Venezuelan immigrant living in Fort Worth worries about mass deportations following Trump reelection
FORT WORTH – Immigration played a crucial role in Donald Trump's campaign for president, including his pledge for mass deportation. Now that he's been reelected, migrants across the country are waiting to see what his second term will mean for them.
Even though Venezuelan immigrant Maria Fernanda Martinez has been living in the U.S. legally since last year, she's worried about her future here. She came here under a Biden administration program that offered humanitarian parole to people from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua.
But her permission to be in this country legally with her husband, who's an American resident, expires in February. She's worried Trump's mass deportation plan will get rid of any chance she might have to continue to live here legally.
"Mi mayor temor en este momento es volver a las condiciones en las que se encuentra mi país."
"My biggest fear at the moment is to return to the conditions that my country is in," Martinez told CBS News Texas in Spanish.
Venezuela has been described as a country crumbling under a brutal authoritarian regime.
Martinez said it's been an uphill battle to be reunited with her husband, who she married in Venezuela in 2018. She's worried if she isn't granted Temporary Protected Status, which would allow her to stay in the U.S., she will be here illegally by default and subjected to deportation.
She's holding out hope and in the meantime is working on learning more English. When asked where she wants to be in a year, she said she'd like to continue living in her home, hopefully growing her family.
"I'm projecting being here with my husband, my dad and a new baby. That's my wish."