Immigrants Are Drafting Wills. Here’s What I Reported for The Guardian.
Here are 17 things undocumented immigrants told me they are doing right now to prepare for the worst.
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My latest story ran this morning in The Guardian, where I reported on the growing fear many immigrant families say they are living with right now. One moment from that reporting has stayed with me:
She called it the “end times”.
In a quiet living room in South Florida, a 42-year-old South American woman sat at her kitchen table signing her will. Her hands trembled, the ink smeared when tears fell hard enough that she had to reprint the pages.
In the background, her three young children — two boys and a toddler daughter — began to cry at the sight of their mother weeping over paperwork they could not understand.
The documents spelled out what should happen if she died: guardians for her children, instructions for her belongings, an advance health directive. She has no relatives she can rely on, so she named her neighbors.
When two friends from her church signed as witnesses, she broke down again.
She is not ill. And yet she is afraid to die — from immigration enforcement.
While reporting this story, I started noticing patterns that kept coming up again and again.
Some were national. Some were very local. All of them pointed to the same thing: people are preparing.
Top findings from my reporting
Nationally, many immigrants say they are so afraid of being swept up in immigration raids, killed during enforcement encounters, or dying in ICE custody that they are drafting wills, as government crackdowns intensify and deaths in detention reach record levels.
Much of this preparation is happening quietly inside homes.
Locally, in one of the country’s largest immigrant hubs, Miami-Dade County, changes in law enforcement are also shaping how people think about risk.
In less than 30 days, the number of sheriff’s deputies authorized to carry out immigration enforcement more than tripled, according to figures provided by the department.
In November, the sheriff’s office also adopted a new 12-page policy that formally added immigration enforcement procedures to its standard operating rules, making those checks part of everyday policing.
That means hundreds of local officers can now check immigration status and hold someone for federal authorities, even if the encounter started as a routine stop.
The sheriff’s office also added new procedures requiring immigration screening before someone is taken to jail, making those checks part of the normal booking process.
These kinds of changes are being felt far beyond policy memos. They are changing how people live their daily lives.
What that looks like in real life:
People told me they are making adjustments they never thought they would have to make.
Small things. Routine things. Things that add up.
Here are 17 things undocumented immigrants told me they are doing right now to prepare:
Drafting wills even though they are not sick
Naming guardians for their children in case they are detained or deported
Signing advance health directives and other legal documents
Keeping copies of important papers in multiple places
Preparing emergency packets with birth certificates, vaccination records, and school information
Moving money into accounts someone else can access
Placing property or savings into trusts so family members can manage them if they disappear
Selling furniture or personal belongings to make things easier if they are deported
Giving passwords and financial information to a trusted “point person”
Uploading medical records and legal documents to secure online storage
Creating backup email accounts or secure ways to communicate
Avoiding public transportation to reduce the chance of being stopped
Taking different routes home or leaving earlier to avoid traffic stops
Staying home more often and limiting unnecessary trips
Memorizing phone numbers in case they lose access to their phone when detained
Wearing comfortable clothes in case they end up in detention without warning
Talking to their children about what to do if a parent doesn’t come hom
Don’t forget to read today’s story in The Guardian.
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