Carlos Gonzalez said his stomach dropped a week ago when reports of President Donald Trump’s executive orders started flooding the news.

Gonzalez came to the United States from Mexico at age 4 with family members of mixed immigration status. He qualified for the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an initiative never passed by Congress and still under review by the courts.

So the 27-year-old’s mind started racing about his own future as well as that of his family and friends.

Could Trump’s call for an end of birthright citizenship affect his younger siblings, who were born in Maryland? Would the National Guard here also have a role in rounding up undocumented immigrants?

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“It was just one after the other,” said Gonzalez, a special projects manager for Baltimore County Councilman Izzy Patoka. “The immigration ones were definitely hurtful. … Of course, they will go through legal battles. But the possibility makes it scary.”

The Trump administration’s series of executive orders and immigration policies have left much of Maryland’s immigrant community anxious and fearful.

On Monday, more than 150 people rallied for immigrants’ rights by the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Southeast Anchor Branch, waving flags from Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras. They chanted in Spanish and English, holding up signs that criticized Trump’s recent policies. Children marched by their parents’ side. A group of kids by Hampstead Hill Academy cheered the group as they marched into Patterson Park. “They are here,” the group chanted. “And they are going to fight back.”

Many immigrant families are of mixed status in terms of their legal documentation, which can complicate matters further, said Matthew Dolamore, the program director of Catholic Charities’ Esperanza Center.

“It could be that every single person in the household has a different status. In the past, there was a legal pathway. It’s not a case anymore,” he said.

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The executive orders have resulted in a jumble of emotions from the immigrant community, said Gabriela Lemus, executive director of Maryland Latinos Unidos, a statewide network of organizations and businesses who support Latino and immigrant communities.

“There is a feeling that it will be very difficult to fight back, but fight back they must,” she said.

An attendee holds a sign at a rally on Monday to protest the Trump administration's new immigration policies. (Kaitlin Newman/The Baltimore Banner)

Even though Ed Figueroa and his family have dual citizenship in the U.S. and Philippines, he said Trump’s policies have put “targets on the backs of people of color, regardless of their immigration status.”

“The first weeks of Trump’s administration already feel exhausting, and I don’t want to imagine how much worse it can get,” said the 45-year-old Hanover resident who works as a drag queen and registered nurse. “It feels like a losing battle. I came to the U.S. for a chance at a better life, and I don’t even know if that will ever be true.”

Trump has created a hostile climate for immigrants, Figueroa said.

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“All these people celebrating the separation of families and increased scrutiny towards immigrants are cruel,” he said. “We will fight for our rights. And they will not win.”

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, said Trump’s executive actions have made it harder for people to come to the U.S. through legal channels — and for those already here lawfully to maintain their protections.

“From suspending refugee admissions to ending humanitarian sponsorship programs for people already here lawfully, these changes are poised to have profound consequences for vulnerable families,” she said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and the threats of increased ICE presence have also added a level of fear and uncertainty to the community.

“They started right away,” Dolamore said about ICE detentions. “We know of multiple confirmed enforced actions. Some have touched the families we work with. In each instance, a broken household has been left behind and a scared community left behind.”

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Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan told NBC News late last month that ICE needs to double its current amount of beds to 100,000 to accommodate detainees. Last week, Trump signed a memo that would set up preparations for a 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. That facility would be used for “high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States,” he wrote in the memo.

Back in Baltimore, Dolamore said, she worries that “as a faith-based organization, many of our partners are churches, they are not used to being a potential target. We are not used to being a potential target. … The chilling effect cannot be understated.”

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 29: White House Border Czar Tom Homan heads back into the White House following television interviews on the North Lawn on January 29, 2025 in Washington, DC. Homan has been appointed by President Donald Trump to oversee what the White House calls the largest "mass deportations" of undocumented immigrants in American history.
White House border czar Tom Homan following interviews on the North Lawn last week. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

CASA, a national organization serving working-class Black, Latino, African-descendant, Indigenous, and immigrant communities, last week criticized Trump’s rollback of the federal sensitive-locations policy that had limited ICE access to locations like schools, hospitals and courthouses.

The organization called for emergency legislation in Maryland, which would create state guidance around ICE access to schools, courthouses, healthcare facilities, places of worship and other sensitive locations.

Misinformation and disinformation as well as confusion have shaped the way the community is feeling right now, Lemus said

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“Everybody is just scared. So, we’re going to be calm and we’re going to demonstrate leadership and create safe spaces to have frank discussions about what is real and what is fear-mongering,” she said.

Baltimore Banner reporter Clara Longo de Freitas contributed to this report.