No raids have been reported in the Baltimore area amid the Trump administration’s ongoing nationwide crackdown on undocumented immigrants. And local immigrants are aware the administration is focusing its efforts mainly on those who have committed serious crimes in addition to entering the country illegally — a strategy Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, and other immigration officials have described “the worst go first.”
But anxieties were high in Maryland’s immigrant community over the weekend as Trump’s deportation drama made more headlines around the country.
Immigrants The Sun spoke with, both documented and undocumented, were showing each other their smartphones to share a report that, when agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested an undocumented driver with a criminal record in Annandale, Virginia, on Feb. 5, they also detained six of his passengers even though they had no such stains on their records.
Some were also forwarding a video that showed five masked ICE agents restraining an undocumented man in York, Pennsylvania, on Valentine’s Day as he pleaded for permission to call his pregnant wife.
Rumors had been circulating that ICE agents were in town, the York Dispatch reported Saturday. But the arrest, which went viral on the internet, “marked the first documented evidence of their actions.”
As such news bits and rumors swept through largely Hispanic Highlandtown in southeast Baltimore, those with the most at stake were very much on edge.
“I’m concerned for all the people because they are scared, you know?” said Bosebly, a business owner and former contractor who is undocumented but has been living and working in the area for more than 20 years. He spoke to The Baltimore Sun on condition he be identified only by his middle name, out of fear that he could be arrested.
“We’ve heard that they’re only arresting (undocumented) people who have criminal records,” he said. “But if you’re undocumented and you happen to be around such a person when they get arrested, they’ll take you in, too. And it’s hard to know the legal status of every single person you’re dealing with.”
Bosebly left for the U.S. from his war-torn home country of Guatemala at age of 14, he said, only to have a judge reject his request for political asylum.
“I’m not as worried for myself because I have a long track record of following the law, but most people are nervous,” he said as he patronized a storefront business on Eastern Avenue whose signs were in Spanish and English. “They’re nervous for their friends and relatives. They’re aware they have to be careful about who they’re associating with. It’s a frightening time.”
A few blocks away, the Rev. Ako Walker raised similar points during an afternoon Mass at Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Catholic church that has emerged as a hub of activity for the city’s fast-growing Hispanic community.
A sign posted outside the entrance to the sanctuary advised worshippers, in Spanish, of their rights should ICE or other law enforcement agents approach them — a theme advocates have been emphasizing during community meetings in southeastern Baltimore over the past couple of weeks.
But Walker sought something of a middle ground during his homily in a service for English speakers when he encouraged the 20 or so people in the pews to pray for everyone on both sides of the continuing deportation effort.
“This parish is composed of comprised of many immigrants,” he said, his voice echoing through loudspeakers in the immense sanctuary. “The people are scared; they are worried. You hear all kinds of things — ‘they should have come in the right way,’ ‘they have no right to be here,’ and so on.
“I don’t care who you voted for. I simply ask that you find it in your heart to remember migrants in the community in your prayers.”
And, he added, “law enforcement agents are only carrying out their responsibility to keep the society safe. I ask that you pray for those who are called to implement the laws. It’s a complex situation, and there is no easy solution to any of this.”
Walker made headlines last year when he became minister to the families of the six men, all Spanish-speaking, who lost their lives in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
He said in an interview that he has been using the same approach toward the many immigrants with whom he regularly counsels that he did with those grieving families — he treats them as the vulnerable human beings all of us are, accompanying them amid their struggles without rendering judgement.
He said it’s important to remember that the notion that all immigrants are undocumented is “not the case” — and given his role as spiritual guide, he doesn’t know who has legal status and who doesn’t, and he doesn’t ask.
But it has been nearly a month since the Trump administration began acting on its promise to deport “millions and millions” of undocumented immigrants, and he said the shock around the changes has not worn off.
“There’s a sense of uncertainty in the community, of course. There is also fear, and quite rightly so,” Walker said. “People are trying their best to live their lives as normally as possible, and there is solidarity in the community, but of course the uncertainty of what is taking place sort of dominates their consciousness.”
He added that he gives nearly everyone, documented or not, two pieces of advice: First, secure an attorney in case any legal complications develop (advocacy groups such as the Esperanza Center, a Catholic Charities nonprofit, or CASA Maryland can help those in need find one, he said, and funding is often available for lower-cost attorneys). And second, keep any relevant documents, including green cards, with them at all times.
“According to the law, if you have a green card, you should always have that green card on you. There are things that we need to comply with. And I do think people are keeping those, or at least copies of whatever documents they do have, on them more often now,” he said.
For his part, Bosebly said he wasn’t sure that immigrants, particularly if they’re undocumented, have ever been able to assume that following the law will produce the desired results.
He said he has broken up fights among members of other ethnic groups, and experience tells him that if any Latinos are present at such a scene, police will take them in without offering a chance to explain — and such a tendency does little to engender trust in authorities even in the best of times.
He also agrees with Walker that it’s important to remember that Spanish-speaking immigrants are not a monolith, that there’s a range of attitudes even on something as galvanizing as Trump’s deportation plans.
Boselby sees three core groups on that score: immigrants who have been in the country for a long time and secured citizenship, those who are undocumented but have lived in the U.S. for years and are law-abiding in their day-to-day lives, and those who are undocumented and do not follow the law.
In his view, many in the first group “forget where they came from,” and have little problem with crackdowns on the undocumented. A 2023 study by the center-right Latino group LIBRE Institute found that 65% of Latinos believed more needed to be done to control illegal immigration.
The second group has a broader range of views, he said. Many, like him, are relatively secure in their positions, and they’re more likely to accept that the government is indeed making an effort to target those who are habitual lawbreakers.
The third, he said, understands as well as anyone that authorities need to enforce the nation’s immigration laws, but of course see themselves as vulnerable and are the most nervous of all.
“Not everyone thinks the same way about these things,” said Boselby, adding that he has a work permit and a parish ID through the Archdiocese of Baltimore — a photo card that the city recognized as proof of Baltimore citizenship — but is still awaiting word on an application for a green card he filed seven years ago.
“It’s not just in the streets and in daily life that this gets complicated. It’s in the courts, too,” he said.
At a hair salon on Eastern Avenue, meanwhile, business was booming Saturday afternoon as residents flush with money they’d received as tax refunds continued to celebrate Valentine’s Day weekend, Reyna Villegas, of Castillo & Villegas Day Spa & Boutique, said during a break between styling appointments.
A dozen customers filled the barbers’ chairs or milled around conversing in Spanish as Villegas, a native of Mexico who has long been a U.S. citizen, reflected on the mood of the hundreds of people, documented and otherwise, she knows through her work, community service and social life.
The business owner flashed a tan she had just acquired during a week-long trip to her native state of Michoacan, where she still has family and owns some properties.
Even the people down there are nervous, she said, as they’re expecting “all the immigrants to be deported down there.”
She tried to set them straight, but when she returned to Baltimore, she realized that the atmosphere wasn’t much better than it was when she’d left a week earlier.
“People are still scared,” she said.
Have a news tip? Contact Jonathan M. Pitts at [email protected].
