KANSAS CITY, Mo — President Donald Trump issued several immigration-related executive orders within his first hours back in office.
However, changes to immigration enforcement seem to be the least of Perla's worries.
She is a "Dreamer," the government's status for immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.
"Dreamers" are granted protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) but they do not have the right to vote.
Since coming to the U.S., Perla has gained legal status to live and work in the country.
The U.S. and Kansas City have been her home since she was a baby.
She wants people to see it from the perspective of other DACA recipients like her.
"How would you feel if you just got sent back to what you were when this is what you know in America?" Perla said. "It’s OK to be scared."
President Trump's orders to change immigration enforcement include:
- Send the military to the border by declaring a national emergency;
- Require immigrants unlawfully in the United States to register and be fingerprinted;
- Send the military to the border by declaring a national emergency;
- Halt all refugee admissions into the United States until policy "aligns" with U.S. interest.
Another order from the president attempts to end birth right citizenship for future children. That's the most jarring action to Perla.
Twenty-two states have already sued to prevent it from moving forward.
"It's not lawful," Perla said. "It violates the fourteenth amendment, so he can't go through with that."
Michael Sharma-Crawford, a principal attorney and local ICE liasion at Sharma-Crawford Attorneys At Law, explained unless the amendment is changed, anyone born on U.S. soil is a citizen.
He compares the potential long-term litigation from that order to the length of time DACA has faced legal challenges.
"Now they're trying to find ways to satisfy the legal political goal they have and escape judicial scrutiny," Sharma-Crawford said. "My job is to swat at the flies as they come."
Kansas City will be impacted by enforcement, according to the attorney.
He believes the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) will start with undocumented immigrants who have removal orders.
"You're going to see that [cost benefit] analysis gone. Everyone is targeted, everyone gets arrested and everyone in jail is now going to be taken in custody." Attorney Sharma-Crawford said.
The attorney doesn't think undocumented immigrants will "self-surrender" as Trump ordered.
"If you go and get fingerprinted and you're out of status, you're gonna be put in removal proceedings to say, 'Well, now tell a judge why you get to stay in the United States.'"
The Sharma-Crawford law firm has been getting non-stop questions to their office from people wondering how immigration enforcement will change.
As an ICE liaison, he also takes local questions from the immigrant community to the federal agency.
While Perla believes she and her family are safe, she understands everyone can't feel the same way.
"We just kinda want to be like everybody else at this point honestly," Perla said. "That's the biggest impact."
While there's an uphill legal battle already happening, in Sharma-Crawford's legal opinion, the hill families will climb could be steeper.
"A lot of families are gonna get hurt," he said. "A lot of families are gonna be torn a part."
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