CITY OF NEWBURGH – They were people, not scourges.

Alfredo Pacheco, a Mexican immigrant from Goshen who has lived in the United States for 27 years and fears being deported despite finally getting a work permit.

Marcella Levin, who built a new life in the United States after leaving Chili 22 years ago, just earned citizenship in December and plans to vote for the first time.

Amalia Hernandez of Goshen, who left Mexico when she was 16, now fears being deported along with her husband and separated from her two children.

“My children are not at fault if they are abandoned without a father or either a mother just because one day we had the courage to immigrate to a country to have a better life for them,” she said.

President Donald Trump’s vows to curtail illegal immigration and increase the scale and pace of deportations were not the only issue of concern among the 400-plus people who filled the Newburgh Armory Unity Center on Thursday evening to hear Attorney General Eric Schneiderman speak.

But the fear gripping immigrant communities stood at the forefront as Schneiderman outlined steps his office has taken so far to protect immigrant parents and schoolchildren, and urged those attending to join what is expected to be a protracted fight against the new administration’s policies.

“People are awake who were asleep,” Schneiderman said. “This is no time to be quiet.”

Community Voices Heard, the resident-driven anti-poverty organization with a chapter in the City of Newburgh, organized the event, which drew busloads of people from as far away as New York City.

It comes as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is implementing new immigration policies that includes an expansion of immigrants prioritized for deportation, the hiring of 10,000 border security agents and officers, and the building of a wall along the border with Mexico.

Schneiderman’s office has been busy. It has issued guidance to school districts, reminding them that schoolchildren are protected from being pulled out of school and interrogated, and reminded municipalities that they are not mandated to help enforce federal immigration laws.

“We are feeling threatened and attacked by this new administration,” said Marcella Levin, a spokeswoman for CVH. “But that’s not the only issue and why we are here.”

Lourdes Patino of and her husband left Ecuador with their first daughter 16 years ago. The Ossining couple now has two more daughters and has watched the Latino population in their city explode.

Among her concerns is the inability of undocumented immigrants to get drivers' licenses and misconceptions about immigrants.

“There is a lot of misinformation, mostly from the media,” she said. “They don’t know that we come here looking for jobs, not looking for welfare, and that we pay taxes even though we are not going to reap the benefits.”

lsparks@th-record.com