On a day in the single digits, Becky Lefdal dropped off a winter coat to the Mary J. Treglia Community House in Sioux City.
For over 100 years, the organization has aided new immigrants trying to adapt to a different way of life by offering legal services, English classes, and a preschool.
“My daughter, Piper, and I decided to bring in something that we wanted to donate,” Lefdal said. “They had a post on social media that they are in need of winter wear, and I just felt compelled that in our hearts, it's important that when we can, we donate directly to those in need.”
Office Manager Yareli Flores sorted the donations that also included boots, scarves, hats, and sweatshirts.
“This cold weather is brutal. I'm glad we don't have as much snow as in past years,” Flores said. “But I know some of our immigrants struggle to adapt to that weather. They come from very warm countries and places, so it is very neat to have all this coming in. They will greatly serve our population.”
As the nonprofit helps people adjust to a new climate, it is also fielding questions about the upcoming change in administration.
President-elect Donald Trump promised to order mass deportations after he is sworn in on Monday, although a specific plan and timeline is unknown. The American Immigration Council estimates there are more than 52,000 immigrants without legal status living in Iowa.
Flores says many immigrants are urgently seeking out advice on how to stay in the country legally. Due to privacy and safety concerns, the nonprofit will not disclose how many.
“Anything from getting their green card, applying for citizenship, applying for work permits, asylum, temporary protective status. They are very persistent on what can be done for them and their options,” Flores said. “They’re scared, and they want to take action and prepare themselves as best they can.”
Flores knows the uncertainty some of the people her organization serves face. At the age of two, her family moved to the United States and settled in South Sioux City, Nebraska.
“I guess I didn’t realize the fear of deportation until high school,” Flores said. “I would live with that fear and also see my peers applying to colleges and for scholarships, and those were all things that I was unfortunately unable to do.”
After graduation in 2015, she returned to Mexico. An 18-year-old all alone waiting to acquire a green card as a pathway to legal status. She is now a U.S. citizen.
“It was the longest year-and-a-half of my life,” Flores said. "I remember I was right across the El Paso border, and I remember seeing El Paso being so close, and I would think, ‘Oh, wow, I’m so close to the U.S. — yet so far from my family.’”
While working at the Mary J. Treglia Community House, Flores, a mother of a young son, finally made her dream of attending college a reality.
“I’m still undecided on a major,” Flores said. “I think it’s very easy to judge somebody else. It’s important to really step back and try and put yourself in somebody else’s shoes. We are all here to strive for something better. I feel we should all be given an opportunity and a chance to do so and to prove ourselves worthy of being here and be able to be given a chance to succeed in this life.”
Although Trump’s deportation plans have not fully taken shape, Gov. Kim Reynolds has pledged to support the effort. Reynolds is instructing the department heads who oversee the Iowa State Patrol and the state’s prison system to “ensure they are prepared” to assist federal officials in enforcing immigration laws.
In a memo sent Friday, Reynolds told the Iowa Department of Safety and the Iowa Department of Corrections to inform federal officials when someone is arrested who may be in the U.S. without legal status. She also said they should comply with requests to hold people in jail until they can be transferred to federal custody.
She indicated last month she is willing to enlist the Iowa National Guard to assist in carrying out Trump’s deportation orders.
