Alabama veteran, pastor react to Trump immigration directives

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – In the first week of his second term, President Donald Trump signed 37 executive orders. Eight of those dealt with immigration.

Maria Sahonic legally immigrated to the United States when she was just a toddler. Years later, she served the U.S. in the Air Force. Now she says she does not feel as safe as she once did in the country she calls home.

“I find myself having to walk around with papers that identify myself as a United States citizen,” said Sahonic. “I fear that I will be stopped for really no reason at all, and not being able to have them see that it’s credible, the ID that I have.”

A new directive from the Department of Homeland Security allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to enter “sensitive” areas, such as schools and churches, to make immigration arrests.

Pastor Bolivar Reyes with the Spanish language service at Capitol City Church of the Nazarene says this should be handled differently.

Speaking in Spanish, Reyes said, “The people who come and spend years here working for one reason, and for another they can’t legalize their documentation, but they are not people who lead a bad life.”

Reyes says the immigrants he knows are hardworking people who left their countries in search of a better life.

“While they come from other nations and other countries where life is not easy, and they come here because they are trying to work,” he said, translated from Spanish. “I’m talking about hardworking people, people who conduct themselves well and who really show that they are good citizens.”

Through tears, Sahonic expressed the heartache of her community.

“It’s just that it’s hard to think that somebody sees me and they don’t see me,” she said.

The Trump administration has assigned arrest quotas to ICE agents, directing them to arrest at least 1,200 to 1,500 people per day. ICE agents have made arrests all over the country, and Sahonic says they have been spotted in Montgomery.

The Drug Enforcement Agency has assisted ICE in one arrest in north Alabama, however, they have told ICE they would help with arrests in central Alabama.

Sign up for the WSFA Newsletter and get the latest local news and breaking alerts in your email!

Copyright 2025 WSFA. All rights reserved.