Listening to immigrants the first year of Trump 2.0

The Weekly Dispatch

Community-powered immigration news from the Bay Area.

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Welcome to El Tímpano’s Weekly Dispatch. I’m Vanessa Flores, El Timpano’s community reporter.

My role centers on listening to and informing the more than 6,500 Spanish-speaking immigrants who are a part of our text-messaging (SMS) community.

Since we began engaging with the East Bay’s immigrants through SMS in 2019, El Tímpano has logged thousands of community questions. 

“I want to know if there are resources to help pay rent.” 

“How do I apply for Medi-Cal?” 

“Can you help me with applying for financial assistance to pay my electricity bill?” 

Our SMS subscribers, who include housekeepers, janitors, caretakers, cooks, and construction workers, rely on El Tímpano as their primary source of news and information. 

Over time, I learn which resources people return to and which questions surface again and again. My exchanges with our subscribers have shaped El Tímpano’s Guía de Recursos, and the experiences and concerns they share inform our reporting. For a while, those concerns followed a familiar pattern: understanding health insurance, locating job opportunities, navigating affordable housing, and accessing financial support.  

But when Trump took back the White House one year ago this week, that pattern began to shift. 

“We are very worried about this presidency… We are very aware of what it can and promises to do, and we can only pray to God to protect us,” wrote a subscriber from Ashland on January 2, 2025. “They say the law is on our side, but I wonder, if immigration authorities catch us, they have their own laws; they don’t care what the state or the government says, they do whatever they want.”

The day after Trump was inaugurated—and issued 26 executive actions, including declaring a “national emergency” at the southern border and other major immigration orders—a message arrived from a subscriber in Oakland, carrying a sense of urgency. They wanted to know where they could apply for a U.S. passport for their U.S.-born child. The question, rooted in fear, was the first of several from worried parents, and it would continue to surface as the year went on.

Throughout Trump’s first year back in office, El Tímpano received hundreds of messages from Latino and Maya Mam immigrants, and immigration-related issues were a primary concern. Subscribers texted in with worries about ICE activities, deportation, citizenship, legal assistance, ITIN numbers, immigration lawyers, family separation, DACA, asylum, and green cards. More broadly, the top questions we received centered on employment, immigration, legal aid, health care, financial assistance, housing, and renters’ rights.

Collectively, their messages painted a picture of fear, uncertainty, and the complex ways that changing immigration policy has touched the lives of Bay Area immigrants. 

This week, for Inside El Tímpano, I shared insights from the thousands of messages and hundreds of questions we received from our SMS community in the past 12 months. 

Amid the questions about jobs, housing, health care, and immigration, what resonated with me most is the human stories behind each text. Even when the issues have been overwhelming, the messages we received showed a community trying to navigate uncertainty, protect their families, and find solutions where they can. 

I’ll continue to share insights from our SMS community throughout the year. If you have resources you’d like to share, contact me at vflores@eltimpano.org.

Ear to the Ground

El Tímpano’s text messaging (SMS) service reaches more than 6,500 Spanish-speaking immigrants across the Bay Area. As we entered 2026, we asked our subscribers where they’re finding moments of joy amidst difficult times. Here are a few of their responses:

“My wish for 2026 is that our community lives without fear despite all the changes that have happened and will happen, that we raise our voices and continue fighting for our rights, and above all, that we all have health, love, peace, and many blessings.“

-Oakland resident

I would like to spend more time with my children, enjoying every moment with them, going out for walks freely, and walking without fear of immigration authorities. Enjoying my family here, my children.

-Antioch resident

To live each day with a little peace: what is happening around us regarding immigration and the pressure it is putting on everyone is very serious. Let’s hope that everything improves, God willing.

-Byron resident

Going for walks with my husband to get my 150 minutes of physical activity a week is one of the many tasks I have in mind. Let’s keep looking for those moments of happiness.

-Hayward resident

From the El Tímpano Newsroom

One year into Trump’s second term as president, El Tímpano’s Community Reporter shares the concerns, questions, and stories of the Bay Area’s Latino and Mayan immigrants.

Listening to immigrants through the first year of Trump 2.0

Amidst a year of challenges, these are the questions and concerns that surfaced consistently.

California

• Immigration agent shoots at suspect during operation in South L.A.
  
• California Senators Visit Immigration Jail Ahead of Looming ICE Funding Bill Deadline
  
• Empty sidewalks, fear in the air: Immigration operations continue in Southern California

National

• Trump’s suspension of naturalization ceremonies leaves residents across the country in limbo
  
• Federal officers detain a 5-year-old boy who a school official says was used as ‘bait’
  
• Trump Administration Starts Immigration Operation in Maine
  
• DHS More Than Doubles ‘Self-Deportation’ Cash Payment but Critics Call Program Deceptive

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