Mexicans who have made homes in Dallas feel migrant unease

In the eighth part of her series “Coast to Coast: Travels in Trump’s America”, Washington Correspondent Suzanne Lynch travels to Dallas.

As the early morning sun rises across northern Texas, a polite queue forms outside a building in Plano, a suburb of Dallas.

Located just off the motorway in an industrial centre about 30km north of downtown Dallas, Plano Day Labour Centre offers day work to labourers and other contractors, matching would-be employers with prospective employees for day or week-long contracts. It’s just before 7am and already dozens of men are waiting outside the building.

Would-be workers are given a bar-coded card once they register, which is then scanned by authorities at the centre. They are then assigned a number on the list by lottery. Workers fill in a form outlining various competencies, indicating whether they can speak English, have a driving licence or have technical expertise or a certain skill set. Immigration status is not an issue.

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Then the waiting game begins as they stay around, hoping for their name to be called. Chris (55) tells me he comes here most days. Today he is number 68 on the list of 75 names pinned up on the board outside the centre, so he is unlikely to get work, he says. He has a degree in political science from Nebraska, but says life has been tough over the past few years.

Though Chris is white, the vast majority of men here are Hispanic. Spanish names dominate the 75 names.

While most of those present, as is the case with many immigrants, are unwilling to talk to me, two men in their mid-50s are happy to chat.

‘We are safe’

Through broken English they tell me that they have been living in Texas for 14 years. I ask them what they think of President Donald Trump. They laugh, and throw their hands up in the air, but José, the man with better English, says that nothing much has changed for him. "He talks a lot, he talks about Mexicans, but nothing has changed. We are not scared. We are safe here in Texas. We have built a life here."

José’s confidence is not unfounded. He is one of millions of Mexican immigrants who have made Texas their home.

The US's second-largest state has historically attracted thousands of Mexican and Latin immigrants due to its proximity to Mexico and strong economy. One in four of Dallas's 1.3 million residents are foreign-born, with 67 per cent of those born in Mexico.

The diversity is a defining feature of the city, and immediately noticeable on crossing into Texas from nearby Arkansas. It's not just a higher number of Hispanics – the presence of other races and cultures is immediately evident. I meet a taxi driver from Kenya who moved to America on a student scholarship, and a woman from Marrakesh who came here on a student exchange programme.

But the Trump administration’s threat to clampdown on immigration has threatened to divide states like Texas, opening up fissures between those who welcome immigration and appreciate the contribution it makes to the state’s economy, and those who are uncomfortable with what they see as uncontrolled illegal immigration into their state.

With the second-highest immigrant population in Texas after Houston, Dallas is one of several cities that have spoken out against Trump's executive actions on immigration. The city's Democratic mayor, Mike Rawlings, has vowed to protect the hundreds of thousands of foreign-born residents that have made Dallas their home.

‘Sanctuary cities’

In June, Dallas joined several cities across the state in filing a lawsuit against a recently announced Bill by Texas governor Greg Abbott outlawing "sanctuary cities" – cities that protect their undocumented immigrants by limiting co-operation between their law enforcement agents and federal immigration officers.

The SB4 Bill, which was announced by the Texas governor in May and has the support of the White House, would give law enforcement officials the authority to ask people about their immigration status. But many cities believe the new Bill – known in Texas as the "show me your papers" law – is unconstitutional and infringes on the city's ability to protect its people.

Liz Cedillo-Pereira is the director of the Office of Welcoming Communities and Immigrant Affairs in Dallas, a new unit established by the mayor’s office earlier this year to support Dallas’s immigrant community. She says cities such as Dallas are challenging the SB4 Bill on a number of grounds, including its constitutionality. Cities are also unhappy about being asked to devote resources to a new law that is not being funded. She says the proposed law would put the city’s police officers in a difficult position.

“Our local law enforcement has worked so hard over the years to create a rapport with our community, particularly through community policing efforts, so the idea of subjecting people to inquiries as to their immigration status is something that our police officers did not sign up for,” she says. “It’s a federal immigration issue.”

Out on the streets of Dallas, people are broadly supportive of the mayor's efforts to challenge the state clampdown on immigration. Walking around Plano, I come across pockets of the suburb that are entirely Spanish speaking. I stop for a coffee and pastry at a bakery called La Reina Imperial that is run by a family from Guatemala; a few blocks down the road a house renovation project is being run entirely by Mexican builders.

Legal vs illegal

According to some estimates, Mexicans fill about half the construction jobs in the state. Cities like Dallas are concerned about labour shortages – one theory behind the rise in house prices here is the growing cost of labour as fewer immigrants come into the state.

I speak to the owner of a tortilla factory and retail store who says he hires only Mexicans, but makes sure they are legal residents. “They do the work that most Dallas residents won’t do,” he says. A customer, there with her two children, agrees: “I think immigrants make a huge contribution to this community. The economy would collapse without them.”

Some immigrants are aware that the goodwill towards them is dependent on the strong economy continuing. “There is a lot of work at the moment,” says one Mexican man I speak to outside a local supermarket. “That might change if things go badly.”

Despite the stance taken by Dallas and other cities in protecting their immigrants, the impact of the Trump proposals on immigration are felt sharply in the immigrant community.

Fernando Garcia, executive director for the Texas-based Border Network for Human Rights, an immigrant advocacy group, says the Trump presidency has had an impact on the immigrant community in two ways.

“First, there is what I called the subjective response. His anti-immigrant rhetoric and comments about Mexicans even before he was elected created an environment of fear and insecurity within our communities,” he says. “From the very first day people then began taking precautions, whether it was when taking people to school, or going shopping. There is a big feeling of insecurity and uncertainty.”

Migrant clampdown

But he says there have already been several instances that show the administration is serious about clamping down on illegal immigration. He cites the case of one "dreamer" – the widely-used acronym for undocumented minors who were born in the United States but were given permission to stay under the Obama administration – who was arrested by DPS officers in Texas state police and turned over to border control.

He also cites a recent domestic violence case in El Paso. "That person went to the police to seek protection from a domestic violence situation. When she went into the courthouse, the immigration agents were inside the court and arrested her. That sent a very strong message to our communities. The court is supposed to be where you get protection, justice."

Organisations such as the Border Network for Human Rights have long been campaigning for US immigration laws to be overhauled so that the 12-13 million illegal immigrants estimated to be in the country can have their situations regularised.

“These people work hard, and many of them have been here for years,” says Garcia. “Many of them have gone to school here and some have joined the army. They need to be integrated into society. We can’t move to other pieces of immigration reform if we don’t devise a strategy for the millions of people who are already in the country. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed.”

Tomorrow: Suzanne Lynch reports from Nebraska on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline