Immigrant rights leaders in an online press conference Thursday took aim at a Trump administration rule set to kick in next month that would create a federal registry for undocumented immigrants.
The idea is for people who don’t have legal immigration status to register with the government and carry proof of their registration, or face criminal penalties and deportation.
“This would meet going to effect on April 11 of 2025, those who refuse will will fail or fail to register, will face five, $5,000 fine and imprisonment of up to six months,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, known as CHIRLA. “Failure to comply will be a civil or criminal enforcement priority.”
Undocumented immigrants who have filled out certain government forms already, for example an application to become a legal permanent resident, would not be required to register.
Opponents fear that forced registration may lead countless people to be racially profiled, detained, or deported. Salas and other speakers Thursday contended that similar policies used in the past have led to terrible consequences.
“Our message today is to our elected officials and American citizens of goodwill,” Salas said. “We don’t want to repeat the horrors of the Japanese internment, the shameful legacy of mass deportations and repertoire the repatriations of the 1930s where Mexican immigrants and their families were rounded up and detained and then deported with those families.”
Panelists added that forcing undocumented immigrants to register with a government that seeks to deport them pushes them into a catch-22 dilemma, with no safe choice, said Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition.
“If you don’t register, you’re still in line for deportation,” Awawdeh said. “So it’s a brutal way of forcing people to make really hard decisions in this moment.”
He added: “This order creates a roadmap for future enforcement actions, giving the way for mass deportation, racial racial profiling and increase.”
Awawdeh talked about possible ramifications the registration process may have on communities across the country.
“Some people may be fearful that they will be driven to self deport, leaving behind the communities, businesses and families they’ve worked hard to build,” Awawdeh said.
Renata Bozzetto, deputy director for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, pushed back against the Trump administration’s rhetoric that paints immigrants as criminals.
“Immigrants are not strangers to this country,” Bozzetto said. “We are co workers. We are classmates, we are friends and we are family members. My fellow immigrants are people who are taking care of children, who are taking care of the elder, who are growing food, who are cooking in our restaurants, who are building homes, who are serving in hospitals and who are in the front lines every single day. Immigrants are paying billions in taxes. We are starting business, we are creating jobs, and we drive innovation.”
Bozzetto called for the public to support their immigrant neighbors.
" I’m calling on all of us, whether you are an immigrant, whether you are a child of immigrants, or if you are someone who simply believes in the basic human dignity to stand up and say no to these attacks on our neighbors and on our communities," Bozzetto said. “Because when we fight for immigrants, we are really fighting for the heart and soul of America, for the belief that everyone deserves the right to live without fear, to love without fear, to work and to dream without fear.”
All of the advocacy leaders encouraged people to voice their concerns to their elected officials.