Fear Has California Immigrants Planning For Day They're Separated From Children
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — An attorney who holds the distinction of being the only undocumented immigrant sworn into a state bar is weighing in on President Trump's new immigration policy.
Attorney Sergio Garcia is offering legal help to families who are afraid they'll be forced apart by new federal immigration enforcement.
"You know the mom was crying, and thinking of the possibility of being separated and the little 5-year-old wondering what they're even doing here?" Garcia said. "It's heartbreaking."
Garcia says he's neem busy preparing power of attorney forms for parents, who want to make sure their kids will have a home and caring adults here in the U.S. if their parents are deported.
Now a legal resident, Garcia holds the remarkable title as the first undocumented immigrant to practice law in the nation. He was sworn in on the Capitol steps following a vote by the state legislature making it possible.
It's an achievement Garcia's not sure could happen today.
"I don't know if it would have been possible at all, but I certainly know I would have been subject to being picked up even at school or anywhere because I would have been undocumented at the time,' Garcia said.
The strict new illegal immigration guidelines released by President Trump's administration read in part: "effective immediately. Department personnel shall faithfully execute the immigration laws of the United States against all removable aliens."
The guidelines do leave in place an Obama-era program that granted work permits to those brought to the country illegally as children, known as "dreamers."
"I think everybody was kind of thinking they were coming but now actually seeing them it's made a lot of people panic," Garcia said.