LEILA FADEL, HOST:
It's been a year of unprecedented immigration enforcement across the U.S. The Trump administration says it has deported more than half a million undocumented immigrants. And more than 65,000 people are currently in immigration detention, more than ever before. NPR's Jasmine Garsd spent this year talking to families affected by these policies, and she joins us now. Good morning.
JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: Jasmine, as we approach the end of the year, I think about all the stories you've told. Is there one that sticks out for you, that illustrates for you what the deportation campaign looks like on the ground?
GARSD: Yeah, absolutely. Earlier this year, I got a call about a pastor who was in detention in Florida. His name was Pastor Maurilio Ambrocio from Guatemala. Now, he lived in the U.S. for about 30 years. No criminal record. He's a church leader. He runs a landscaping business. And, you know, across the country, we're seeing this. Records show 74% of those being detained are like pastor Ambrocio. They have no criminal conviction. For the most part, their violation is crossing into the country illegally, which is a misdemeanor.
Now, he was detained and deported back to Guatemala. And this is the kind of family separation I've been seeing all year, which is wreaking economic havoc on these families. I spent time with Pastor Ambrocio's daughter, Ashley Ambrocio, who is 20 years old. And now she's the breadwinner of a family of six. She put her education plans on hold. She had to take an extra job to support the family. And she told me sometimes she feels overwhelmed and she breaks down.
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ASHLEY AMBROCIO: In the car. It's always in the car. And before going to work or after work, I just feel stressed because of everything. And then I just start crying there.
GARSD: You know, Leila, I've seen this over and over again. Mixed-status families really are affected by this, American kids being pushed into the labor force. There's an economist at the University of Colorado Boulder, Chloe East. She studies the economics of deportation.
CHLOE EAST: So what we find is that in 2025, teens in mixed-status households are working at rates higher than we saw in 2024. There are about 60,000 more teenagers in mixed-status households who are now working and enrolled in school full-time at lower rates than they were in 2024.
GARSD: And, Leila, this is what I keep seeing. You know, some 10.6 million American citizens live with an undocumented person. That's according to the advocacy group FWD.us.
FADEL: So all these teens having to go to work, carrying some or, if not, all of the burden of the financial strains of a household. What are parents who are undocumented doing to prepare for the possibility of separation from their U.S.-born children?
GARSD: Well, immigration lawyers are advising that undocumented parents set up emergency guardianship for their U.S. citizen children. What that means is legally designating someone who can step in as a guardian if the parents are detained. Over the summer, I spoke to an American mom in Washington, D.C., who asked to remain anonymous because she didn't want to put the Honduran family she's friends with at risk. She had just signed this paperwork to become the emergency guardian for her teenage son's best friend in case his parents were deported to Honduras.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: My husband and I just looked at each other. And we were like, yes, of course, right? Like, not a question, not a moment's hesitation. It's not something we entered into lightly, at the same time. Like, we love them.
FADEL: Yeah, I mean, I spent some time at a church here where a bunch of people were doing the same thing. And the pastor was taking it on or others. President Trump says these deportations will open job opportunities for Americans. It's been almost a year now. Is that accurate? Is that what you're seeing?
GARSD: Well, the most recent labor report showed unemployment rising to the highest it's been in four years and job growth slowing. Economists I have spoken to say it could be a combination of tariffs and immigration policy. We do know this - the U.S. has an aging population. And this year, we're expected to have lost about 1.2 million workers from the labor force between January and July. That's according to preliminary census data analyzed by Pew. What I think is that the economic impact of these policies is going to be one of the biggest stories of next year.
FADEL: That's NPR's Jasmine Garsd. She covers immigration for us. Thank you so much for all this reporting and for your reporting all year.
GARSD: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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