The Trump administration’s announcement this week that it will end a long-standing policy that prevented federal immigration authorities from arresting migrants in churches, schools and hospitals sent quick ripples through school districts and the Latino families they serve across Utah.
The Park City and Wasatch County school districts followed up with statements to families addressing concerns community members may be facing.
“Please be assured that every child, regardless of their immigration status, is welcome in our schools,” stated the Park City School District on Wednesday.
“(Wasatch School District) will continue to follow laws guaranteeing that all children in the United States, regardless of their immigration status, have a right to a free and appropriate education,” said the Wasatch School District in a statement on Thursday.
Both districts explained that they do not collect or share information about the immigration status of students.
Of course the schools aren’t the only places with people affected by this change, or others in immigration policies and laws.
Amid this wave of uncertainty, local nonprofit Wasatch Immigration Project is keeping a careful eye on the situation and what policies might affect or change their work moving forward.
In late 2023, the Wasatch Immigration Project was founded to help community members access immigration legal services. Co-founders Maggie AbuHaidar, John Sharkey, Karin Fojtik and Laura Rojas — attorneys based in Park City — came together to address this shared goal, drawing on their diverse professional backgrounds.
They had been doing some work with a nonprofit in the Salt Lake Valley, said AbuHaidar, but soon realized that there was a gap in services for those in Park City and the Wasatch Back.
“There was a need here in Park City and in the Wasatch Back for a nonprofit law firm who could provide low-cost or no-cost, high quality legal services for those who were facing the immigration process,” said AbuHaidar. “Which frankly, it’s complex. It’s also very confusing, even for those of us who are lawyers. I don’t know how folks tackle that on their own, and unfortunately a lot of people do.”
AbuHaidar said that while many people who are facing the immigration system are doing it by themselves, those who have an attorney are five times more likely to obtain relief or avoid deportation.
“Our goal is to change that balance, at least for some that live in our community,” she said. “They’re our neighbors, our friends, our kids’ friends’ parents. They are employees and our clients and our patients, and our entire community would shut down if they weren’t here. When they’re threatened, our community is threatened.”
The mission of the Wasatch Immigration Project is to “build a legal community in Utah that values and supports immigrants,” said AbuHaidar. With a tagline that reads “See, Hear, Represent,” the goal is to raise awareness about the significant contributions immigrants make to the community, hear their stories and represent their interests.
“In Park City and the Wasatch Back, we do have a large population of folks that have been living here and working here for a long time,” said AbuHaidar. “They’re often members of mixed households, so they might have a couple of U.S.-citizen kids, maybe they have DACA and U.S.-citizen kids. (These families) have different types of applications that are available to them.”
The organization executes its mission in two primary ways. First, it provides pro-bono and low-bono legal services to individuals navigating the immigration system who are unable to afford private representation. This is accomplished through the volunteer efforts of the four founders, as well as a growing network of other volunteer attorneys as the group recruits and trains more lawyers to join them.
They also are fundraising to hire a full-time paid attorney, with plans to fill the position early this year.
In its first year, the organization provided legal representation to 147 people.
“We filed 196 applications. We received 240 requests for legal consults, and we were able to field over 90 of those. But we do still have a wait list of about 150 people, and that’s growing every day,” AbuHaidar said. “Just in the past week, we’ve received over 20 calls. Ever since the election, it’s been growing more rapidly.”
The majority of the applications are related to employment authorization, primarily for individuals who have arrived within the past year. New arrivals often have certain pathways to relief that are not available to individuals who have been in the United States for a longer period, explained AbuHaidar.
With the political climate shifting rapidly, many changes are taking place, and the impact of the new presidential administration on immigration remains uncertain. However, the nonprofit is closely monitoring the situation and working with regional partners to plan for potential changes, said AbuHaidar.
“We’re certainly doing everything we can to prepare our clients for what might be coming. But this time around, I feel more empowered because at least there’s something that we can do to work and really try to protect this vulnerable part of our community,” she said.
Today’s political rhetoric often vilifies immigrants, creating a hostile environment for undocumented individuals and minority-American citizens, including children, who face the added stress of discrimination and racism in their daily lives.
“I try never to put myself in the shoes of someone who is escaping what they perceive to be unlivable conditions in their home country. I am simply not in a position to understand it or judge it,” said AbuHaidar. “What I will say is I haven’t met a single client yet who said that they wanted to come here for no other reason than to come here. They would all love to have the ability to live in their home country with the rest of their family in safe conditions. This idea that people are coming here for any other reason is just untrue.”
Hours into Trump’s administration, he signed a slew of executive orders, including several related to immigration. On the morning of the inauguration, asylum seekers at the southern border were met with news that their case appointments — some of which had been scheduled after they had waited with their families for over nine months — had been canceled.
That morning, the customs and border protection CBP One immigration app, which had been used to schedule these appointments, was shut down.
“We need meaningful immigration reform. The conditions at the border are very serious, and I would love for someone to come along and solve that,” said AbuHaidar. “I would love for someone to come along and figure out how to better run the border on the flow of traffic, how to make it more intuitive and more humane. It’s just not happening.”
People often overlook the fact that simply applying for citizenship is not an option, and tend to unjustly question the motives of undocumented immigrants.
“‘What is the right way?’ The right way changes over time, and the immigration system is very complex. It’s confusing even for attorneys, and it is very slow,” said AbuHaidar. “And if you are sitting at a border with your children and you have no food and you’re being physically harmed, I don’t know that there is a right way. There is just what you can do to protect your family. So I would challenge people not to judge, because there’s a lack of humanity in doing that.”
In addition to providing legal services, the organization is invested in community education for the immigrant and immigrant-adjacent populations. One of their key initiatives has been partnering with local organizations to offer educational programming. Their first event took place in June, which focused on asylum issues, and was held at St. Mary’s. The event attracted 120 attendees and resulted in 40 requests for legal consultations, said AbuHaidar.
The organization’s most recent event was held in December at the Christian Center in collaboration with the Park City Community Foundation. This event focused on Fourth Amendment issues related to interactions with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It drew about 125 people in person, with an additional 20 participants streaming live. The event was also shared through the Youth United Facebook page, and since then, over 1,400 people have viewed the educational content.
“The truth is that … people from all over the country can be watching these videos and learning something that helps them, and that is certainly our hope,” said AbuHaidar.
The organization plans to continue offering educational resources on topics dealing with immigration to the community. In response to multiple calls from Park City employers concerned about their employees and clients, the organization is planning an event for February focused on employer rights and how employers can protect employees and clients. AbuHaidar said that with the event being more tailored toward employers, she hopes it will be well attended.
The Wasatch Immigration Project welcomes volunteers of all backgrounds, including those with or without legal experience. The organization has a particularly high demand for attorneys and translators.
As an added bonus for attorneys, the organization was recently approved to offer Continuing Legal Education credits for some of the time volunteered.
If a prospective client wishes to reach out, the best way is to visit the website and complete the contact form. Once submitted, they will be scheduled for the next available legal consultation, said AbuHaidar.
For more: wasatchimmigrationproject.org.