The Guatemalan woman holds out her hands, her fingers permanently bent from gripping knives and equipment used to slice and carve raw meat. They are hard evidence of the new life she made after arriving in the United States.

For years she worked long, gruelling hours in a meat-processing plant in southwestern Kansas doing dangerous yet essential work that many citizens refuse to do: cutting cows apart and pulling out strip steaks and ribeyes that would end up on Americans’ plates. She also worked with roast beef, thinly shaving it to perfection. Those shavings, she was told, made it to U.S. troops.

Now, after decades in the country, she is one of millions of people living in the United States who are fearful that they will be forced to leave under President Donald Trump’s plan to carry out mass deportations, which are already under way.

These days, she is rocked by nightmares. In her sleep, immigration agents come for her, pulling her out of bed and taking her away from her children.

“I feel nervous and scared,” she said, adding that she has tried to keep her feelings to herself. “My kids, my family, they have enough pain. I don’t want to scare them.”

The Globe and Mail is not naming the Guatemalan woman because she is afraid for her safety. The Trump administration has said it is targeting immigrants who have committed crimes, but border czar Tom Homan has also suggested that anyone in the country without legal documents could be targeted. In practice, people who had been living in the U.S. legally have also been swept up in the illegal immigration crackdown and deported.

The Globe recently travelled across southwestern Kansas, where places such as Dodge City and Garden City have long attracted immigrants because they can find employment in agriculture or meat processing.

According to DataUSA, as of 2023, the number of residents in both Dodge City and Garden City who were born outside of the country is higher than the national average. In Dodge City, which has a population of more than 27,000 people, 24.9 per cent of residents were born in another country. In Garden City, which is about the same size, 26.4 per cent of residents were not born in the United States.

Immigrants make up a big part of the labour force and contribute significantly to the economy. A New American Economy report from 2022 shows they made up 67.9 per cent of essential food manufacturing workers and 18.3 per cent of essential food workers in southwest Kansas.

In addition to the woman from Guatemala, who has a temporary work permit, The Globe spoke with a range of people who are terrified of Mr. Trump’s deportation plans, including Americans worried about loved ones who don’t have legal paperwork to stay in the U.S. Many are afraid they will be deported and separated from their American children.

Michael Feltman, an immigration lawyer in Cimarron, Kan., which is about halfway between Dodge City and Garden City, said that in 18 years, his office has never been so busy.

He has heard from people facing a range of immigration issues, including some who are eligible for programs and others who want to know what their options are. Most people, he said, are sad and incredibly nervous. “You can see the fear in their eyes,” he said.

Mr. Feltman said one woman he spoke with said she told her daughters in high school not to go out. A man asked him if it’s safe to go to the store. Mr. Feltman said the man had few legal options, so he advised him that people are picked up driving, and suggested he walk. “But at the same time, I’m saying, don’t live in fear.”

He said the majority of his clients work in meat-processing plants in Dodge City and Garden City and noted that mass deportations of individuals without legal status would drastically affect operations.

Mr. Feltman recently helped the Guatemalan woman apply for a U-visa, which is for victims of certain crimes who have endured physical or mental harm and are helpful to officials with the investigation and prosecution of those crimes.

As part of that application, she was recently granted a temporary work permit after initial review for vetting so she can work legally while her visa is processed, but it does not offer her any protection to remain in the United States until and unless the U-visa is granted.

The woman from Guatemala ran away from home when she was 10 years old. After her mother died, she had to escape her violent father.

She was pregnant by 15, after moving in with her partner and his family. When he went to the U.S. to work, he left her behind. She said his family abused her and told her that her daughter would be like her: a nobody. A servant. A teenage mother. His family kicked them out. And when she was 17, they fled to the U.S.

The woman remembered her mother and uncles talking about how the United States was the land of opportunity. She decided she and her daughter would go there.

When she arrived, she reconnected with her partner and they had three boys. His family’s taunts that their daughter would be unsuccessful were etched in her mind. She had to make sure she succeeded. Leaning across the table, her eyes lit up: “Now, she’s an engineer. A mechanical engineer.”

That’s the main reason the woman moved to the U.S. “Not everyone comes to make crimes, to hurt this country.”

She and her partner separated, she said, and she started dating a man who abused her and threatened to kill her. Now he is in jail, she said, for what he did to her.

She could be waiting a long time for her U-visa to be processed; only 10,000 are issued each year. In the meantime, she said she tries to go outside as little as possible, travelling only to work and back.

She has also had tough conversations with her kids. Her youngest, who is 13 years old, no longer wants her to drive him to school. He is worried she’ll be picked up by immigration officers.

“It’s stressful, it’s scary. I just don’t want anything else to happen to us. After all this happened, my kids, they’re dependent on me,” she said.

And, she said, she is not here to steal anyone’s job. As an immigrant, she said, she is willing to work no matter how hard it is, in order to provide for her family. Hard work in the United States has given her a new chance at life, allowing her to create a home to raise her children in and see that they get a good education.

“I’m here in the land of opportunity. So I want my kids to be part of our city. This building where we are sitting right now, where we’re talking, my daughter could be part of designing this building because that’s what she does now.”

The Guatemalan woman’s fear is shared by families across southwestern Kansas.

Vicky Ortiz, a librarian at the Dodge City Public Library, moved here from Mexico more than 35 years ago. She said she was able to receive legal documents within a month because of an amnesty program. She went to work at one of the meat-processing plants, she said, one of the few places to work that didn’t require employees to speak English. After seven years, she went to college.

Ms. Ortiz, 58, said people are afraid of Mr. Trump’s deportation plans, including those who are close to her who do not have legal documents and feel like they’re in limbo. One woman, who is worried about being deported, asked Ms. Ortiz if she could take care of her daughter if she is forced to leave the country.

“That’s very sad,” she said. “You know, I can take responsibility of that little girl if I have to. But you know, she don’t know me,” she said.

About an hour west, in Garden City, 33-year-old Marie said she is worried her husband will be deported and separated from her and their daughter.

She said her husband arrived at the U.S. border from Eritrea eight years ago and that he was granted Withholding of Removal, which means the U.S. government would not send him back to his home country because if he returned he could face persecution. However, individuals with this status could be sent to another country if they accept them.

Marie, who The Globe is only identifying by her middle name because she is fearful for her husband’s safety, said the situation has been confusing and stressful.

She said his work authorization expires in July and he will have to reapply. In November, he’ll have to check in with immigration officials. She is anxious about what could happen at either step.

Marie said she has wondered how he would maintain a relationship with their daughter if he gets deported. She said they haven’t had those conversations yet because she doesn’t want to worry her children.

“I just feel like it’s not fair that families are separated just because of where people are from. … Like he says, ‘We just want to focus on people that have committed crimes’ or things like that, but that’s not the case,” she said, referring to comments by Mr. Trump.

Marie recalled when children were separated from their families at the border during Mr. Trump’s first term. She said what’s unfolding now is another form of family separation with mass deportations, only now “it’s everywhere.”

“I’m a citizen, my kids are citizens, but it still impacts me, even though it hasn’t even happened yet to us, and my family, it’s still impacting us. It impacts my mental health. It still worries me about what could happen to them.”

While people across southwestern Kansas wait to see how the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans continue to unfold, they strategize to keep themselves and others safe.

A pastor of a church in Garden City, who The Globe is not naming because they fear for the safety of their congregation, said church members say they’re scared and ask how they can prepare.

The pastor said if it came to hiding people who were at risk of being wrongly swept up in deportations, they would. The pastor said the country is not at that point yet – but if it came down to that, they would go to jail for someone if it meant keeping them safe.

“There comes a time when we as Christians, we are called to follow the law, until the law goes above what God’s commandments are. And so if it gets to that point, then I have to follow God.”