DALLAS — Heidy Vidal-Rodriguez says the anxiety gripping her community is nothing new. The 17-year-old in McKinney was 9 when President Donald Trump first took office and began tightening immigration policy.

“That fear I had when I was a kid has come back,” Vidal-Rodriguez said, and that fear follows people in her community everywhere.

Her mom got her green card just weeks before Trump took office in January; although she’s now legally allowed to live and work in the United States indefinitely, her family is terrified.

“Even though she still has those papers, you don’t know if they can be taken away one day,” Vidal-Rodriguez said. “There’s still that fear … because that’s how it’s always been.”

Vidal-Rodriguez says friends and family are staying home, scared of what they see online about the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency taking family members. Grocery stores and shopping malls have emptied, and some families are keeping their kids home from school.

Many immigrants in North Texas are under a new sense of urgency to obtain citizenship, nervous about what the administration will do to their status. Kimberly Kinser, an immigration lawyer in Plano, says these worries do more harm than good.

“I want people to know that if they’re here legally, nothing is going to happen to you,” Kinser said. “If you’re a permanent resident, ICE is not going to show up at your door one day and just arrest you.”

Kinser said some of her clients with legal permanent residency, or green cards, are “scared to death” despite their legal protections. She doesn’t think green card holders should be worried.

Certain crimes can jeopardize permanent residency and lead to deportation, like failing to notify the government of a changed address, drug crimes and driving under the influence.

And if people are here illegally, Kinser said, their fears have a lot of merit. But she said extreme reactions among green card holders are the result of misinformation and fear-mongering.

Nonetheless, people with legal permanent residency report an increased urgency to obtain citizenship.

Maria Claudia Vanegas, 42, coordinates education programs at Light of Hope Immigration Law Center in Plano. Their office has been inundated in the past few weeks, flooded with calls from people hoping to get a sense of security. The center’s citizenship classes are completely full, she said.

“So many people that have been residents for years and years, but now they don’t feel safe just with a green card. They need to have also that citizenship,” Vanegas said. “They need to do that next steps so they don’t risk everything that they have built over the years here.”

At a recent workshop in Plano, people who wanted to learn more about their pathway to citizenship filled the school district’s Sockwell Center to learn more about their pathway to citizenship.

The free event, hosted annually by the city’s multicultural outreach roundtable for nearly two decades, saw its highest attendance in years, according to organizers, with around 250 attendees and another 50 volunteers.

Those in attendance were mainly people eligible to apply for citizenship. Green card holders can apply for citizenship after three to five years with legal permanent residency, and an application for a green card can take years to process.

Many people are not searching for a status or for a way to stay, Vanegas said. They have a legal pathway to citizenship, and yet they are scared.

“Nobody should be scared,” Vanegas said defiantly. “We all should be prepared. That’s what we have to do. No matter your status … Make a plan.”

People of several generations and nationalities came, some wearing jerseys, others in saris, some with their elderly parents in tow.

A crowd swarmed Light of Hope’s table at the workshop, pulling up chairs to hear Gloria Granados, attorney at the law center, for advice in Spanish. For hours, Granados helped men and women — their concerns written on their faces — get answers for the many questions swirling in their mind and in their communities.

Many came to her with folders or plastic bags with documents kept together with rubber bands. Some have taken the advice of the American Civil Liberties Union to carry their papers at all times.

“It is a very sad situation,” Granados said. “We’re not supposed to be afraid and living like this. Why would I have to take my passport, documents with me?”

Roselle Ramirez, 58, lives in Frisco and brought her 86-year-old father, who has a green card, to the event. Under the new administration, she wants him to have all the rights of citizenship.

Isabella Fuentes, 21, also attended the workshop to learn about how to get citizenship. She came of age in America, studies political science at the University of North Texas and has few family members remaining in Venezuela, where she was born.

Fuentes’ family is seeking asylum in the country. While that application proceeds, she got Temporary Protected Status. But last month, Trump revoked his predecessor’s extension of that program for Venezuelans.

Fuentes sees a lot of disappointment, chaos and anger in the Venezuelan community, despite people living in the country legally.

“I know that it’s better to just stay calm,” Fuentes said. “Don’t believe a lot of what they say … I’m not going to necessarily stop living my life just because there’s a threat to my existence here.”

Granados has a plea for those eligible to apply for citizenship — don’t wait.

“Please do not keep thinking about that. Please do it,” Granados said. “We are here … Don’t wait until something happens.”

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