President Donald Trump’s talk on immigration turning into action Wednesday has thousands of central Florida families living on edge.
Immigrants from Mexico sum it up best in one word.
“Nervous. There’s no other words for it,” said Victor Leon, who came to the United States when he was 10.
He’s among the more than 750-thousand kids protected from deportation through the DACA program, but he has no idea for how long that protection will last under the new administration.
“They just keep saying we are going to do this or that, but there hasn’t been the right words, or they haven’t said this is going to be done,” he said.
At one time, candidate Trump called for an immediate end to the program.
But so far President Trump seems more focused on building a wall and kicking out criminals here illegally.
Nancy Futch is a longtime advocate for immigrant families in Polk County, and she wishes she had a crystal ball.
“I hear it a lot,” she said. “And I don’t have the answers either. We all — it’s just very uncertain times.”
For now, advocates like Futch are pushing congress to quickly pass the Bridge Act that would protect DACA kids until there’s immigration reform.
But it doesn’t solve the lingering issue of their undocumented parents.
“They are as fearful for their parents as they are themselves,” she added.
Leon, who is now going to college to be a pilot, thinks about it all the time — the thought of his family getting torn apart in an instant.
“It’s always in the back of your mind, either at home, or at the store, or even at work,” he said.
