WACO, Texas (KXXV) — Advocates continue to push for immigration reform and protections for undocumented people here in Texas and across the country.
This as President Trump has been in office for his second term now for two months — delivering on one of his central campaign promises of deporting illegal immigrants, primarily criminals.
"Well, we've been extremely busy," Hector Quiroga, an immigration attorney who practices in Nevada, Washington, and Mexico and has clients in Texas, said. "Many individuals are scared."
"The people who are in process — to try to see if they can speed up the process" he said. "We have prior clients — who are very scared they may lose their status because of an executive order."
He said they typically received around 50 calls a day, but after Trump's first executive orders were signed during his first days in office, they received 150 calls an hour.
"That's come down a little bit, but it's been a very difficult task to try to even answer to everybody who truthfully is petrified for what could happen," Hector said.
Over 140 CEOs and business leaders plan to meet with members of Congress in Washington, D.C., over the next couple of days.
The goal of the American Business Immigration Coalition's campaign called "Secure our Workforce" is to urge the Trump administration and Congress to secure the border and deport criminals, but mainly to secure our workforce through undocumented workers that have been in the states for years.
Juan Carlos Cerda is the Texas State Director for the American Business Immigration Coalition.
He said these longtime workers are vital to supporting a healthy economy as we advance.
He said on Monday, shortly after arriving in Washington D.C., “border security will be in the budget reconciliation bill. We’re asking our members of Congress to add work permits for longtime residents." — “70% of them have been here for an average of ten years, and they’re part of the communities.”
We'll continue to check back in with Juan later in the week to see how their efforts are going.
