Washington:
“My concern is that if I am deported as an illegal immigrant, everything will go back to zero. I have nothing,” said 48-year-old Mushtaq Ahmad*, a Pakistani national who lives in the New York State that filed asylum earlier this year.
A former truck driver in the Middle East, Mushtaq is now working long shifts in a convenience store outside Albany and sending the little one he can go home. Mushtaq spent more than two decades working as a truck driver in the Middle East, but years of violent labor abroad brought only a little change in his family’s life. Getting to the United States was his last attempt to build a stable future, to earn enough to educate his six children and eventually give his family the security he could never achieve at home.
Ahmad arrived in the United States last July. Since then he has received a work permit and a social security number. The documents that allow him to work legally in the United States.
But the promises he had imagined a life full of opportunity and security have collided with the sharp reality of an increasingly hostile immigration climate. “Friends told me that life in the US is good, fun, with lots of jobs, money and everything is easy. So I thought, let’s try it. But now I’m not happy and everyone who came to America like me regrets their decision,” he said.
His trip to the United States cost him approx. $ 16,000 and took him through Europe and Mexico along irregular routes. He estimates that the typical cost of such trips ranges from $ 30,000 to $ 40,000, depending on the logistical obstacles involved.
On his first day back in the office, January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed executive orders aimed at increasing deportations of undocumented immigrants. The primary order, entitled “Protection of the American People against Invasion”, reintroduces and expands the rapid removal policy. According to this rule, immigration officials may deport persons without a hearing if they cannot prove two years of continuous residence in the United States, a policy previously completed under the Biden administration.
When he arrived, Ahmad, a professional trailer driver, assumed he could continue his work in the United States when he had home. But the situation has been tense. Instead of being on the open road, he now takes up odd jobs and never dares far from his residence. “I’m afraid that American immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) may come after me if I go out,” he said. His fear is not abstract; It dictates how he navigates in public spaces, from grocery stores to streets lined with the authorities.
Most of their information comes from WhatsApp groups and social media platforms, where excerpts of news, rumors and social media posts are spreading faster than official updates.
According to the Pew Research Center, the unauthorized immigrant population in the United States reached a record 14 million in 2023, with preliminary figures that suggested further growth in 2024 before falling slightly in 2025.
Meanwhile, the number of ice prisoners has risen under the Trump administration and reached 59,762 people nationwide from September 21, 2025 – up from 59,380 only six weeks earlier. In comparison, the ice prison was under the Biden administration an average of 30,000-35,000, while Trump’s first period peaked about 55,000 in 2019.
“Every day I wake up and think, will today be the day?” He said. It’s like going on a tightening without a safety net, he said.
Ahmad’s lawyer has warned him to avoid airports and other places where meetings with immigration officials are likely.
Media reports show that ICE has occasionally detained legal residents. Still, some immigrants feel a measure of security.
Pakistani-American Ainy Agha, 43, a green card holder based in Massachusetts, said she has confidence in the US legal system. “Ice attacks and deportations are aimed at people without legal status or those with criminal items. People like us with legal status, a solid tax story and a pure background is not the goal,” she explained.
Despite this, wider policies – expanding detention centers, authorize the local police as immigration agents who introduce ice quotas and resuscitation of the remaining in the Mexico policy – created an environment with pervasive fear. Programs like Project Homecoming, which offers $ 1,000 for voluntary departure along with threats of fines and deportation for non -compliance, have left many constantly anxious. DHS numbers released on September 23rd report, almost two million undocumented immigrants have either been deported or left voluntarily since January 20, 2025.
Forty-year-old Tariq Khan*, a Pakistani-American entrepreneur in Virginia, explained how the labor market has contracted. “We are in the transport industry and fears in the air affect everyone – legal workers, holders of green cards and the undocumented. Job applications have dried up. The labor market disappears because people are scared,” he said. Companies in immigrant-dependent communities have seen a sharp decrease in spending that affect both families and local economies.
Khan noted that many families have cut down on expenses, delayed or canceled significant purchases, which further depresses the local economy. “I voted for Trump because I thought he would strengthen the economy and help small businesses like mine grow. We expected progress, but instead we see fears, retreat and a fall in activity. The very workers that our industries are dependent on disappear, not because they do not want to work, but because they are afraid,” he said.
Trump’s immigration orders are facing several litigation. Civil Rights groups say that extended removal of removal violates the proper process, while courts have blocked his birth law citizenship order as “obviously constitutional.” A judge also warned that the administration showed “intentional ignoring” of a prior decision by deporting migrants under a slightly used wartime law.
A July report from American Immigration Council claims that enforcement has trampled fundamental constitutional rights. It points to ice -practice, as critics say, undermine protection in the first, fourth and fifth changes, including freedom of expression, protection against illegal searches and the right to proper process.
*Names changed to ensure privacy
