"A woman named "E" was at a clothing store in Tampa, Florida with her daughter when she realized it was time to leave. It was her daughter's 15th birthday, and she wanted to buy her an outfit. She says she felt the salespeople giving them looks. "Real ugly looks," she says. "They could call immigration," she recalls telling her daughter. "You're an American citizen, but you're also Hispanic. We need to get out of here.""
"And the family knows multiple people who've been deported, including their own church pastor. For now, the family has decided to leave Florida for a small town in Michigan. A neighbor friend, also an immigrant, just moved there. "She called me recently," E. says, and she told me, 'why don't you come up here? Things are quiet here. You don't hear about raids. And I can find you a job.'"
An undocumented family in Tampa fears escalating immigration enforcement after salespeople's hostile behavior and workplace raids. The mother, an immigrant from Guatemala, contemplates returning home while her teenage daughter prefers staying in Florida; the husband feels rooted after two decades in the United States. Florida's Republican leadership implemented strict immigration crackdowns aligned with national enforcement, and the family reports acquaintances and their church pastor being deported. A neighbor's move to a small Michigan town offers perceived safety and job leads, prompting the family to relocate there for now. Many undocumented people are hiding in place, self-deporting, or moving to areas with fewer raids.
Read at www.npr.org
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