Fearful Immigrants Ask Florida Activist To Sign Guardianship Papers For Their Children

The day before President Donald Trump's inauguration, a dozen immigrant families came to Nora Sandigo's ranch to ask her to be a legal guardian of their children. Now they are insisting she come over to their homes to sign the necessary paperwork.

It's a result of the many ways immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally have changed their travel patterns as many try to stay home as much as possible and avoid going to the homes and offices of advocates such as Sandigo. Many fear they could be caught up in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation after Trump campaigned on a promise of mass deportations and has terminated programs that had given immigrants a legal way into the U.S.

In the past few weeks, Sandigo has received hundreds of calls from immigrant parents across the U.S. She said she has been in at least 15 houses where parents have filled out paperwork so Sandigo could sign documents on behalf of their children at schools, hospitals and courts if they are deported. The power of attorney also allows her to help the children travel to reunite with their families.

"Now people are telling us that they are afraid to go out on the street, that they are afraid to drive, that they are afraid that they will stop them on the street," said Sandigo, a 59-year-old mother of two daughters who lives in Homestead, a city of about 80,000 people south of Miami. "They have asked me to go to where they are instead of them coming to me."

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