Dreamers protected by Obama urged to avoid travel abroad after Trump’s inauguration

Immigrants brought to the U.S. Illegally as children are being warned by some advocates to not travel abroad when President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in January 20, 2017.

Protected from deportation by President Obama, some advocates, lawyers and universities are concerned Trump might immediately rescind the Obama program that allowed young immigrants to work and travel for humanitarian, educational or employment purposes. It could lead, they fear, to some people traveling abroad being barred from re-entering the U.S.

“We are recommending all travel be completed by or before Jan. 20 in the event laws or procedures experience a drastic change,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “We wouldn’t want to expose them to an uncertain situation should they not be allowed back to the U.S.”

UTEP Political Science professor Dr. Irasema Coronado told ABC-7 the concerns are real.

“I would tell any DACA student not to travel abroad during the inauguration,” Coronado said. “You would need to have Congress act on this, of course. But people could be acting on their own volition to implement his strategies. You might have an overzealous immigration officer, or customs officer.”

Coronado said she has a trip planned to Cuba on Jan. 5 and returning on Jan. 12. She said she was glad they planned to be back before the inauguration.

Claudia Yoli, director of community affairs for State Senator Jose Rodriguez, told ABC-7 she has been in the country illegally since 2001 when she was eight years old. She was not able to attend her mother’s funeral in Venezuela in 2008.

“There are over 700,000 dreamers who are here in the U.S. who provide to the economy, who live in the communities and speak the same languages,” Yoli said.

Yoli advises dreamers to be careful. “It’s very scary, it’s a very real thing. In fact, that’s why I myself, as a dreamer, have not been outside of the country,” Yoli said. “You never know when the political stage can change.”

Trump made illegal immigration the cornerstone of his campaign, promising to build a wall along the Mexican border and deport millions of people living in the country illegally.

His actual plans, though, have yet to be revealed. Recently, he has said he wants to focus on people who have committed crimes.

Juan Aguirre, an El Pasoan against illegal immigration, told ABC-7 he hopes Trump sticks to his promises. “(Trump) should rescind (DACA). What Obama did was illegal,” Aguirre said.

“Trump has stated there are good (undocumented immigrants) here in the U.S. who have not broken the law,” said Adolpho Telles, the chairman of the Republican Party of El Paso. “The impression I’m getting is he is sensitive to families and youths brought here by their parents.”

Telles said undocumented immigrants and dreamers should “err on the side of caution and not make an effort to leave.”

During a recent Time magazine interview, Trump expressed sympathy for the 741,000 people in Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which started in 2012.

“We’re going to work something out that’s going to make people happy and proud,” Trump said. “They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they’re in never-never land because they don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Advocates are still being cautious.

City College, part of the City University of New York, is one of the institutions advising students in the DACA program to return before Inauguration Day. So is California State University, which told administrators to tell participants in the program “that if they are outside of the United States as of January 20, 2017, there is no assurance they will be allowed to return to the U.S.”

Trump can rescind the promised protection right away through an “operational memo” because Obama implemented it through one, said William Stock, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

He said the program’s participants should not consider traveling overseas unless they absolutely need to.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Anthony Bucci said his agency “cannot speculate” when he was asked how long would it take for CBP officers to deny entry to the U.S. to program participants if Trump eliminated the protection.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services records said that as of Dec. 31, 2015, about 22,340 people in the DACA program were approved for the “parole” that allows them to travel outside the U.S.

Trump called the program an “illegal amnesty” during his campaign.

The Associated Press contributed to this article