WASHINGTON – Rigo Rivera, who was illegally brought to the United States from Mexico at age 9, takes Uber as much as he can because he worries about being stopped by immigration agents.

Rivera, now 27, works as an immigration rights activist and part-time restaurant worker in Roswell, Georgia, and says he also worries about his parents in light of the detainment of 680 unauthorized immigrants throughout the country last week.

He said he’s heard of agents setting up checkpoints and searching door to door – charges that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have denied.

Juan Escalante, a Venezuelan immigrant who attributes his illegal status to the denial of his parents’ citizenship application due to a paperwork error, said he calls them each morning to make sure agents haven’t kicked down their door and taken them.

“It’s a difficult time,” said Escalante, who earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration from Florida State University.

And Jessica Azua, a 25-year-old Texas A&M University graduate, said her dad called Saturday “asking where I was and what I was doing.”

“He was scared and he wanted to find out how I am and to ask me to be very careful,” she said.

For the more than 750,000 people brought to the U.S. illegally as children, last week’s detentions — including of at least one person covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program – has stoked their anxiety.

They are caught up in the public resentment of undocumented immigrants that helped propel President Donald Trump to victory in November. After taking office, Trump has widened the net on detainments and deportations beyond the criminals who were the focus of enforcement during the Obama administration.

Playing off that popular sentiment, Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., introduced a bill this week making it illegal for immigrants under the Deferred Action program or their parents to work.

“Jobs are for people here legally,” Barletta said in an interview.

Rivera, Azua and Escalante said they are not overly worried about being detained. Immigration agents say they’re targeting convicted criminals, gang members, those who’ve been ordered deported, and those who were deported and returned.

None of the three have had run-ins with the law, and thus far Trump has not revoked the Obama administration’s 2012 executive order giving them and other childhood immigrants amnesty.

“Every day I wake up and I give thanks to God that I get to work, and I get to drive, and I know I can be here,” Azua said.

But given Trump’s executive orders on immigration and banning travel to the U.S. by refugees, she added, “I don’t know what will happen tomorrow.”

Even immigration hard-liners say the Deferred Action program is complex issue. Barletta acknowledged that deciding their fate is difficult.

“These are tough decisions because people bring up sad cases,” he said.

But, he added, there are “thousands and thousands” of unheard stories of native-born Americans losing jobs or not being able to find work.

Barletta said illegal immigration has continued because political leaders have not been willing to make tough choices to cut off what inspires it – work.

“That’s the magnet that draws people to the United States. This turns off that magnet,” he said of his bill.

“That’s why Donald Trump got elected. People wanted to know, ‘Who’s speaking for us? For the American workers,’” he said.

Barletta’s bill would also apply to about 5 million parents of unauthorized immigrants who were also given amnesty under Obama’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program.

Barletta served on Trump’s transition team after getting national attention for pushing laws as mayor of Hazelton, Pennsylvania, that would crack down on businesses that hire or landlords who rent to immigrants living in the country illegally.

Barletta said he hasn’t spoken to the Trump administration about his bill, and he doesn’t know how Trump plans to deal with those immigrants with amnesty.

In a press release, Barletta urged Trump to cancel the amnesty programs.

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, praised the bill. Vaughan, whose group pushes for tougher immigration laws, called Obama’s executive orders “an end-run around Congress.”

Barletta’s bill is not the only one picking up on the theme of prioritizing American citizens before immigrants for jobs.

Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., earlier this month co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., which would cut in half the number of green cards given to immigrants, saying it would help American-born workers.

Among other things, the Perdue bill, which has been hailed by groups pushing for tougher immigration laws, would limit immigration based on family ties to immediate relatives and elderly parents.

It would no longer allow adult children, able-bodied parents, siblings, uncles, aunts and other relatives to get visas to join U.S. citizens.

At a press conference, Cotton said, “It’s time for the immigration system to start working for American workers.”

Escalante said Barletta’s bill reminds him of complaints that undocumented immigrants had taken away colleges slots from American students.

The detentions and the bill, he said, show a “willingness to take a sledge hammer to the Statue of Liberty.”

Kery Murakami is the Washington, D.C. reporter for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Contact him at kmurakami@cnhi.com.