There’s no doubt that the Trump Administration has kept its promise to secure the border of the United States. What no one expected was the incredible increase in the pursuit of non-documented people living and working deep within the country.
Since Trump took office, 37,600 people have been removed, far less than the 57,000 monthly average from the Biden Administration when he was in office. However, the way Trump used the media increased the awareness that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was coming, and they were intentional about getting criminals.
That media push coupled with the nationwide attention it got has made everyone feel uneasy. No one is safe anymore, anywhere. ICE performed raids on farms in the country and in restaurants in the city. They raided factories and knocked on doors at 4 am in communities.
But some people are pushing back. Those who are from the countries that seem to be targeted, Latina areas of the world, are banning together to educate people about their rights.
“When I saw what was going on, I knew I had to do something,” Alisa Clark said. “I wanted to empower the community.”
Clark felt it was too important to have some politicians take a year to figure out what to do. The director wanted to do her part to help those who felt anxious about the impact of innovation deportation on her community.
So Clark used her company, Spanglish Media Group, to shoot the PSA (Public Service Announcement). She called the Young Latino Network and asked if they would like to help share the video after it was shot.
On a cold, snowy day in Cleveland, Clark got a group of people together to create a PSA to fight back.
Their backgrounds hailed from all over the world, but their mission was the same. They wanted to do their part to protect the communities they live in and love.
Clark assembled about ten people to share in the efforts to film the PSA. She used verbiage straight from the ACLU to inform people of their rights when confronted by ICE.
The recommendations mentioned in the PSA are directives that people should use if they are arrested. The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland also reached out to let Clark know that they would provide aid if anyone were collected and arrested by ICE.
“This problem goes deeper than anyone has considered. There are people in the country, who came legally, but are now out of status, and cannot get a court date to get their green card,” Clark explained.
she gave the example of her great-grandmother who came to the US and after her status expired, it took twenty-five years to gain her citizenship. If she were alive today, she would be in jeopardy of getting deported.
As of the end of fiscal year (FY) 2023, there were 416,034 citizenship applications pending with USCIS, the federal agency that processes citizenship applications. The process to get a court date takes so long that people are left in limbo as they wait for the process to help them.
To become a US citizen, you must meet several requirements, including:
• Age: Be at least 18 years old
• Residence: Be a lawful permanent resident of the US for at least five years
• Moral character: Be a person of good moral character
• English proficiency: Be able to read, write, and speak basic English
• Civics knowledge: Have a knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of US history and government
Other requirements include:
• Taking the Oath of Allegiance to the United States
• Completing Form N-400, the Application for Naturalization
Attend a biometrics appointment, where you’ll be:
• Fingerprinted and photographed
• Register for military and civil service
• Pledge support for the Constitution and form of government of the United States
The backlog decreased by over 760,000 cases from the end of FY 2022 when there were more than 5 million cases pending.
The Biden administration has made efforts to make the naturalization process more accessible.
In FY 2024, USCIS production levels for naturalization applications continued to surpass pre-pandemic levels.
As of January 2023, 12.7 million lawful permanent residents (green card holders) in the United States were eligible to apply for citizenship. Of those, 9 million were eligible to naturalize.
The top three government offices handling citizenship applications most efficiently are in Cleveland, Ohio; Providence, Rhode Island; and Raleigh, North Carolina.
For those who are in the process, they have little to no protection when stopped by an ICE agent.
“So real families are being affected by this,” said Clark. “And what makes this situation so bad is that it’s only impacting brown and yellow people. No whites from countries like Germany or France are looking over their shoulder. They still get to go to work and live.”
She has a point. In 2022, there were 6.9 million unauthorized immigrants in the US from countries other than Mexico. The largest increases were from Europe, Canada, and the Caribbean.
And Clark warns that things are going to get worse as the weather gets better.
The day of the PSA filming, it was filmed with the emotion of the moment, the understanding that real people are fighting for their lives just to create a chance to feed their families and to see their kids grow up with a better opportunity than they did.
They all assembled with the hope that they could lend their voice to the cause.
The PSA is expected to be released soon. Clark only hopes that her efforts help anyone who needs to hear the information from the video. For Clark, it was a chance to give back, but it might be the most important content Clark has ever created.
