‘We Want to Show President Trump That We’re Not Afraid’

Seth Wenig, AP Images)

In her head scarf and T-shirt declaring her undocumented status, Hina Naveed realizes she could be doubly vulnerable if Donald J. Trump carries through with his campaign threats against Muslims and immigrants.

But as the 26-year-old nursing student stood in front of Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan on a cold, blustery Tuesday morning, she struck a defiant tone.

“We as immigrants and children of immigrants are so much more than our legal status,” Ms. Naveed told a small group or reporters and supporters as others watched a live feed on the Dream Action Coalition Facebook page. “We have families, hopes, dreams, and a right to exist in peace. We will not let fear push us back into the shadows.”

Ms. Naveed, who came to the United States from Pakistan when she was 10, is in her final semester of a baccalaureate nursing program at the College of Staten Island, part of the City University of New York. She is already a registered nurse, having taken the state licensing exam after receiving an associate degree in nursing.

Her plans to practice here depend on a program that President-elect Trump vowed during his campaign to eliminate.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which President Obama approved by executive action in 2012, gives temporary protection from deportation, as well as permission to work, to some young immigrants like Ms. Naveed who were brought here as children. More than 740,000 immigrants who are here without authorization have benefited from the plan, known as DACA.

Ms. Naveed says she is also troubled by talk from prominent Trump advisers of a registry for Muslim immigrants, which would affect her and her family. The president-elect told reporters last November that he “absolutely” favored the idea. Since then, his position has become less clear. His transition team denied that he supported such a concept based on religion, but his incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said Sunday that while no such registry was in the works, Mr. Trump would not rule anything out.

On Tuesday, Ms. Naveed joined a group of protesters marching from Trump Tower with an American flag, chanting “undocumented, unafraid, here to stay.” They were wearing T-shirts with the "#HereToStay” hashtag that undocumented immigrants nationwide have been rallying around.

The group then set off in a caravan to Washington, D.C., where they plan to hold another news conference Thursday morning in front of the White House. Along the way, the group stopped at Rutgers University to meet with a small group of undocumented students and supporters.

Mr. Trump’s vow to repeal executive actions like DACA has sent shock waves through immigrant communities and prompted college leaders to speak out. On Monday a letter signed by more than 200 college and university presidents said continuing the program was a “moral imperative and a national necessity.”

Petitions have circulated at dozens of colleges calling for those campuses to take steps to protect undocumented people, and several colleges have replied by declaring themselves sanctuary campuses. It’s unclear, though, what legal standing colleges would have to prevent enforcement raids or otherwise refuse to cooperate with enforcement by federal immigration officials.

Ms. Naveed knows she is taking a risk by speaking out, but says that like others who have received DACA status, she has already turned over plenty of identifying information to the government.

“He has almost 800,000 names, addresses, and photos,” Ms. Naveed says of the incoming president. “He knows exactly where we are.”

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DACA status is granted for two-year renewable terms, and hers expires in March. Unless it is renewed, she won’t be able to practice as a nurse or continue contributing money to help her family.

The uncertainty about how the next president will follow through on his pledge to crack down on illegal immigration is unsettling for people like Ms. Naveed and Cesar Vargas, who was born in Mexico and became one of the first undocumented immigrants to become a lawyer in New York. He was also in the caravan heading to Washington.

“We want to show President Trump that we’re not afraid and that we’re going to continue to push and fight for immigration reform,” Mr. Vargas told students at Rutgers.

Early in his campaign, Mr. Trump pledged to deport all of the 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States, but he has since backed off that stance. More recently, he has said he’ll prioritize identifying and deporting two million to three million immigrants he describes as criminals.

The Obama administration has already deported 2.5 million people — more than under any other president — but Mr. Trump wants to extend the reach to include people with low-level misdemeanors and those with violations like overstaying their visas.

That, say people like Ms. Naveed and Mr. Vargas, could easily include relatives and friends who commit a minor infraction.

“I don’t appreciate the fact that he’s trying to pit the ‘good immigrants’ against the ‘bad immigrants,’ Ms. Naveed says. “He said he wants to be a president for all people, and I want to be part of the nation that holds him to that.”

Ms. Naveed says her family came to the United States from Pakistan on a tourist visa to seek treatment for her sister’s life-threatening brain condition. Her father got an employment visa, but due to a legal snafu, it wasn’t renewed and the family was ordered to return to Pakistan. Determined to stay to continue her sister’s medical treatment, the family stayed on, without legal authorization.

Salutatorian of her high-school class, she was ineligible for college scholarships and financial aid, but eventually, through DACA, was able to attend college at in-state rates. If that status is renewed, she hopes to become a nurse practitioner or doctor.

“It would be amazing,” she says, “to fulfill my dreams without limitations.”

Katherine Mangan writes about community colleges, completion efforts, and job training, as well as other topics in daily news. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMangan, or email her at katherine.mangan@chronicle.com.