Within hours of Donald Trump’s victory, a small group of Nashville Latinos gathered to pray for the U.S. government. Another went about her daily business, urging herself to be optimistic, and an immigration lawyer braced for an onslaught of anxious clients.
Inside the sanctuary of Church Una Esperanza Viva on Nolensville Pike, nearly a dozen parishioners gathered for their weekly “Prayer For the City.”
What are they praying over: The new government.
Naomi Rosario, a Mexican immigrant watches three small children, she dolls out Ritz crackers as others pray. She says they are praying for the new government, Donald Trump’s, whose campaign hurled insults at Latinos and vowed to increase deportations of undocumented immigrants.
“We are not afraid,” Rosario says. “We are not afraid of what is going to happen.”
Down the street, Alida Miranda, who emigrated from El Salvador 32 years ago, owns a small business, a travel agency that doubles as a shop for soccer uniforms and frilly dresses. She says while she voted for Hillary Clinton, she remains optimistic that Trump will realize mass deportations are not the answer to America’s ills.
“Yeah I worry about it,” Miranda says. But she doesn’t think Trump will follow through. “If he is a good businessman, he knows.”
She assumes Trump will realize that there are immigrants — legal and illegal — working hard, contributing to the U.S. economy and opening businesses, businesses like hers.
A few doors down, immigration lawyer Diana Cachaya, was already dealing with the aftermath of the election.
“Today I’ve gotten some calls from clients worried about their cases and what could happen,” Cachaya says. “So there is anxiety and some fear among the undocumented community.”
Cachaya says Trump’s comments about mass deportations and building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico has a lot of people very worried. But, she says she’s suiting up for what she expects to be an increasingly arduous fight for justice and for mercy on behalf of her clients.
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