ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) --- Aaron Robles came to this country from Mexico when he was a year old. Now 33, he owns four businesses, pays plenty of taxes and has DACA status. He feels relatively secure in Fort Wayne where he is married to a woman who emigrated from Colombia. His parents received permanent status after 17 years of residency. He’s been taking the pulse of the Latino community in Fort Wayne, along with Steve Corona, executive director of Latinos Count, because of incoming president, Donald Trump’s threat to deport millions of immigrants, documented or otherwise. “Everyone is kind of sitting here with this uncertainty of what’s going to happen. No one feels protected and no one feels safe and that’s something you see (in) every Latino in the community,” Robles said. Steve Corona (left), executive director, Latinos Count and Aaron Robles, local entrepreneur and activist Corona, a longtime Fort Wayne Community Schools board member and former WANE 15 broadcaster, said these immigrants are law-abiding, and “who by nature have kept their heads down. They don’t do a lot of things in public. They don’t want to get in trouble. And they’re great assets to the community. It’s the fear of the unknown and the scope of what the president (Trump) threatens to do.” Both Corona and Robles believe that deportations would most likely start with immigrants who have committed a violent crime or are wrapped up with ICE, the federal agency responsible for deportation. But Robles said the immigrants are the ones “who are willing to do the work that so many aren’t.” The rhetoric would have people believe that immigrants “mooch” off the system “when really we’re built into the structure of it which is why Congress or whatever says we have to deport them and they never do. Because, when you look at it on paper, you realize how important and essential we are to the economy.” Economic sectors like agriculture, food processing, construction, restaurant work and manufacturing depend on immigrants willing to take on low-level work. Deporting immigrants will produce “difficult drops in labor,” Corona predicted. “It’s not going to be pleasant.” Historically, Fort Wayne has been a magnet for Mexicans, but lately, Robles has seen immigrants from Venezuela and Colombia. According to the latest U.S. Census available online, Hispanic immigrants make up about 9.2% of Allen County’s population of about 395,000. That’s about 36,000 people, about 10,000 more than a decade ago. Nationally, estimates put undocumented residents at about 11 million people. "Immigrants come here because our city has a reputation of being a welcoming community," Corona said. Immigrants are sponsored through Catholic Charities or arrive by word of mouth. What many Americans don’t realize is the economic bonus that comes with immigrants who get U.S. tax ID numbers and pay taxes, even though their status will never allow them to access government benefits, such as Social Security or disability, they said. Same with Robles who has DACA status that comes with a Social Security number, but not the benefits associated with it. DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, instituted in 2012, that offers some protection to residents who arrived in the U.S. as children. Both Corona and Robles say self-deportation is real. Robles referred to a story he saw on TikTok concerning a DACA woman who didn’t self-deport to Mexico, but rather to Germany where she was welcomed. Robles called it a compelling experience. “Even for me, even though I’ve been in this country my whole life, I just dream about what it would be like to not have that uncertainty anymore, not feel a fear or not feel I’m actively being targeted all the time. I’ve been here my whole life and that’s something I’ve never felt,” he said. Living in America with that fear is called “a golden cage,” Corona said. Immigrants hear positive stories about America in their homeland but arrive to difficulties finding a job, a place to live “and a very weak, poor social life. They say ‘the heck with it, I’m going back home’ and they do,” Corona said. Robles said he’s seen every administration, right or left, make promises for or against immigrants. “I’ve had to learn to adapt and not feel fear every single day of my life because that’s no way to live. You have to continue to live your life. You have to continue to be happy and care about those around you.”