DETROIT (WWJ) -- Mass deportations and sending troops to the U.S.-Mexico border are top-line items as President Donald Trump moves to fulfill his early-term agenda.
These weighty promises — including ending asylum access and even birthright citizenship — have many in Metro Detroit's Hispanic community on edge.
That's according to local immigration attorney Herman Dhade, who spoke with WWJ Newsradio 950's Ryan Wrecker after Trump delivered his second inaugural address on Monday.
Dhade said his clients include refugees whom he believes may be targeted.
"Refugees, I mean, they're facing death or, you know, torture back in some of these countries," Dhade said. "I'm just worried by his really aggressive policies that people are going to be returned back to countries and could be killed, or worse."
On his first day in office, Trump signed executive orders seeking to end birthright citizenship: the constitutional guarantee under the 14th Amendment, passed by Congress in 1866, that U.S.-born children are citizens regardless of their parents’ status.
On Tuesday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel was one of 18 Democratic state AGs to file a federal lawsuit asking the court to find President Trump's order to be unconstitutional.
It is expected to face a lengthy legal battle; something Trump himself has acknowledged.
Dhade said he was shocked by Trump's birthright order in particular, calling it "crazy."
"He wants to end birthright citizenship for people who were, you know, born in the United States on American soil? If you're born in the United States, you're American — that's how it's always been," Dhade said. "For him to just try to take that away, that's really shocking, and I don't know what the logic is, why he would want to limit that. So, that's absolutely terrible, I thought."
Dhade is concerned that Michigan families will be torn apart by deportations if Trump goes has he's promised.
"You have to remember that there's, you know, individuals who might have a minor criminal record in the past that are married to U.S. citizens with children, and just want to normalize their status," Dhade said. "And then, you know, be deemed a high priority and put in detention and deported?"
Meanwhile, many Republican leaders are applauding Trump's swift action on these issues. They contend that "open border" policies under President Joe Biden have been disastrous, requiring swift action by the new administration to correct.