As President Donald Trump approaches his first 100 days in office, federal immigration policies have sparked fear, panic and uncertainty in New York’s immigrant communities, leaving litigation as the main tool to push back, according to immigration rights advocates.
The Trump Administration has issued over 25 presidential orders (including executive orders, presidential memoranda and presidential proclamations), and taken hundreds of policy actions on immigration, according to the nonprofit New York Immigration Coalition.
There are four areas that have had the greatest impact: expanded surveillance, enforcement and detention that bypasses due process; attacks on legal immigrants; attacks on organizations that help asylum seekers with essential services; and threats to sanctuary cities.
“We are witnessing and living through a constitutional crisis [at] this moment,” Murad Awawdeh, president of NYIC, said during an online panel discussion on Thursday.
Policies have ranged from increased immigration enforcement through the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, and in certain areas, local law enforcement. Recently, federal agencies like the Internal Revenue Service have been used to expand ICE’s reach, while New York City Mayor Eric Adams is trying to allow ICE to open an office on Rikers Island, a city jail complex.
As enforcement actions increase, and when immigrants are picked up by federal agents and sent to distant deportation centers, advocates say fear is growing within immigrant communities, evident when people skip school or work, and retreat into isolation and remain silent.
Darnell Benoit, the founder of the Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project, a nonprofit group that provides educational support to young Haitian immigrants, said many individuals have asked her whether it was safe to continue life as normal since Trump’s inauguration.
Benoit said she finds the “level of silence,” especially from Haitian immigrants aged 17-21, frightening. When her nonprofit hosted an immigration policy forum over spring break, no one showed up.
“We later found out that they were scared,” said Benoit. “And many of the students are in denial. It’s a lot for a community to tackle and it’s even more for young people who are trying to focus on their lives,” and build something in the U.S., she said.
The Trump administration's expanded surveillance, enforcement and detention is “another tool” to get individuals to leave, Awawdeh said. As federal officials bypass due process, it continues to spread deeper fear, he added.
There’s also much uncertainty amid international students, as more than 1,800 individuals have had their F-1 or J-1 student visas get revoked nationally, according to a tally kept by Insider Higher Ed. In the city, there have been 17 students at the City University of New York that have gotten their visas revoked, seven at Columbia University, four at Fordham University and one at the Julliard School. (New York University, which has thousands of international students, has not disclosed how many students have gotten their visas revoked.)
Cyrus Mehta, an immigration attorney at Cyrus D. Mehta & Partners, PLLC, said many students are waking up to read an email from DHS notifying them about their terminated visa. At times, these letters have been triggered by a small infraction, like a traffic violation, in order for the government to pursue them, he said.
“This has completely put students in a panic and schools are also at their wits end,” Mehta said.
Other students understand that their foreign policy views, which include attending protests and liking social media posts, have now worked against them, he added.
Meanwhile, Trump’s immigration policies have started to sour among Americans, according to a ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll. Americans are slightly more disapproving (53%) than approving (46%) of Trump’s handling of immigration. Two months ago, 50% approved of his handling of immigration, while 46% approve of it now, the poll found.
Deporting international students who criticized U.S. policy in the Middle East is less popular. Thirty-nine percent of Americans support deporting international students who have criticized U.S. policy in the Middle East, while a majority (59%) oppose this policy.
Mehta said he finds some comfort that many lawsuits have been filed by students to get their visa terminations reversed. So far, there have been 65 lawsuits filed, and in 35 suits, plaintiffs have been successful in securing a temporary restraining order (TRO) from judges that allow them to stay in the country, Insider Higher Ed reported.
New York has a large role to play to push back against the Trump administration, Awawdeh said. First, the state must provide about $165 million to fund the Access to the Representation Act, which pays for legal services for immigrants. In addition, the city and state must preserve its sanctuary policies, which provides and defends public safety.
“There is no reason why our local and state resources should be colluding with family separation, the gutting of our communities and harming our local and state economy,” he said.
In 2021, immigrant New Yorkers paid $61 billion dollars in taxes and constituted $138 billion dollars in spending power, according to a 2024 report from the city Comptroller's office. Undocumented immigrants paid over $3 billion in taxes in New York in 2022, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
