Since Donald Trump became president-elect, B. Flores’ normal telephone calls with loved ones have turned far more serious, with discussions about worst-case scenarios and how to prepare for them.

The University of Hawaiʻi student is what’s known as a Dreamer, an undocumented immigrant brought to the United States as a child who qualified for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

“Since the election, I’ve had to have two-hour phone calls with my family just to talk about how we’re feeling, make backup plans,” said Flores, who spoke on condition her full name not be used to protect herself and family members on the mainland. “Conversations that are uncomfortable to have sometimes. But we need to have them.”

Since his victory, Trump has doubled down on his threats to deport millions of undocumented immigrants starting the day he takes office Jan. 20, even suggesting that U.S. citizens with undocumented family members leave voluntarily, and proposing to end birthright citizenship. At the same time, he has suggested he may exempt DACA recipients like Flores from his proposed crackdown, adding to the uncertainty.

Immigrants around Hawaiʻi, like their counterparts nationwide, are bracing for whatever may come. Likewise, advocates for immigrants are conducting extra community outreach and lobbying lawmakers and law enforcement to stand by their side if Trump’s threats unfold.

“We’re definitely hearing and seeing a chilling effect on local residents, families, employees, workers alike,” said Bettina Mok, of The Legal Clinic, a Honolulu-based nonprofit that has offered legal, education and advocacy services to immigrants since the first Trump Administration.

Based on their conversations with clients and outreach work, advocates said some immigrants — including those in mixed-status families, with members legally authorized to remain here and those who are undocumented – already are avoiding contact with the government. They have started to stay away from health services. They are thinking twice about reporting crimes, whether they are victims or witnesses. Some have stopped working for fear of workplace raids.

On Maui, after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained an undocumented immigrant in September, attendance at a subsequent wellness fair dropped, according to organizers.

“The threats themselves have a major impact on folks on the ground just by creating a culture of fear and intimidation,” said Liza Ryan Gill, co-coordinator of the Hawaiʻi Coalition for Immigrant Rights. “We know that people are going to be reticent to use the services that they are eligible for.”

Taking Every Precaution

There are between 41,000 and 51,000 undocumented immigrants in Hawaiʻi, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Migration Policy Institute, roughly half from the Philippines.

“Most folks that are unauthorized, the picture of that individual here in Hawaiʻi would be probably someone who is Filipino who has overstayed a visa or something here, that is working and contributing, paying taxes, and is in some type of mixed-status family,” said Gill. 

The Mexico-born Flores is among roughly 530,000 Dreamers nationwide with DACA status, who since 2012 have been granted temporary protection from deportation and permission to work. 

In Hawaiʻi, there are 340 DACA recipients and 7,000 people eligible for that status, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

Trump’s recent signal that he may proceed differently with DACA recipients, allowing them to stay, has not lessened the unease for Flores and her own mixed-status family, with members who are completely undocumented, U.S. citizens and other DACA recipients like herself.

“The possibility of family separation is very real,” she said. 

Her family is hurrying to make sure everyone’s documents are up to date and in a shared Google Drive document, easily and quickly accessible in case of emergency. Family members who are U.S. citizens are applying for dual U.S.-Mexican citizenship.

“Any precaution we can take, we’re trying to take it,” Flores said.

Expanded Education And Outreach

Advocates have ramped up education efforts across the islands, through webinars, Facebook Live sessions and community meetings.

“People are scared,” said Kevin Block, a Maui attorney who co-founded Maui Roots Reborn, a group of case managers and attorneys working with the island’s immigrant community. “We’re doing know-your-rights trainings for the community just so people know that they have civil rights no matter who the president is. They still have civil rights enshrined in the Constitution.”

A standing-room audience of about 75 people attended a Dec. 9 training session, Block said. Others are planned.

At the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii’s Immigrant Justice Center, managing attorney Rebecca Leibowitz said the agency is getting calls from immigrants who have green cards or are naturalized U.S. citizens “who are afraid of deportation.”

“We are working on providing education so that the community understands green card holders are permanent residents who cannot be deported unless they commit deportable criminal offenses,” Leibowitz said in an email. “U.S. naturalized citizens are U.S. citizens with all the rights of U.S.-born citizens except for running for president, and cannot be deported.”

Immigrants, said Mok, of The Legal Clinic, are being cautioned “not to reveal their citizenship, status or immigration status unless required by a federal judge, and that even if they’re undocumented” they may have rights in immigration court.

Another key point the organizations in her coalition are trying to get across, Gill said, “is that, right now you are still currently safe. What we’re hoping is to just communicate that there haven’t been any changes yet, but you can expect that we will get that information to you if something does change.”

Lobbying For Support

At the same time, The Legal Clinic and other advocates are pressing government officials to either take steps to protect immigrants’ rights or dissuade them from participating in any crackdown.

“We can’t keep the feds from conducting ICE operations in any place in Hawaiʻi,” Gill said. “But what we can do is say, ‘You know, feds, you can go and do your job, but the state and/or the counties, they don’t have to be co-opted into that machine.’”

The Legal Clinic’s community and policy advocate, Sandy Ma, is taking the lead for her organization in that lobbying effort. She said the response from legislators and Gov. Josh Green’s office has been positive.

Advocates, Ma said, were heartened — though not surprised — at Green’s comments on immigration last week. He said Hawaiʻi’s National Guard was off-limits to a federal deportation strategy, and placed his administration squarely behind the immigrant community. 

“We’ll do all that we can to keep families together at the very least,” Green said in a wide-ranging press conference, where he also announced he was budgeting $20 million over the next two fiscal years for the Attorney General’s Office to support any national lawsuits opposing Trump immigration policies.

“I’m not angling to fight with the incoming Trump administration,” Green said. “I’m just trying to make sure that people are cared for.”

Legislators, Ma said, are also well aware of immigrants’ value to the state.

“Immigrants comprise over 40% of agricultural workers. They work in tourism. They work in health care. I mean, those big three economic drivers, they sustain Hawaiʻi,” Ma said. “They literally are feeding us and keeping us alive. And so our legislators understand that and understand the importance of immigrants to Hawaiʻi.”

Gill, who has also met with legislators and police officials, predicted that the state and its local law enforcement agencies will not be inclined to participate in a federal crackdown on immigrants.

“I don’t think Hawaiʻi has any appetite to do that, like this is not a top line issue, the border is not directly impacting our communities here,” she said. “I don’t think people want to see HPD in an ICE jacket, you know, picking up their tutus on the side of the street and putting them in vans.”

The Honolulu Police Department has no agreements or memoranda with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to spokesperson Michelle Yu. Questions about agreements between the state Department of Law Enforcement and ICE were referred to the Department of Attorney General. David Day, special assistant to the AG, confirmed that department has no agreement with ICE either.

The Maui Police Department also does not have any agreement with ICE, department spokesperson Alana Pico said.

Heading into an almost certainly turbulent period, supporters of immigrant rights said they feel on solid ground with Maui Police Chief John Pelletier, who attended the recent know-your-rights training with two of his officers.

“Myself and the other advocates here have a good relationship with the chief,” said Block, the Maui attorney.

Asked if he had a message to the immigrant community, Pelletier said in a statement that his department serves and protects the community “regardless of their immigration status” and “should federal administration policies or procedures shift or adjust … will remain dedicated to its role as a local law enforcement agency focused on addressing crime and public safety.”

What Might Happen?

As Trump’s inauguration draws closer, the question of just what a mass deportation might look like grows larger.

Trump and his “border czar” Tom Homan have reportedly said they plan to rescind an ICE policy known as the sensitive places policy, which limits the agency’s ability to conduct immigration enforcement actions in places such as schools, hospitals and churches.

“That would be incredibly frightening for a lot of people,” said Esther Yoo, director of the Refugee & Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Hawaiʻi’s Richardson School of Law. “This is something that would be a really, really big shift.”

As of Oct. 1, Hawaiʻi immigration courts had 1,210 pending cases — the highest backlog on record, continuing an upward trend since 2022.

As the Biden administration’s immigration policies developed, Yoo said, priorities for deportations were “noncitizens who were security risks or who had a serious criminal record — and also recent border crossers.”

The incoming administration’s rhetoric suggests something different, she said.

“It sounds like that is what’s going to change come January 20th,” Yoo said. “That Trump is not going to have the same sort of priorities of the past administration on public security and more recent arrivals. But rather he’s going to try to find people who have been living here much longer and have deeper connections.”

At the same time, Yoo said, the rhetoric may itself be strategic.

“It’s possible that part of their strategy is to scare people into self-deporting,” she said. 

Immigrant advocates point out immense logistical challenges in trying to remove as many as 11 million people from the country. For example, with 7,700 agents in ICE’s enforcement and removals division, according to the American Immigration Council, the agency deported 271,484 people in its 2024 fiscal year, according to its annual report.

That’s not to mention legal hurdles.

“You can’t really go to people’s doors and knock on their doors and ask them to prove that they’re citizens, because that would violate everyone’s civil rights,” Block said.

He said envisioning what Trump’s threat may look like in practice is a steady topic of conversation among both immigrants and their advocates. 

At the same time, Block said, he is reluctant to underestimate how far the incoming president will go.

“I don’t want to catastrophize, I think that there’s still some procedural safeguards that are in place,” he said. “But I think that’s just his style and his promise, to use this shock-and-awe technique because that’s the campaign promise he made. And there’s a certain section of his followers that want to see that. And so I feel like he’s going to try to deliver on that.”

Meanwhile, immigrants like Flores are turning to one another for support and being careful about revealing themselves to just anyone.

“I think everybody’s just looking for community and also trying to see who they can trust. Trust is something that a lot of people don’t have right now,” she said. “They don’t know who they can come out to. They don’t know who they can rely on.”

Civil Beat reporter Matthew Leonard contributed to this story.