SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
When it comes to what this past week's election will change about America, immigration and immigration policy looms above all other topics. President-elect Donald Trump ran on sweeping crackdowns of undocumented immigrants, including mass deportations. At the same time, top Trump allies, like Stephen Miller, promised a second Trump term would severely limit all forms of immigration.
So we are going to spend the next few minutes talking about it, looking back at Trump's campaign and how it resonated in surprising ways with immigrant communities, and also looking forward to what these policies could mean next year when they start to be implemented. We will start with the election and NPR immigration correspondent Jasmine Garsd. Hey, Jasmine.
JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: Hi, Scott.
DETROW: You spent election night in Jackson Heights in Queens, New York. Tell us a little bit about that community and the conversations that you had.
GARSD: Yeah, so Jackson Heights is one of the most diverse immigrant neighborhoods in the U.S. There's folks who've been there for decades. And in recent years, the neighborhood has received a lot of new migrants from places like Venezuela, Ecuador, this new wave of migration. Now, what I found was that many people in this community supported the Trump campaign's promise on mass deportation, even people who can't vote or people who are undocumented.
I started off the night in the Bangladeshi area of the neighborhood where people were congregating in a public park, drinking tea, watching the election results on a giant screen.
DETROW: Yeah.
GARSD: And that is where I met a guy named Ahmed Khan. And Khan is in the U.S. legally. He has a green card. He cannot vote. But he says, if he could vote, he would love to vote for Donald Trump.
AHMED KHAN: Because I like the way he was thinking about the border - he wants to take out them. For me, I'm also immigrant, but I came in a legal way.
GARSD: OK, so I think the word them is super important here. I heard it over and over again - those new people; they came in undocumented; I came here the right way; get them out - this new arrival versus older established immigrants tension.
DETROW: Jasmine, can you tell me a little bit more about what you were hearing from undocumented immigrants who are supporting the Trump agenda, though, because, again, it is an agenda that involves mass deportation.
GARSD: Yeah, I kept hearing, like, this feeling among undocumented immigrants of abandonment and outrage. Like, wait, I've been in this country for decades. I got no assistance, no clear pathway to a legal status. And now all these newer migrants have come in during the last few years, and they're getting assistance and a pathway to staying in the country legally, which, I should say, is not entirely true.
Now, I spoke to this guy Freddie Castiblanco. He's Colombian. He owns a bar, Terraza Siete, in the neighborhood. What he told me is many undocumented immigrants believe Trump will close the border and help those who are already on the inside. And the other major reason, he explained, is a deep distrust of the Democratic Party, which the community feels has done very little to help them in the last couple of administrations.
DETROW: Still, though, let's talk about this, Jasmine. The fact is, when it comes to deportations, President-elect Trump really did not give any indication that he would differentiate between people who have been here for decades or people who just arrived, right?
GARSD: No, not really.
DETROW: Yeah.
GARSD: No. You know, some of his allies have promised to deport millions. It's unclear how, but, you know, among the ideas is to deploy local police for that, the National Guard, if necessary. And as you mentioned, he's made no indication that those who have been in the U.S. longer will get a pass.
Case in point, on Thursday, a federal judge, a Trump appointee, struck down a Biden administration policy that said undocumented immigrants who've been married to a U.S. citizen for at least 10 years could get a path to citizenship. That would have streamlined legalization to some half a million undocumented immigrants who've been here for over a decade, and now it's been struck down.
DETROW: That is Jasmine Garsd, NPR's immigration correspondent, who will have a lot to cover in the coming years. Jasmine, thank you for talking to us.
GARSD: Thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
