The recent inauguration of President Donald Trump brought with it a flurry of executive orders, many focused on immigrants and mass deportations.
Trump quickly expanded the powers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has since increased the number of arrests made by the agency. On Trump’s first day in office, the number of immigration-related arrests was triple the average arrest count per day of the Biden administration. Most of these new orders target immigrants from Latin America, causing concern across the country and in Pittsburgh’s growing Latino populations.
“I feel a little bit uneasy about how the community is going to react to what’s happening,” Andres Calderon, secretary of Colombia en Pittsburgh, a non-profit organization, said. “Hopefully, [the government will] understand that we’re good people. And we come here just to work very hard, to contribute to society, and to work for our families.”
The Pittsburgh Latino population stands at 4.2% of the residents of the city, equating to over 12,000 people who live, work and engage with their communities. In addition to the population, there are a number of organizations and institutions dedicated to Latino culture, wellness and safety in Pittsburgh.
While no raids have occurred in Pittsburgh yet, multiple reports of ICE officers on business properties have come in and just last week Washington County, the southern neighbor of Allegheny County, reported the arrest of five undocumented immigrants. The city of Pittsburgh is not a sanctuary city, although it has been mentioned on the city council, but Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey has said neither him nor his administration will work with ICE officers in the city. Although increased raids are a large part of Trump’s immigration policy, they are not the only changes being enacted. The president has made deportations easier, suspended asylum, and rescinded existing legal protections for immigrants.
Colombia en Pittsburgh was founded in 2002 by a mixture of Colombian students from Pittsburgh-area colleges and universities, including the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and Duquesne University. Since then, the group has grown to encompass many Colombian residents and decreased ties with surrounding universities after it became a non-profit organization in 2012.
Maria Consuelo Afanador, president of Colombia en Pittsburgh, engages Latino and non-Latino communities in tandem through celebrations and other events. Calderon, who has been working with the organization for the past 2 1/2 years, said the members of Colombia en Pittsburgh share a passion for connecting with their neighbors.
“What we try to do is keep the community together, to work for them and try to do activities, to keep our folklore, food and [way of life] alive,” Consuelo Afandor said. “We just try to support everybody.”
“Through the years, the organization has grown. Now we have stronger ties to the broader community,” Calderon said. “We want to share our values and our traditions. We want to contribute to the culture and diversity of the people. That’s our main goal.”
On Monday, Feb. 3, about 60 businesses in and around Pittsburgh closed in observance of the nationwide protest, “A Day Without Immigrants.” These protests come in response to recent Trump administration immigration policies. Consuelo Afandor, who has lived in places with high immigrant populations, affirmed the value that immigrants bring to the areas they live in.
“When I was living in California, people would say something important — ‘One day without immigrants and everything there would stop.’ Because they are doctors, construction workers, teachers. They are everywhere,” Consuelo Afandor said. “And some came because we have family here and they asked for us. Some came to study and stay here. And [immigrants] are in so many things. And they try to do the most they can to help the people here and the people back home. And it’s hard, but it’s important.”
For Jasmine Deleon, a senior natural science major and the president of the Latinx Student Association at Pitt, fighting for immigrants to remain in the country is a way to pay homage to the families that brought them here.
“Even with the fear, we keep trying to push forward because we know how much our ancestors have gone through to bring us here, and we feel that we can’t let go of this fight,” Deleon said. “We have to keep going, not just for us, but for our grandparents, our great-grandparents, our ancestors and even our future.”
This goal is harder to achieve given recent political turmoil and the inauguration of President Trump, according to Calderon, who said that he can see the concern in the immigrant community over the recent decisions in Washington.
“It’s impossible not to be concerned. What [Colombia en Pittsburgh] is trying to do is just to try to share accurate information,” Calderon said. “We’re trying to combat misinformation because that’s causing panic in the community. There’s a lot of misinformation, so that’s our role.”
Calderon emphasized that it is not only misinformation playing a role in spreading panic, but a concerning lack of information for Latino and Hispanic families. Colombia en Pittsburgh works to share factual information with its members through social media apps such as WhatsApp, a popular communication app in countries abroad. The nonprofit also works with other Latino organizations in Pittsburgh to come up with ways to support locals.
“It is really impossible because you are continuously being bombarded with news and videos. And sometimes even the community shares information that is not true,” Calderon said. “So all we can do is just try to tell them ‘You have rights as well.’ They cannot just abuse you. You have rights, so understand them, be familiar with them, know how to act, and in the case that something happens, reach out to the consulate, and register in the consulate as well.’”
Deleon said that LSA’s goal is to “educate, advocate and motivate,” which involves connecting students with immigrant support if needed.
“We are actively working on hosting educational events with lawyers in the area or anybody who works in that political realm, just to make sure that we’re informing our community about immigration policies and their real-world impact,” Deleon said. “We are continuing to have these conversations with our students. We think it’s really important to talk about it. Even though it’s scary, it’s something that needs to be said, and it’s something that we all need to make sure we’re on the same page about.”
Deleon urged people to remember that knowledge is their greatest power and that being aware of what is happening is vital.
“We make sure that students not only hear ‘It’s gonna be okay,’ but know that they can also take action. Because I know sometimes for a lot of us, it’s not easy to just sit by and watch your community as they’re being harmed in any variety of ways,” Deleon said. “But since we are not a legal entity, we are just trying our best to foster a strong, informed and resilient community.”
Deleon says that she has noticed the concern on campus when talking to other students in LSA and seeing how these new policies are impacting their community.
“This is our family. This is our community. We’re not a very big community here in the city of Pittsburgh, but we’re constantly growing. And so it is really important to support each other,” Deleon said. “And [LSA] feels that by being here and having that shoulder to lean on with each other, it helps us make it through these tough times.”