What will Trump’s immigration policy mean for Snohomish County?

EVERETT — Anfal Zaroug wanted a better life for her unborn daughter.

She fled the ongoing civil war in Sudan, which, since it began in 2023, has displaced over 11 million people, killed over 61,000 and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. When she arrived in Egypt, Zaroug, 32, found out she was pregnant.

“The moment I knew that I’m pregnant with the girl, that’s when we decided to come here, to protect her,” Zaroug said.

Now, after arriving in the United States in February, Zaroug, along with her husband and her daughter, 6-month-old Celia Hassen, are finally safe. She got a visa, applied for asylum and is taking English classes at Everett Community College.

What’s she afraid of? Being sent back.

“There is a war in our country,” Zaroug said. “Even before the war, we have issues with the government. This is the best place for us.”

Even though she’s here legally, after the November election, Zaroug’s future — along with other refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants in Snohomish County and beyond — is uncertain.

President-elect Donald Trump has said he plans to carry out a massive campaign targeting undocumented immigrants — an estimated 11 million people — across the country. Trump has said he would use a combination of local police departments, deputized National Guard soldiers from Republican-controlled states and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to carry out a mass deportation campaign.

The new administration also hopes to impose limitations on legal immigration as well, compounding the restrictions President Joe Biden imposed on asylum seekers. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance has promised to scale down the granting of Temporary Protected Status, which gives immigration protections to those arriving from countries undergoing armed conflict or environmental disasters. Sudan is one of those countries.

Trump also hopes to end birthright citizenship, a protection under the 14th Amendment guaranteeing citizenship to children born in the United States. If that was the case today, six-month old Celia, born in America, wouldn’t be a citizen yet.

But while the incoming administration has been outspoken about its goals to restrict immigration, many of the specifics about its plans are not yet known.

In Snohomish County, an immigration nonprofit presses on, looking to help those in need.

‘The most spectacular migration crackdown’

About 25,000 undocumented immigrants live in Snohomish County, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

Undocumented immigrants make up about 4.8% of the United States’ total workforce. Deporting them all, a report from the American Immigration Council found, could reduce the gross domestic product by 4.2% to 6.8% and cost the government tens of billions of dollars annually in missing tax revenue. In comparison, the country’s GDP dropped by around 3.5% during the Great Recession, between late 2007 and early 2009.

The logistics of such a campaign would also be extremely difficult. In 2023, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement budget for transportation and deportation was $420 million, in a year when the agency deported just over 140,000 people.

Advisors to Trump plan to raise deportation rates to one million people per year, a pace at which the American Immigration Council estimated would cost nearly $1 trillion over 10 years. Most of the costs would have to do with detaining the massive amount of immigrants before legal processing.

Newly constructed facilities to detain the immigrants would likely be built on open land in Texas near the border, Stephen Miller, an advisor and speechwriter to Trump, said in a 2023 interview with The New York Times. On Nov. 11, the president-elect named Miller as his deputy chief of staff for policy.

“Any activists who doubt President Trump’s resolve in the slightest are making a drastic error: Trump will unleash the vast arsenal of federal powers to implement the most spectacular migration crackdown,” Miller told The New York Times. “The immigration legal activists won’t know what’s happening.”

During Trump’s first term, Miller, as a senior policy advisor to the president, was a major architect in forming his immigration policy, including the executive orders banning travel to the United States from mostly Muslim-majority countries, commonly referred to as the “Muslim ban.” Miller is also one of the main policy advisors behind the planned mass deportation policy and said the program would “begin on Inauguration Day” in an interview on Fox News the day after the election.

The president-elect confirmed on Nov. 18 he plans to declare a national emergency and use military assets to lead the mass deportation program.

In Washington

The legality of these measures, if put into effect, will almost certainly be challenged in court.

At the moment, there are too many hypotheticals to know what exactly what Trump will do to put the program into place, state Attorney General-elect Nick Brown said on Nov. 7 at a press conference. Brown and Gov.-elect Bob Ferguson said they have been preparing for multiple possibilities.

The Everett Police Department does not undertake immigration-related investigations, according to an official department policy, which says the enforcement of immigration laws is the responsibility of the federal government. Everett police are only allowed to inquire about immigration status if a person has been arrested for investigation of a felony, or is suspected of participating in terrorism, human trafficking or criminal gang activity.

The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office also does not enforce immigration laws or check citizenship status when responding to calls.

In 2019, King County Executive Dow Constantine issued an executive order seeking to block the federal government from using King County International Airport, known as Boeing Field, for flights deporting immigrants. That order was challenged by the Trump administration, and on Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the government could continue using the airport to conduct deportations.

A district court overruled an order attempting to stop the flights in 2023. Since then, 79 deportation flights have taken place, according to The Seattle Times.

For immigration advocates in Snohomish County, the upcoming uncertainty surrounding the new administration is all too familiar.

‘We thought that nightmare was over’

Van Dinh-Kuno was a refugee herself.

As the South Vietnamese government fell in 1975, Dinh-Kuno’s family had 20 minutes to pack their bags and flee to a boat. She spent 11 days in the Pacific Ocean before reaching the Philippines and eventually making her way to America. For the past 30 years, she’s worked at Refugee and Immigrant Services Northwest, a nonprofit based at Everett Community College which has provided immigration assistance since 1977. Dinh-Kuno is now the executive director.

The nonprofit helps immigrants looking for a variety of services, including job placement, English classes, providing referrals to energy assistance and low-income housing, as well as help with paperwork.

In the past 18 months, the organization has assisted over 16,000 people, as a large number of refugees, primarily from Afghanistan and Ukraine, have come into the country due to international strife. With such high demand, Dinh-Kuno is worried about what a second Trump administration will look like for those seeking assistance.

“We thought that nightmare was over,” Dinh-Kuno said. “Now, we have to relive that nightmare again.”

She’s concerned about the president-elect’s proposed mass deportation plan, as well as possible restrictions for legal immigrants and the general anti-immigrant sentiment expressed during the campaign.

After false claims spread of Haitian immigrants eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio, Dinh-Kuno has had Haitian clients come to her, worried about walking on the same side of the street as someone with a dog. The president-elect and his running mate helped spread the claims. She also had clients with green cards, legally in the country, worried about being deported because of their citizenship status.

“With things like that, our country goes backward,” Dinh-Kuno said. “We don’t go forward at all.”

As the new administration comes into power, Dinh-Kuno is preparing to take action to help her clients. She plans to institute monthly check-ins for people who use the nonprofit services, find safe spaces for people to go if they feel threatened by immigration officials and look for other sources of funding in case federal dollars are pulled in the future.

More than 96% of the nonprofit’s funding comes from fundraising campaigns and government grants, according to tax filings. It’s unclear how much of that funding comes from the federal, state and local levels.

“The needs will not stop, so the services will not stop,” Dinh-Kuno said. “They did not stop in 2016, so I am determined to keep the services in 2025 and in the next four years.”

Now, Zaroug is waiting for a work permit allowing her and her husband to get jobs. Finding work is the first thing nearly every immigrant hopes to do when they arrive here, Dinh-Kuno said.

With a visa, Zaroug is hopeful about her chances of staying. But changes in requirements to work permits or restrictions on legal immigration are still a possibility as the new administration comes into power.

“I feel there is many opportunities here,” Zaroug said. “I hope they let us stay.”

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.