KC groups, lawyers watching Trump immigration action, promises
Jan 20, 2025
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The incoming Trump Administration wasted no time sticking to core campaign issues on Inauguration Day, signing a handful of executive orders related to the southern border.
"I made it my number one issue," said President Donald Trump. "They all said inflation was the number one issue. I said, 'I disagree. I think people coming into our country from prisons and from mental institutions is a bigger issue for the people that I know."
Hours after the Trump's inaugural address, the President signed the orders in a D.C. arena full of supporters.
"Quite frankly, families are scared," said Revolucion Educativa (RevED) Chief Community Advocacy and Impact Officer Christy Moreno. "We're getting questions of, 'Should I even send my kid to school, is it going to be safe?"
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RevED is an education advocacy organization that works with immigrant families in the metro. Moreno said the second Trump Administration brings uncertainty and memories of harsh policies of the past.
"Many of us know people that had to leave, children that had to stay," Moreno said.
The Trump Administration justifies its aggressive stance on border enforcement, deportation, and prosecutions with stories like Laken Riley's. She was a Georgia college student who was killed almost a year ago by a Venezuelan migrant who had been arrested for shoplifting ahead of the attack and paroled in the U.S.
The bill named after her would make it easier for enforcement agents to detain non-U.S. citizens who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting. It passed the U.S. Senate Monday evening and is expected to get through the U.S. House later this week.
"All illegal entry will immediately be halted and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came," Trump said.
Moreno said her concern is that law-abiding people will get wrapped up in it too and Immigration Attorney Yanky Perelmutter agrees.
"I don't like to be an alarmist, but that is a very real possibility," Perelmutter said.
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Perelmutter said he's represented people who got arrested while walking their kids to school or when their legal status lapsed for a short time.
"Individuals that have violated laws should not be allowed to remain in the U.S," said Perelmutter. "I think that, across the board, everyone agrees about that. It's the gray-area people [who get caught up in large raids.]"
Those are people who Perelmutter says have built families and businesses while following U.S. law.
Non-partisan estimates claim there are more than 100,000 people in Missouri and Kansas without legal status, making any impact after wide-spread removal attempts significant.
"The reality is that a majority of families, immigrant families, have different statuses in the home," Moreno said.
You can find information from the Pew Research Center about unauthorized immigration here.