In Philadelphia, where 47,000 people are undocumented, community leaders are preparing for Trump’s actions on immigration

The day after the election, it all came back to the Rev. Renee McKenzie’s mind – the fear she felt toward immigrants, the potentially life-and-death choices they faced, and the way they turned to her for support as the first president of the United States. Donald Trump.

Less than a year into his first term, she decided to let a desperate, undocumented family of five find refuge at the Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia, placing them beyond the reach of federal authorities and blocking their deportation to their Mexican homeland where they feared they would be killed.

Now, President-elect Trump is promising a second term amid intense escalation of law enforcement, including mass deportations of millions of people, and McKenzie expects Philadelphia’s churches and religious leaders will be called upon again to stand between immigrants and the government.

“People will turn to the church,” said McKenzie, now serving at St. Calvary Episcopal Church. Augustine in the Belmont neighborhood – “and I pray that the church will respond.”

Across Philadelphia last week, immigrants and their allies reacted to Trump’s election with fear, worry and promises to fight again in one of the nation’s most crucial sanctuary cities – a jurisdiction that limits their cooperation with federal immigration agents.

There are about 47,000 undocumented people in Philadelphia, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. The agency said that across Pennsylvania, about 153,000 people are undocumented, and in New Jersey that number is about 440,000.

Trump promised that the largest deportation operation in American history would begin on his first day in office, January 20.

“Our message to everyone who comes to this country illegally is pack your bags because Donald Trump is coming back,” Vice President-elect J.D. Vance told Pennsylvania supporters at a rally in Leesport in September.

Trump said MSNBC ‘has no price tag’ attached to his deportation plans, portraying his efforts as a way to keep Americans sheltered from migrants he wrongly portrayed as risky criminals. He pledged to immediately take a series of additional actions and restrictions, including an effort to end birthright citizenship, the long-standing law that states that a person born in the United States is a U.S. citizen.

“We’ve read what his plans are,” said Peter Pedemonti, co-director with Blanca Pacheco of the New Sanctuary Movement in Philadelphia, “and I have no reason to believe he’s not telling us the truth.”

Pedemonti spent the day after the election talking to religious leaders and elders in Philadelphia, including some who had fought or fled oppressive regimes in other countries.

“We organized and fought through the first Trump administration,” he said. “This one will be worse, we know that. But we cannot throw away the lessons we have learned and the knowledge we have gained. We will rely on it and build on it.”

Trump has said he wants to deprive sanctuary cities of federal funding. At Thursday’s news conference, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker was asked if she had concerns and whether she was resolved maintaining this sanctuary attitude in Philadelphia.

“I don’t know what will happen in the future,” the mayor replied. “We will make sure we are prepared to address the issues that will face us under the Parker administration.”

She said her current focus is on plans to make Philadelphia the safest, cleanest and greenest huge city in the country.

It is estimated that approximately 11 million people currently live in the United States without permission, of which approximately 40% come from Mexico, reports to the Pew Research Center.

One-time removal operation will cost at least $315 billion and harm the economy by eliminating needed workers, particularly in California, Texas and Florida, according to a recent study from the nonpartisan American Immigration Council, which advocates for a fairer immigration system.

However, Trump’s message that immigrants pose a threat by “poisoning the blood of our country” apparently resonated with Americans, including those in Pennsylvania who voted overwhelmingly to return him to the White House.

Many voters rank immigration as their most crucial issue, with 57% saying so in October New York Times/Siena College Poll that they support the deportation of immigrants who were in the country illegally. June questionnaire found that 55% of adults want to limit immigration, up from 41% a year earlier.

“We’re going to need every political leader, every community leader and every institution to really stand up,” said Jasmine Rivera, executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition in Philadelphia. “It means not cooperating with the White House when it comes to deporting our people.”

Philadelphia emerged as a center of resistance during Trump’s first term, opposing harsh immigration policies pursued by both community organizations and city officials.

In 2018, former Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration fought and won a major lawsuit over Trump’s efforts to get local police to enforce federal immigration laws, kicking ICE off a database he said the agency used to find undocumented people, and prohibited city employees from asking residents about their immigration status.

At one point, 14 illegal immigrants lived in sanctuary in Philadelphia churches, the most of any U.S. city. They were sheltered there because Immigration and Customs Enforcement guidelines discouraged agents from entering houses of worship to make arrests.

Among the first to arrive at the sanctuary were those welcomed by McKenzie.

Carmela Hernandez and her four children fled to this country in August 2015 after being threatened by the same drug criminals who killed her brother and two nephews. The U.S. government denied the family asylum, and they found refuge just days before their scheduled deportation on December 15, 2017.

They lived at the Church of the Advocate and then at Germantown Mennonite Church for more than three years, ending their stay at the sanctuary in March 2021. This came after ICE officials determined that the family was no longer an “enforcement priority” that they found themselves beyond borders guidance focusing on what are considered threats to national security, border security and public safety.

A friend said Friday that the family lives peacefully and does not want the media to contact them.

After Joe Biden became president in 2021, Philadelphia-area immigrants and allies were largely bullish, encouraged by the Democrat who said he believed immigration was vital to the nation and its aspirations.

Because many of the Trump administration’s toughest policies were implemented through executive orders rather than regulations, they could be reversed in the same way. At the very least, they said, a change in administrations in 2020 would end the Oval Office’s demonization of immigrants and their families.

But ahead of the midterm elections, many people became disillusioned with Biden.

In Pennsylvania, the number of prison beds for illegal immigrants has increased. Health regulations used to expel immigrants to the border were expanded, and federal authorities continued to arrest and expel people who came here hoping to support their families.

Currently, approximately 16% of Philadelphia’s residents were born outside the United States, the highest share since the 1940s– according to a study conducted by the Pew Charitable Trusts. The number of foreign-born people has more than doubled, from 105,000 in 1990 to 232,000 in 2022, even though the overall urban population has increased very little, according to census data.

The city’s reserve attitude also made it a target.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has sent nearly a thousand immigrants to Philadelphia aboard unscheduled and unannounced buses since tardy 2022, saying sanctuary cities must support ease pressure on overcrowded border cities. Kenney and immigrant allies called it a budget-friendly political stunt that hurts families.

“A lot of people in our communities are very scared right now,” Rivera said. “People call: ‘What does this mean, what should I do?’ … But I am ready to fight, fight and protect my community.”