TAMPA, Fla. — There is still a lot of fear surrounding immigration in the Tampa Bay area.
Tampa Bay 28 reporter Annette Gutierrez has been covering immigration stories over the past year — since the Trump administration put strict immigration policies in place. Now, she is listening to an advocate who works closely with migrant families about how the anxiety remains very real.
Watch report from Annette Gutierrez
From Wimauma to Dover, a large migrant community in Hillsborough County is being impacted by the newer immigration policies.
Aurea Rodriguez has volunteered at a local church for nearly two decades, delivering food to needy migrant families in Dover every week. She said many are farmworkers in the strawberry fields, just trying to earn a living.
"Like everybody else, they want to work, they want to be able to provide a safe home, food, to save money to buy a car, to send kids to go to college like every family. The only difference is that a lot of them don't have a piece of paper that gives them the security to be here," Rodriguez said.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, Florida is home to about 1.2 million undocumented migrants. Rodriguez said the lack of documentation has created a lot of fear.
"A lot of the families are really scared to go out," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said the fear is also affecting the local workforce during one of its busiest times of year.
"Right now, we are in the strawberry season, it's — you can see not too many people are working picking in the fields," Rodriguez said.
Of the nearly 40 families she has helped, Rodriguez said almost a dozen have been taken into custody by ICE agents — including as recently as two weeks ago.
"10 male and one female. She was walking with her two kids, the police stop and then after went with immigration. And in less than a week, she's in Mexico," Rodriguez said.
After one year of President Trump's return to the White House, Rodriguez said she is not looking forward to his State of the Union address.
"It's really sad the way that we are going in this country. We need to be ashamed of what we're doing," Rodriguez said.
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