WASHINGTON – Migrant families across the country are understandably alarmed by Donald Trump’s draconian promises of mass deportations made during the campaign. Since winning the White House just over two weeks ago, Trump’s transition team has announced key appointments signaling an aggressive push to round up and expel as many migrants as possible, starting as soon as they return to the West Wing on January 6. With a potential crisis looming in migrant communities nationwide, Migrant Insider asked five House progressives—Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Veronica Escobar, Delia Ramirez, Greg Casar, and Max Frost—what families should be doing to prepare. Their responses, available as videos and transcripts, are included below—

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

TRANSCRIPT:  It’s hard … we are in a very hard moment. It’s very sad too because I think in the information environment that we’re in, there’s a lot of people, first of all, that genuinely don’t believe that this is…I think the Trump campaign ran on this narrative that they were talking about somebody else, right? That they were just talking about, quote on quote “criminals” that are being deported. But a lot of people, I don’t think it has sunk in that this administration believes that anybody who is here undocumented has committed a criminal act. So they are talking about everybody. Naming Stephen Miller as his Deputy Chief of Staff of Policy, these are very real signals that they intend on pursuing as broad and aggressive deportation campaign as possible. I think that there are certainly immediate steps that people at home can be taking. It’s really important that the people around you and that you have a team, whether it’s someone at your church, whether it’s a family person, that they have your information, that there is a plan in case you are apprehended. I come from a district that was very heavily affected by ICE raids in the last Trump presidency, it is important to have, even if it’s a triage, like a first aid situation, if a child is documented, if your child is a citizen, having a plan for your child, having accrued your documents, whatever you have, prepared and ready. And also, if you have a member of Congress, like myself, or any other member of Congress, especially one that is known for championing immigrants rights, if you’re represented by a member like that, open a case with them, and make sure that they … I am able to open cases for my constituents and sometimes you need to sign a pre-release form so that a member of Congress can act on your family’s behalf. And so sometimes I will advise my constituents to open a case with me so that we are authorized to do whatever we can on behalf of the family. It of course depends on every family’s individual case or situation.

Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas

TRANSCRIPT: I think there’s things that migrant families have to do, and things that we as legislatures and immigrant advocates have to do … I do think that this is a moment of reckoning and I think that they have to sit down with their children, their extended family, and carve out a plan. I also do think they should reach out to any legal experts in their communities. I’m going to be visiting when I get home, I want to visit with some of our local advocates. We need a local plan so that families have somewhere to turn to. There are going to be a lot of mixed families caught up in this. The Trump folks, and frankly some voters, feel that this is going to be super cut-and-dry [targeted] at this certain population. It’s not gonna be cut-and-dry. We saw that during the Eisenhower administration. Anyone who studied history knows during that administration, 60% of the people caught up in it were citizens. So I think it’s going to have an impact far beyond what most people believe in their head. The target will be pretty broad. So I think families need to get as much information … I feel like advocates, we all have an obligation of getting that information to people. I do think there needs to be a sharing widely of information, a “To Do List” basically that is pretty uniform across the country. So if you are DACA, what does that mean for you. If you are undocumented parents of U.S. citizen children, what does that mean to you?

Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois

TRANSCRIPT: I think migrant families should be demanding their local and federal elected officials to do everything they can with whatever we have now. I mean, look, the administration, Biden’s still President till January. I also think that we have to listen to alot of the organizations that are doing work on the ground. They have been preparing for months for the possibility of this moment. We lean in the community. I’ve said this over and over, I am ready to roll up sleeves to hold the line, and if we need to get arrested together for the cause for everyone to hear that the biggest, most idiotic move, would be to deport families, for economic reasons, for immoral reasons, I’m ready to do that. I think folks have to be, migrant families, should be reaching out to local organizations. Migrant families should be reaching out to us and asking what we’re going to do to fight for them. 

Rep. Greg Casar of Texas

TRANSCRIPT: We think migrant families and their allies did incredible work defending people from deportation from 2016. We have a lot of the playbook and we’re gonna make sure that local governments are gonna be taking care of their people and not doing Donald Trump’s bidding. So organize your local officials and take care of each other.

Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida

TRANSCRIPT: We’re still figuring out what this is going to look like and what the mutual aid’s gonna look like on the ground in my district and across the nation. But I think people should really connect with a lot of the immigrant rights and social justice groups locally, and a lot of the legal aid groups locally, to make sure that you have those phone numbers, you have the phone numbers to the ACLU affiliate locally [so] you’re ready to communicate with them as things begin. There’s a lot of uncertainty about what this will look like and I think that local collaboration is going to be the most important thing going forward.

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