Tacoma immigrants reflect as presidential votes tallied: Are they welcome in America?
Diana Parra has kept a close eye on presidential election results, at least some of the time.
At other times, it has simply been “too stressful,” she said.
As the polarizing race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden reached its climax in recent days, the 39-year-old Tacoma resident said this week that the contest has weighed heavily on her.
Watching things unfold has often been overwhelming, she said, in part because she knows intimately just how much is at stake.
“(The Trump administration) has been very active in terms of speaking of immigrants as the bad guys, the people who are stealing the jobs here, and the people who are getting benefits without deserving them,” Parra, who immigrated to the United States from Colombia roughly a decade ago, told The News Tribune.
“It has been very scary for people to hear that narrative,” Parra continued. “To have people waving flags and saying ‘Make America Great Again,’ like it’s not great here now because you’re here.”
For Parra, it’s a personal observation and also a professional one.
After arriving in the United States with her U.S.-born husband in 2011, Parra became a citizen five years later. Her in-laws paid the naturalization fees.
For the last two years, Parra has also has worked at a local nonprofit, helping immigrants from all over the world, including some who are undocumented, access resources and make a better life for themselves in the United States.
Both experiences have made her well aware of the challenges and prejudices newcomers face in this country, she said, and there’s no question that Trump and his toxic rhetoric have made matters much worse.
A Biden electoral college victory would be a big deal, Parra said Wednesday as votes were still being counted.
But there’s a caveat.
No matter what the ultimate outcome of the 2020 presidential election is, for immigrants and immigrants’ rights groups in Tacoma and Pierce County, there will still be plenty of work to be done, Parra said.
While Trump has emboldened hate during his four years in office, racism, xenophobia and discrimination haven’t just resided at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
All are alive and well in our communities and governments, Parra said, which is why, as a self-described “advocate for immigrant rights,” she believes it’s more important than ever to continue to push for local progress here in Tacoma and Pierce County.
Specifically, Parra said, she wants to see the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department improve its interactions with the Latinx community, and she’s hoping to push the new Pierce County Council to do more for immigrants who need it.
Parra’s emphasis on local change wasn’t an outlier among immigrants and representatives from immigrants’ rights groups reached by The News Tribune this week.
Though all agreed that the prospect of a Biden Administration offered hope to a population that has felt increasingly under attack, it won’t automatically set the clock back four years, and it won’t solve the problems that existed long before Trump came to power, they said.
According to Bill Schwarz, pro bono volunteer coordinator with the Northwest Immigration Rights Project, many of those long-standing problems concern immigration law.
Working to recruit and train volunteer lawyers to represent individuals detained at the Tacoma ICE Processing Center (formerly known as the Northwest Detention Center), Schwarz has seen the impact of these shortcomings firsthand.
On Wednesday, Schwarz painfully recalled working with parents who were separated from their children at the U.S.-Mexico border, without any indication of when — or if — they would see them again.
“The fact is that immigration law as an area has been a challenge for a long time, for well over 50 years now,” Schwarz said. “Really, we’re dealing with this patchwork system that won’t really change with a change in the presidency.”
Like Parra, Schwarz said he’ll continue to focus on local changes that could immediately impact the lives of immigrants in this area for the better. He noted how few individuals detained at the ICE Processing Center in Tacoma — locked up for a civil immigration proceeding — have legal representation. He also pointed out how dangerous it is to have them detained in close quarters during a pandemic.
“Clearly, I’m nervous as all hell (about the outcome), just like everybody else. It does feel like there’s a lot at stake,” Schwarz said. “But at the same time, I am constantly reminding myself that even in a Biden presidency, there will still be a lot of work to do, because an election isn’t going to fix every problem.”
Like Parra, Savong Lam has her own immigration story. A Cambodian refugee, her family fled the Khmer Rouge genocide and came to the United States in 1980. An older sister didn’t make it.
Now 43, and with four kids of her own, Lam agreed with the need to focus on local efforts, like culturally competent education in public schools.
This year’s presidential election has made her anxious, she said, but it was also clear that Trump’s presidency and continued popularity had done something more lasting, leaving her with doubts that wouldn’t be easily erased.
As the updated vote totals trickled in on Wednesday, it was something she openly grappled with.
“It just seems like more folks are bolder in sharing or exposing that they don’t accept people of color like me,” Lam said of the last four years. “I am thankful and so blessed to be in America, but it makes me think about the America that brought me here to the United States, the America that opened its borders and its arms to embrace me and my family, and help build us up and support us to get where we are today.”
“The last four years just make me wonder if I’m still welcomed,” Lam continued.
“It makes me wonder: ‘Has America always been this racist?’”
