four Salem residents — more than 47,000 people — are Hispanic or Latino, according to U.S. Census data, with the vast majority of those reporting Mexican ancestry. The share of immigrants from Latin America is smaller, about 13,000 people in Salem.

The Census bureau does not collect data on immigration status, and few precise estimates exist of the number of people without legal status.

Compared with a decade ago, when many Latinos in Salem were immigrants, the community is more diverse. A large number of local Latinos are U.S. citizens, but many have immigrant family members, leaders said.

“You can have some people who are very secure in their status … who feel like nothing is going to happen to them or their family members,” said Levi Herrera-Lopez, executive director of Mano a Mano Family Center. “It’s really difficult to gauge.”

At St. Joseph, Father Jeffrey Meeuwsen, who leads the Spanish-language mass, said he has not seen an elevated sense of fear or unease among the church’s members.

“I can’t trust this government” 

While not all immigrants are afraid, many are seeking help or advice about legal rights and their status in the U.S.

Barbara Ghio, a Salem immigration attorney with Muntz & Ghio Law Offices said since Trump won the election she has been fielding an onslaught of clients. Many immigrants, specifically those with darker skin, fear they could be targeted based on how they look. 

“They call me on a daily basis asking me what documentation they should be carrying,” Ghio said. “Now they all feel like this is a free for all. They feel they can walk down the street and based on your skin color, they can just arrest you.”

Salem Police Chief Trevor Womack last week released a statement confirming his department will not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts and will report any such requests to the state. 

Ghio said some of her clients’ children are unable to sleep at night fearing they will return home from school to find their parents had been arrested. Other immigrants are seeking Ghio’s council and voicing uncertainties about their status in the country. 

“Some want assurances that even as a green card holder they can go visit a family member in Mexico and then come back. I can’t give them assurances. I tell them, ‘You are a green card holder, you have rights, but I can’t trust this government, so I don’t know what is going to happen,’” Ghio said. “They (the Trump administration) have a lot of power with the executive orders, so I can’t guarantee anything. I pretty much say, ‘That is a risk you are going to have to take if you really want to go see a family member and whatnot.’”

“We can choose to live in fear or choose to be prepared for worst case scenarios. I think those are two different things.”

-Barbara Ghio, a Salem immigration attorney

About 1,800 undocumented immigrants in the Salem area have a quasi-legal status through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, called DACA — an Obama administration program that allows immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children to work and have some protection from deportation.

Trump sought to end the program during his first term, and there’s an ongoing case challenging its legality which could be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.  

“If it is anything like decisions in the past, there is a good chance it (DACA) might go away,” Ghio said. “They might go from being protected from deportation, getting a home, raising their children, having a career, paying taxes, to having nothing.” 

Ghio said some of her clients with DACA status only speak English and that the United States is the only country they have ever known. 

The anxiety over the future is real for them, Ghio said. 

“We can choose to live in fear or choose to be prepared for worst case scenarios. I think those are two different things,” Ghio said. “I tell my people right now, ‘Get your things in order, be a good person, be the person you have been for all these years, and you should be OK. And if you have not been behaving, then you should be worried.’”

One of Trump’s early directives allowed immigration agents to make arrests at schools, churches and hospitals, reversing policies in place for over a decade.

“People are afraid of a family member getting picked up, they’re afraid that a raid might target their community, might target their business, might target their school and place of worship,” said Reyna Lopez, executive director of the Woodburn-based farmworker union PCUN.

She said the union is focusing on giving people information about legal rights under Oregon’s sanctuary laws, and preparing scenarios in case of local immigration raids.

“We know that we have to separate the thunder from the lightning. There’s a lot of things that are said by politicians and very few of those things will actually be possible. Either way, we’re preparing,” she said.

Amid fears and uncertainty, Herrera-Lopez said one of the challenges facing organizations like Mano a Mano is the proliferation of rumors. He said he’s seen well-meaning allies post rumors about ICE raids that aren’t verified, spreading anxiety.

“As hard as it is for people to hear, there’s not a lot of concrete information,” he said.

He said Mano a Mano and other organizations serving immigrant families are trying to share information about Oregon’s sanctuary law and encourage people only to share information if they’ve personally witnessed or verified it.

So far, he said, Oregon has not seen any ICE raids or changes in immigration enforcement. Any arrests he’s aware of have been targeted, meaning ICE is seeking a specific person to detain.

“We’re trying to reassure people of what is true right now rather than the noise that’s out there,” he said.

Anti-immigrant sentiment emboldened

As much as any concrete policy, organizers said they’re concerned about Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants and an emboldened anti-immigrant sentiment that seeks to paint anyone without legal status as a criminal.

“What we have in the United States of America right now is a target of Latino immigrants or people who are of Latino origin, and trying to expel them one way or another from the United States,” said Francisco Lopez. “It looks like ethnic cleansing to me…I don’t know what else to call it. But I can only call it ethnic cleansing. Some people would say that is too far. Well, just look at the news and every day he (Trump) talks about immigrants as despicable.” 

In addition to promising mass deportations, Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office revoking birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants who are undocumented or in the U.S. temporarily.

That order is facing several legal challenges.

Reyna Lopez, who lives in Salem, said that effort is personal. Both of her parents came to the U.S. undocumented to work California strawberry fields. 

Lopez, her parents’ firstborn, was the first U.S. citizen in her family by virtue of being born here.

“They’re talking about people like me, people that I would say do a lot for our communities, people that have given their lives to our communities,” Lopez said.

Her parents moved to Oregon for the Christmas tree farms and eventually earned amnesty and U.S. citizenship thanks to the 1986 immigration reform bill.

Since that bill, there’s been no pathway allowing immigrants without legal status to get a visa, green card or path to citizenship. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates about half of farmworkers lack legal status, and two in three were born outside the U.S. 

“If you don’t care about anything else, they’re contributing financially. You’re talking about them as criminals. These are the same people a few years ago we were calling essential workers,” Herrera-Lopez said. “What it comes down to is: Who is really an Oregonian? Who really belongs in Salem? People are telling us what they really think and we should not ignore that.”

Reyna Lopez said PCUN, the farmworker union, is getting questions from workers, teachers, business owners and others seeking information about what’s ahead and how to help. She said generally, Oregonians are supportive of immigrants and the state’s strong legal protections reflect that.

“Immigrants are critical to our state’s success and prosperity and a lot of people feel that to their core,” she said.

Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected] or 503-335-7790. Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.

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Joe Siess is a reporter for Salem Reporter. Joe joined Salem Reporter in 2024 and primarily covers city and county government but loves surprises. Joe previously reported for the Redmond Spokesman, the Bulletin in Bend, Klamath Falls Herald and News and the Malheur Enterprise. He was born in Independence, MO, where the Oregon Trail officially starts, and grew up in the Kansas City area.

Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.