Mark Curnutte

The Cincinnati Enquirer

In case they are separated under President Donald Trump's approach to immigration policy, many of Greater Cincinnati's migrant families are going through wrenching discussions about living apart.

The conversation is ongoing around one kitchen table, at least. Mauricio Vivar, 20, will become the guardian of his three U.S.-citizen siblings if their parents are deported to Mexico. His brother is 14 and sisters 11 and 4.

"They would be in culture shock if they went there," said Vivar, who has legal status through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known more widely as DACA or as the "Dreamers" program.

The Vivars are not alone. Immigrant families across Greater Cincinnati are making separations plans. In fact, advocates and attorneys are encouraging them.

A 10-page packet titled "Family Preparedness Plan" was available in English and Spanish during a recent immigrant rights rally and prayer service at San Carlos Borromeo Church in Carthage.

"People are trying to figure out the best way of going back," said Don Sherman, a labor lawyer and chair of civil rights for the Cincinnati League of United Latin American Citizens.

Though sending mixed signals at times, the Trump administration promises to increase enforcement and deportations of undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Most are Mexicans or Central Americans who arrived from some of the world's most violent and impoverished nations.

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As a result, some families are seriously considering a return to their countries of origin or Canada, according to local immigration lawyers and advocates. Decisions are complicated because, like the family of Mauricio Vivar, some relatives are citizens or have legal immigration documents and others don't.

The Trump administration's deportation priorities are broader than those in Barack Obama's second term as president, when only unauthorized immigrants with serious criminal histories were targeted for removal.

"President Trump changed how immigrants are viewed and characterized," said Randy Capps, director of research for U.S. programs at the nonpartisan think tank Migration Policy Institute. "They are now seen as criminals and security threats. This context is new and different, not seen in any recent administration, Republican or Democrat."

Long-term studies of metropolitan areas by criminologists show that immigration does not cause crime to increase and may, in fact, suppress it.

ICE vows to honor 'sensitive' sites: schools, churches, hospitals

Since Trump's election, immigrant communities have been on edge, crackling with rumors that spread like electricity. Not long after Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation raids in early February netted 680 arrests in six states, rumor spread via word of mouth and over social media. Immigration agents are parked at the Paddock Road exit of Interstate 75. They are monitoring churches and social service agencies.

Not true, said Khalid Walls, spokesman for the Detroit office of immigration enforcement, known widely by the acronym ICE. Detroit ICE has jurisdiction over Ohio.

"Our work is targeted … in which specific individuals are sought," Walls said.

ICE officials say its agents continue to conduct operations to arrest "deportable foreign nationals." Immigration enforcement agents, who do not drive marked vehicles or wear a uniform, are not waiting outside the offices of Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio in Bond Hill or Catholic churches with large Central American immigrant memberships, Walls said.

Under the Trump administration, immigrant advocates fear ICE and the Department of Homeland Security would no longer honor the "sensitive locations" policy implemented in 2012 under Obama. In Texas, ICE is detaining an unauthorized immigrant from El Salvador who has a brain tumor. In Virginia, agents arrested two undocumented men as they left a church-run shelter from cold weather.

But the ICE spokesman said agents will not start showing up in hospitals, medical clinics, houses of worship and schools.

"DHS is committed to ensuring that people seeking to participate in activities or utilize services at any sensitive location are free to do so," Walls said.

Cincinnati Public Schools services 34,000 students, some of them unauthorized immigrants or their children.

"We have not received any requests from ICE agents to enter our schools or school property," said Janet Walsh, director of the district's public affairs department. "It's also hard to imagine why they might attempt to do so, given that federal law gives immigrant students the right to a free public education, regardless of their documentation status."

Two weeks ago, officials with Chicago Public Schools said the district would deny access to federal agents unless served with a criminal warrant.

Cincinnati, like many major U.S. cities, has a sanctuary congregation movement. One congregation, Christ Church Cathedral, home of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio, has committed to housing and protecting unauthorized immigrants.

Capps, the expert on unauthorized immigrant populations and immigrant trends, said he understands the confusion related to enforcement of illegal immigration. In the second Obama term, people with felonies or serious misdemeanors were the removal priority for ICE. The Trump administration has expanded the priority to the parameters of the early Obama years and second half of the George W. Bush administration.

The enforcement shift and inconsistencies of Trump's statements on immigrations — will he protect young Dreamers? — have left many immigrant families considering their options. Even if they don't have a criminal record, do unauthorized immigrants run the risk of sudden arrest and fast-tracked deportation? Do they leave on their own terms? Where do they go, back to Mexico or Central America or north to Canada, which is perceived to be more immigrant-friendly?

Canada is an option for some local immigrant families, advocate Sherman said. Canada in December lifted a visa requirement and anticipated a likely surge in Mexican and Central American migrants.

Data on Canadian immigration applications since Trump's election is not available. Canada showed increases in temporary residence applications in the first nine months of 2016 (compared to the same period of 2015) from El Salvadoran, Honduran, Guatemalan and Mexican nationals. Increases in numbers of African and Muslim refugees crossing into Canada from North Dakota and Minnesota have been reported.

"All applicants who apply to Canada’s immigration programs are treated equally no matter where they are from," said Remi Lariviere, of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, in the country's capital of Ottawa. "Anyone can emigrate to Canada provided they meet the qualifications."

Besides weighing migration and legal options, families with undocumented relatives are also relying on their faith. An immigrant rights rally Feb. 25 at San Carlos in Carthage ended in an hour of prayer.

The voices of undocumented people mixed that night with pleas for changes to U.S. immigration laws and for Trump's protection and well-being.

We came here to work. …Thank you to Americans who support us. … We didn't come here to take anything away from anyone. … We pay $12,000 a year in taxes. … Families are terrorized by the news. … We came to educate our children. … It's only in the hands of God.

Mauricio Vivar and his family lean on their Christian faith, even as they work hard every day. "We have a plan for everything," said Mauricio, who works with his father.

Mauricio was 4 and another Mexican-born brother 11 months old when his parents crossed the border illegally in 2000 in search of work. They went first to Los Angeles before migrating to the Cincinnati area.

If they return to Mexico, his parents would resettle in the more urban state of Morelos, just south of Mexico City, not in their native rural area of another neighboring state, Puebla. The family is going to invest in dual Mexican-U.S. citizenship of the three U.S.-born children, so if they are forced to return to Mexico, they will not be undocumented there.

"My parents don't want to show us they're scared," said Mauricio, who recently renewed his DACA for two more years. It cost him $495.

"They have brought us up to be strong," he said of his parents. "Even in the face of adversity, we have to do our best and keep moving forward."