On eve of Trump inauguration, some immigrants fearful, unsure what to expect over next 4 years

All eyes will be on Washington, D.C., on Monday, as Donald Trump is sworn into office as the 47th president of the United States. Pittsburgh immigration attorney Ellen Freeman, however, will be watching for a different reason.

“Immigrants feel scared,” she said.

Trump made immigration a central theme of his reelection campaign. During a rally in New York City in October, he trained his eye on illegal immigrants in the United States, saying, “On Day 1, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out.” To that end, he tasked Tom Homan, his former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, with carrying out his vision, and Homan has been vocal about following through.

It all has left immigrants — even those here legally — on edge, nationwide and locally.

“No one really knows what Trump has in store when he comes in on Jan. 20,” Freeman said. “Once in a while you hear people talking about how immigrants built America and they’re appreciated and that’s what America’s about. But the election results show that there is a very strong anti-immigrant sentiment.”

Freeman has experienced firsthand the side-eye looks and turned heads. Her family spent more than two decades waiting to clear all of the hurdles to legally immigrate from Ukraine to the United States. Freeman has been an American citizen for 30 years.

“But when I open my mouth, and I see people’s reaction to my accent, I feel small,” she said. “Sometimes people say, ‘You’ve been here for 30 years, and you still have that accent?’ I feel like I must constantly explain myself. So how must that feel to someone who is here on a temporary visa?”

Pennsylvania is home to just under 996,000 immigrant residents, according to figures from the American Immigration Council. The top country of origin is the Dominican Republic, making up just more than 12%, followed by India at 8.9%, China at 7.2% and Mexico at 5.4%.

The council estimates that about 155,000, or roughly 15%, of Pennsylvania immigrants are undocumented. Nationally, about 11 million people are living in the United States illegally.

Although Trump has been most vocal about those entering the country illegally, he and a portion of his political base have been critical of legal immigration tools such as the H-1B visa. That’s something Freeman uses to help companies bring skilled foreign workers to the United States.

Trump reversed course last month, praising the use of such visas. That has caused some of the uneasiness among the immigrant population about what’s ahead in the next four years.

One thing is certain, Freeman said: The country’s current immigration system is in dire need of fixing, and the Biden administration’s immigration policies have not helped.

“Particularly after the Trump-era covid restrictions expired, in 2022, 2023 and most of 2024, enormous numbers of people came here,” she said. “They came to get away from problems and violence in their home countries, but not to further their education. And then, especially in large metropolitan areas where they’ve been bused, it’s created these large groups of underprivileged people who are now competing with U.S. citizens for the same types of housing, the same types of needs in the education and health care systems.”

Remaining wary

Augusta Goll is tired of the talk.

Charleroi found itself in the national narrative after Trump mentioned its Haitian population while on the campaign trail during the summer. He falsely claimed Haitians were stressing the resources at the local school district and increasing crime in the Monongahela River town in Washington County. The comments spurred an onslaught of national media descending upon Charleroi.

The national spotlight since as cooled, but the attention took a toll, Goll said.

“We are tired of Trump and tired of people asking about him,” said Goll, an immigrant from Liberia in west Africa and owner of Queen’s Market on Fallowfield Avenue in Charleroi.

Local officials and police were quick to push back against Trump’s assertions, including that the influx of immigrants has left the town virtually bankrupt.

“There’s no discernible increase in crime and no discernible impact on our resources,” said borough manager Joe Manning.

Heavensea Dorzell left a dangerous job as a Haiti police officer to come to the U.S. in 2018 amid economic and social turmoil in his home country. After briefly staying with extended family in Miami, Dorzell made his way to Charleroi.

“Being a police officer in Haiti is not safe,” he said. “So in order to stay out of trouble and away from political persecution, I decided to come here.”

“I discovered it’s a very peaceful town,” he said of Charleroi. “It was surprising to hear all the negative things spreading in the news about the Haitian community, and that pushed me to speak up, to try and defend them.”

Dorzell, a musician, wrote a song, “Better Together America,” as a call for unity and love. He debuted the piece at an early January community dinner, organized by nonprofit Common Ground USA and the Pennsylvania School Educators’ Association in response to the derogatory rhetoric about Charleroi’s immigrant population. Borough council members and community leaders joined about 75 residents, including immigrants and refugees.

“Since Trump was reelected, the Haitian community here has expressed some fear,” Dorzell said. “Even though they are here legally — just like I am — there is still some concern.”

It’s the uncertainty that leaves people reluctant to talk, Freeman said. When asked, none of her clients said they were willing to talk for this story, she said.

They were not alone. On Fallowfield Avenue, questions about Trump’s immigration comments were almost universally met with a polite refusal or a brief phrase in French or Haitian Creole and a shake of the head.

Numerous messages with several Pittsburgh-area Hispanic community organizations were not returned.

It left Charleroi resident Cinnamon Brooks, who works at the Global Food and Convenience Store on Fallowfield, figuratively shaking her head.

“We have Liberians, Jamaicans, Asians, and he’s talking about one specific group of people,” Brooks said, referring to Trump’s comments about Haitians. “We’ve had Asian immigrants forever. But as soon as people with some darker skin show up, all hell breaks loose.”

A tenuous position

Khara Timsina, executive director for the Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh, wasn’t as worried about the possibility of deportation.

“Most people here were admitted as refugees and have been here since the spring of 2008,” Timsina said, referring to the expulsion of more than 100,000 members of the Lhotshampa ethnic group from Bhutan in the 1990s. In 2006, the United States began the process of resettling about 60,000 of the refugees.

The issue for the Bhutanese community in the United States is one of destination. If they were to be deported, where would they go?

“For people who have had legal issues, like a DUI or some other crime, they could be at risk for deportation,” Timsina said. “But we do not have a place to go back to.”

When the Bhutan government began expelling residents, its reasoning was that the Lhotshampa were ethnic Nepalis and should live in neighboring Nepal, despite a documented presence in Bhutan since the 1600s.

“Nepal was never our country,” Timsina said. “But Bhutan says we are not Bhutanese citizens. If the U.S. government deported someone to Nepal, Nepal would have to accept. They are still hosting 6,000 or 7,000 refugees.”

‘It makes me mad’

In Charleroi, Goll said the immigrants who have arrived recently have done so via temporary protected status, or throuh the use of green cards, which allow someone to live and work in the United States on a permanent basis.

“They are here to work,” she said. “What Trump said was not true, and then we have people and reporters coming to ask people questions, to take photos and video without their permission. We are done with it.”

Brooks said she has gone back and forth regularly with her fellow citizens on Charleroi-related social media pages, defending the immigrant community.

“It makes me mad,” she said. “They’re just like every other group of people — there are good ones and a few bad ones. The people who are doing bad, who are committing crimes? I don’t have any problem addressing that. But the people here are friendly, and they don’t want trouble.”

Goll said she doesn’t bear any ill will toward Trump.

“Most of the people don’t have much to say about it because we just don’t care,” she said. “I wish Trump good luck.”