Some of the immigrants in the sanctuary city of New York are already “terrified” of being deported by Donald Trump, but others are convinced they will be free from persecution because they are not criminals.
In the Roosevelt Hotel shelter, where many have lived for more than a year, some say they feel “traumatized” by Trump’s repeated threats.
A mother was seen sobbing in the lobby after the Republican’s victory was announced early Wednesday.
Another said he is already planning to flee the United States and go to Costa Rica, telling the Daily Mail: “I’m a scared man.”
Many asylum-seeking families have been staying at the Roosevelt Hotel shelter in Manhattan for more than a year.
Asylum seeker Fernando Peralta, 34, sells drinks from a cooler outside the Roosevelt Hotel.
“I don’t want to get caught and held in some immigration jail for who knows how long.”
Others, however, are confident that they will be allowed to stay because they have not committed crimes.
They support Trump’s plan to get rid of violent criminals and are not worried about being swept up in his plans to carry out sweeping deportations.
‘(Trump) says he’s going to deport illegal immigrants, which is not a bad thing. We came here to work and we are not all the same… We are not undocumented,’ said Venezuelan Fernando Peralta while selling drinks from a cooler outside the shelter.
He is registered as an asylum seeker, giving him hope that he will be allowed to remain in the United States.
“We will be fine because the government should go after the bad guys,” he added.
Peralta claimed that he himself has been a victim of criminal immigrants who have been operating near the shelter and the Times Square area.
‘I’m scared man. “I’m already planning to travel to Costa Rica,” Luis, a Venezuelan asylum seeker, told DailyMail.com on Thursday following Trump’s victory.
‘Why would you come here and steal? “One of them tried to rob me the other day and I punched him in the face,” Peralta said exasperated.
‘Look how we are working here and they are out there stealing.’
Another, who identified herself as Nellie, said she did not consider Trump when making her immigration plans.
He arrived in the country last week and agreed with Peralta that not all immigrants are “equal.”
‘This is not about hate or racism. “It’s just that if someone comes here to do harm and commit crimes, then it is the president’s duty to clean things up,” he said, in a show of support for Trump’s plans.
Trump’s election appears to have already had an effect on a caravan of migrants currently heading to the United States.
A caravan is seen traveling through Mexico towards the US on November 7
Reuters reported that the caravan of thousands of migrants traveling through Mexico had shrunk to about half its original size, as many migrants struggle with their prospects following former Trump’s victory last week.
Trump secured the presidential election after a campaign that promised large-scale deportations of undocumented immigrants and a return to expedited deportations to Mexico, as well as halting entries across the U.S. border with Mexico.
More than eight million immigrants crossed the
An official with Mexico’s National Immigration Institute said the caravan had dwindled from 3,000 to fewer than 1,600 people when it left the southern city of Tapachula on Tuesday.
Just over 100 people asked authorities for help to return to the Mexican city, the official said.
It was unclear where the rest of the migrants who left the caravan were headed.
After learning that Trump had won, many of the caravan members felt less hopeful about their chance at a new life in the United States.
“I was hoping (Kamala Harris) would win, but that didn’t happen,” said Valerie Andrade, a Venezuelan migrant traveling from Chiapas to Oaxaca in southern Mexico.
Andrade, along with her husband, and like more than seven million other Venezuelans, left their crisis-ravaged country in search of better prospects.
Immigrants told DailyMail.com that many of the children living at the shelter have been traumatized by Trump’s promises of mass deportations.
Migrants walk in a caravan along a highway on their way to the border with the United States, in Saltillito, Mexico, on November 7.
Trump’s proposed immigration policies also include ending birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants.
During his previous administration, between 2017 and 2021, Trump implemented policies that left hundreds of thousands of migrants stranded in camps along the border with Mexico, reshaping US immigration policy.
A Chiapas state security spokesman said that as the migrant caravan continues north, some families are choosing to return to Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala.
But for many the journey north persists.
Venezuelan migrant Jeilimar, who requested that her last name be withheld for her safety, is hopeful that her designation to seek asylum through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection application, CBP One, will be made before Trump takes office in January.
“With God’s favor I will get that appointment,” he said, while traveling with his six-year-old daughter, with the intention of reaching the United States.