Gisela Salomon - Associated Press

Immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally have changed their travel patterns and are making plans for advocates to care for their children if they are deported.

The landing Monday morning comes as the Caribbean nation is struggling with a surge of gang violence that has killed several thousand people in recent years and left hundreds of thousands homeless in the country’s capital.

One of the strictest in the nation, the law criminalized transporting immigrants lacking permanent legal status into the state, invalidated any U.S. government identification they might have and blocked local governments from providing them with ID cards.