LAWRENCE, Mass. — Until recently, immigrants with no criminal recored living in Lawrence, Massachusetts never worried much about their legal status, local immigration advocates say. Now, however, fear in the city is pervasive as many undocumented immigrants are retreating into the shadows and preparing for the worst.

Ten families headed by undocumented immigrants have pulled their children out of a Head Start day care program run by the Greater Lawrence Community Action Council over the last two months, said Evelyn Friedman, the agency’s executive director. Other parents have withdrawn from a federal nutrition program that serves women and children under 6 that they administer locally, Friedman said.

“They’re saying they’re afraid,” she said. “They’re going to another state where they won’t be in a program. We’ve said to them, ‘You’re moving out of state? We’ll refer you to a Head Start program there.’ They’re saying, ‘No, we want to get out of state so we won’t be found and we don’t want to be in another program.’”

Lawrence is a city built by immigrants and still heavily populated by them. Nearly 38 percent of Lawrence residents were born overseas, according to the U.S. Census. In three of every four homes, languages other than English are spoken, the Census data shows.

There is no official data on the number of those who came illegally or overstayed their visas. But in one anecdotal measure, the Rev. Carlos Urbina, pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption Church, recently estimated that half his 3,000 parishioners are not documented. The church has a bilingual Mass daily.

Dr. Zandra Kelley, the medical director of the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, recalls the response a patient said she received when she told a house guest that a police officer would be visiting to help resolve an issue. The guest, an undocumented immigrant, fled upstairs.

State Rep. Juana Matias remembers her recent visit to Esperanza Academy, a private girls school, to present one of four awards to students who personify the school’s values of wisdom, integrity, leadership and service. Matias presented the award for integrity to a beaming 12-year-old girl, who then refused to be photographed with the others out of fear that her image could lead immigration authorities to her undocumented parents.

Prior to the election of Donald Trump, most undocumented immigrants in Lawrence did not live in fear of arrest, advocates say. Under President Obama, the first priority for deportation was those convicted of serious and violent crimes.

This changed in February, when Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to widen their search for undocumented immigrants to include those whose worst crime is their immigration status. 

The ICE net fell over the offices of the federal Citizen and Immigration Services office in Lawrence on March 29. The office gave ICE a heads up that five immigrants with final deportation orders pending had appointments that day to pursue their applications for residency or citizenship.

When they arrived, ICE agents were waiting and all five were arrested, jailed and are awaiting deportation. None has a criminal record.

One is Leandro Arriaga, who arrived from the Dominican Republic through Puerto Rico 16 years ago and has since married twice, had four children, bought a home in Lawrence and started a small real estate business.

“I didn’t do anything wrong in this country,” Arriaga, 43, said by telephone from the Bristol County jail a few days after his arrest. “I’ve got nothing on my record. Everything is good. The only problem is my immigration status.”

Arriaga’s lawyer, Tania Palumbo, is asking ICE to use its prosecutorial discretion and allow Arriaga to stay, citing his family and career and his clean record.

“These people had final orders for removal,” ICE spokesman Sean Neudauer said when asked if there is irony in arresting an immigrant who is in the process of applying for citizenship. “These are warrants for their removal, issued by a judge. Being married to a U.S. citizen doesn’t remove that. A judge can rescind the order, but we’re the cops. We don’t get to make those decisions.”

Zoila Gomez, a partner with Palumbo in an immigration law practice, said 25 people were waiting in the lobby when she arrived at 8:30 on the morning after Secretary Kelly issued his memo directing ICE agents to step it up.

Her clients include a mother who is making legal arrangements to give custody of her 4-year-old-daughter, who is a U.S. citizen, to a friend should the mother, who is undocumented, be deported. Another client who had been granted a stay of deportation every year for five years received a letter from ICE on March 1 telling her that her request for a sixth stay is “not sufficiently warranted.”

Gomez said she now routinely warns undocumented immigrants considering applying for residency that they could be arrested at their appointments at the immigration office.

“They’re all worried about what’s going to happen now,” Gomez said. “They’re asking, ‘Am I in danger of deportation?’ It’s sparked a lot of fear in Lawrence.”

Isabel Melendez, who provides a range of social services to the city’s poor, said her warnings are more direct.

“If your papers aren’t ready, don’t be in public places,” she said. She now advises undocumented immigrants who enroll in the citizenship or English classes the school offers or who come seeking furniture or clothing: “Don’t be driving around. If you don’t have legal status, stay at home. Work from home. Stay away from trouble.”

Trump’s stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws includes a plan to deputize local police in the round-ups, which opponents say will cause immigrants to avoid police and stop cooperating in local law enforcement efforts, even when they themselves are victims of crimes.

Data in one crime category – domestic violence –provided by Lawrence police Chief James Fitzpatrick does not show that’s happened. Over the last four months, police received 415 allegations of domestic violence, compared to 400 over the same period last year, the data shows.

The arrests of the five undocumented immigrants last month at the downtown immigration center may have been most remarkable because, probably more than any other city in the United States, Lawrence is a city built by immigrants.

The city has been populated by a succession of immigrant waves for two centuries, beginning when Irish, Germans and French Canadians arrived to lay the city’s stone foundations in the 1840s. The city advertises its heritage on the downtown street signs that carry the names of the scores of countries from which its residents came. Almost weekly, city officials ceremoniously run a flag of a foreign country up a flagpole outside City Hall, often in the presence of foreign dignitaries. It calls itself “Immigrant City.”

With that as a background, local immigration advocates – including the City Council and Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera — are pushing back and building bulwarks.

On Aug. 12, 2015, Lawrence joined the list of what was then about 300 so-called sanctuary cities, when the City Council voted to direct police to disregard requests from ICE agents “seeking information about an individual’s incarceration status,” unless they have a warrant signed by a judge. The bill also forbids local police from questioning immigration status of people arrested for minor violations or crimes, such as a traffic violation or a nonviolent domestic dispute.

Lawrence went much further on Feb. 8 when it joined the city of Chelsea, Massachusetts in a federal lawsuit challenging Trump’s executive order to cut off funding to sanctuary cities. At the time, the suit was only the second of its kind, putting the two cities at the forefront of the battle nationwide. The Trump administration is due to file its response in federal district court in Boston on Monday.

“There’s a level of anger and frustration from people who support the immigrant community wholeheartedly, people who are immigrants and went through these problems and know what it’s like to be scared,” said Rivera, whose mother immigrated from the Dominican Republic before he was born. “I’d put myself in that category.”

In the schools, Superintendent Jeff Riley recently sent a letter to parents assuring them that it’s safe to send children to school regardless of their own immigration status or their children’s status. 

In an interview and a follow-up email on Friday, Riley reaffirmed that position and suggested he would stare down any ICE official who showed up at a Lawrence school looking for a child.

“First, I’ll reiterate that LPS has not received any requests of any kind, and has no reason to anticipate any,” Riley said. “But were it to occur, the district will not allow law enforcement to remove a student or family from school premises based solely on immigration status.”

He cited a statement by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey issued March 2, which advised schools to “avoid information requests that have the purpose or effect of discouraging or denying access to school on the basis of race, national origin, or immigration or citizenship status.”

Secretary Kelly said he has directed ICE to respect the sanctity of schools and churches.

In Boston, state Rep. Matias, a Lawrence Democrat, joined Sen. James Eldridge, D-Acton, in filing a bill they call the Safe Communities Act, which forbids state employees – including police – from using state resources “for immigration enforcement purposes.” It also prohibits state police from questioning people about their immigration status.

Local lawyers have held several immigration clinics to advise immigrants of their rights, reminding them they have the right to remain silent if confronted by ICE agents and not to open their doors to immigration officers or police who do not have a warrant with their name on it.

Eddings writes for the North Andover, Massachusetts Eagle Tribune.