8 Feb 27th-March 5th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | On the Front Lines from p 6 emotional help takes an unseen toll. In addition to providing legal guidance, immigration advocates find themselves offering emotional support to their clients. Empathizing isn’t hard — what’s happening to clients also feels like it’s happening to them. “It’s been disheartening seeing every- thing happening, but we keep going because we have the ability to do so when others can’t,” said Sarai Mercado, a paralegal at Silva & Fontes Attorneys at Law. “What we do is not just a job, especially because we are immigrants. This is happening to us, to our parents, our siblings, our families, our friends and our community. We remind ourselves of the support our loved ones would need in situations like these and give that to our clients.” Mercado said their firm’s daily call volume has increased to the point that it’s difficult to track. Keeping up has required not only two legal assistants but also Mercado and the firm’s two attorneys. When a client is detained, everyone must shift gears quickly, placing other work on the back burner. On top of that, the terrain keeps shifting beneath their feet. Every executive order — or subsequent legal challenge — might alter the options for an undocumented client. Staying on top of it all is like drinking from a fire hose. “Every day there’s a new announcement, a new change, a new executive order,” Mercado said. “What we told our clients a few months, a few weeks or even a few days ago may no longer be valid when we walk into the office the next day.” It’s additionally stressful when you’re a member — or are serving members — of more than one community targeted by Trump’s administration. Trans Queer Pueblo runs a fully autonomous health care clinic for undocumented LGBTQ+ Arizonans, who are facing the brunt of Trump’s immigration crackdown and his targeting of transgender people. “People are worried about how (Trump’s) clear transphobia will impact the trans community, especially since a lot of our asylum cases regard our gender,” said Sonix Flores, the media coordinator for the group. “But we’re staying focused.” Notching a victory certainly helps morale. Trans Queer Pueblo partners with Phoenix Legal Action Network and other pro bono legal organizations to provide representation. So far, Flores said, the orga- nization has taken on 19 immigration cases — all of which they’ve won. Anti-immigrant rhetoric The demonizing rhetoric about immigrants takes an undeniable toll. The Trump admin- istration has perpetuated the myth that being undocumented constitutes a crime, returning to the “illegal alien” terminology that many hoped had gone out of style. “Right now, our federal government is defining all immigrants as criminals,” said Margarita Silva, an attorney at Silva & Fontes. “But not every undocumented immigrant is a criminal, or even an accused criminal. I wish there would be pushback on that.” Silva acknowledges that the threat of deportation has always loomed over people without valid visas, no matter who was in the Oval Office. But she hates that the country is now treating deportation as a first resort rather than a last. “If someone has their fees paid and is just waiting for a final stamp, shouldn’t we leave that person alone?” she asked. The Trump administration’s answer is an emphatic no. “This administration has made it clear that they refuse to make any distinction and they’re looking at numbers,” Silva said. “There is no priority anymore — it’s just whoever they can grab.” Patiño agrees, noting that there’s more clemency available for insurrectionists than law-abiding undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for decades. “The Jan. 6 rioters were immediately pardoned, yet immigrants who have been in this country for decades are struggling,” Patiño said. “It feels like you have this orig- inal sin and you’ll never be forgiven. At what point in time is it forgivable?” There’s a certain hopelessness inherent in that question, given the damage Trump is determined to do to immigrant communi- ties. The fight against those efforts will be long and difficult. Families will be separated and longtime residents with no criminal records will be deported. For those helping immigrants, those long odds make it tough to get up in the morning. They have to muster the will to answer that next call, to file that next court motion, to drop everything and figure out where ICE is holding someone’s spouse or parent. Having been through the wringer with Arpaio, Aguirre reminds himself that he’s been preparing for this for a very long time — longer than many clients, many of whom have told him that they didn’t believe depor- tations would happen so swiftly. That keeps Aguirre and others going. No matter how hard, exhausting and frustrating the first weeks of the Trump administration have already been — no matter how much worse things will get — they are not giving up. “We are here for (our clients) now, no matter how difficult the government makes it,” Mercado said. “We immigrants are fighters.” Victoria Lafayette, a trans woman who attended Trans Queer Pueblo’s name change clinic, appears virtually at a court date. (Courtesy of Trans Queer Pueblo)
