In Odessa, multiple efforts are underway to help immigrants stay and work

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ODESSA — The students gathered in a nondescript conference room adjoined to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce office. They sat behind rows of folding black tables and were handed red folders that contained study materials for one of the most important tests they’d ever take: the American English and civics test, the last requirement to become a U.S. citizen.

Many of them were afraid.

It was late last April, and in the proceeding weeks, former President Donald Trump had become the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, in large part due to his pledge to crack down on immigration. His rhetoric was more heated, calling undocumented immigrants “animals” and “not human.”

One of the instructors was Miriam Guzman, who successfully passed the citizenship test six years ago. Both she and her co-instructor, Theresa Servin, sensed the fear and anxiety among their new pupils.

“We’re teaching them to do the correct thing so they don’t have to be afraid,” Guzman said in a recent interview.

Now in motion, Trump’s plans have put on edge some in the West Texas Hispanic population. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have begun to conduct roundups. Less than 20 miles from that classroom, one sweep led to 10 arrests.

“It’s not easy,” Servin said. “No one wants to take on that responsibility.”

Classes like the one Guzman and Servin teach are filling a vacuum in this part of Texas that has few official resources for migrants who find their way to the oil fields of the Permian Basin. Labor is often in high demand, making Odessa and nearby communities a magnet for immigrants — legal or not. Community leaders have sought to create an official migration resource center but are in early stages.

Absent official help, Guzman and Servin see it as their responsibility to assist their neighbors, whether undocumented or not.

Leaving Mexico

Guzman began her journey to becoming a U.S. citizen in 2014 when she and her American husband left Mexico.

They had never planned to relocate to the U.S., but a string of kidnappings in their neighborhood prompted the search for more security.

“It was very fast,” the 44-year-old said. “It was very painful because I’m a family person, but I knew I needed to do it for our daughters. I cried every day.”

Guzman first entered the U.S. with a tourist visa. Most days, she wouldn’t leave the house. She refused to drive even though she had a Mexican driver’s license out of fear of being stopped by an unfriendly police officer. On Sundays, she would get groceries when her husband. She’d walk to her daughter’s school across the street. Guzman, a career graphic designer, used her free time to design the logo for her husband’s electric service company.

It took her a year and a half to get a permanent resident card, commonly known as a green card. Almost five years after leaving Mexico, she successfully passed her citizenship exam.

In 2020, she met Servin, who offered business start-up lessons for women. Guzman wanted to open her own skincare business, and two years later, with Servin’s help, she did. Guzman is also an instructor at the beauty school she attended, graduating seven classes.

Servin, who grew up in the West Texas town of Kermit, had been a longtime immigration advocate and served as president of the League of United Latin American Citizens’s Odessa chapter, a national organization that advocates for Latinos with local chapters nationwide.

She asked Guzman, with whom she bonded over a shared inclination for advocacy, to help her with a lesson she had planned. The lesson would teach students how to study for their citizenship. Guzman saw it as a chance to set an example for her two daughters.

“I wanted to teach my daughters that giving back is fulfilling,” she said.

Community leaders said they want to help migrants, not expel them

Odessa is the first major city east of El Paso, about 285 miles away. The city’s population is predominantly Hispanic. And the oil fields have long been a magnet for transient and migrant workers. With generous pay, generations of families have settled here in the Permian Basin.

One report by the American Immigration Council, a nonprofit immigration think tank, suggests that 21,700 immigrants are in Odessa, 13% of its population. About 7,400 are believed to be undocumented.

Economic development officials and civic leaders say migrants fill crucial job openings in the oil fields and at the businesses that support the energy industry. They want more workers, not less, and are willing to help undocumented Odessans gain legal status.

Tom Manskey, director of economic development for the Odessa Chamber of Commerce, said they received a $15,000 grant in August from the Association of Chambers of Commerce Executives, a national group, to assist “new Americans.”

The chamber is working with the city’s higher education institutions to determine the services the resource center would provide and whether it can offer workforce certification and licensing programs.

“We're not out to recruit people from the border or anything like that,” Manskey said. “We're looking at an existing population that's already here, that are our neighbors, that cannot work legally. How can we fix that?”

A first step was holding a conference last September for employers and workers.

The event included discussions regarding local law enforcement’s role during migrant encounters, human trafficking and the process of obtaining legal status — information the chamber will use to establish the immigration resource center for the region.

The chamber is working with Odessa College to draw from its expertise training workers. The college already offers several workforce programs, like nursing, electrical lineman work, welding and manufacturing.

“It's not anything new for us to be reaching out to our community,” said Cheri Dalton, a spokesperson for the college. “That's just the nature of this college.”

Navigating the uncertainty as tensions grow

The push to help undocumented residents find legal status to remain in Odessa comes as law enforcement efforts to remove those same people intensify, spurring anger from Hispanic residents.

At a Head Start program in downtown Odessa, staff invited LULAC to tell undocumented parents about the services they could seek to help gain legal status. The program staff also said they had plans should federal immigration enforcement officials, or ICE, knock at their door.

Catriva Webbs, chief executive officer at the Greater Opportunities of the Permian Basin, said the Head Start program doesn’t ask for proof of citizenship. The program has about 842 enrolled children, infants and pregnant women in four West Texas counties.

“We wanted to have a session on immigration because we want to make sure that we are providing what we foresee to be a high need in our community,” Webbs said. “We have a high population, given the nature of our location… of persons still seeking legal citizenship in the country.”

The night before LULAC spoke to Webb’s families, ICE agents arrested 19 people they said were in the country illegally. It was the first reported series of raids in Midland, a city about 20 miles east of Odessa.

The raids won’t stop the lessons

Guzman and Servin haven’t hosted another cram session like the one last April.

However, Servin started a new business, Tere Resource Center, which helps people navigate the immigration process. She’s had 102 clients so far seeking immigration services. Last fall, Servin voted for Trump. She admires his business acumen, she said. She voted for the candidate she believed would enforce the law.

“He isn’t scared, he’s cleaning up,” she said.

Guzman wasn’t impressed with either Trump or former Vice President Kamala Harris and didn’t vote.

Trump’s early roundups of undocumented immigrants concern them, they said. However, they want to believe that Trump will only deport criminals. That isn’t the case, news reports have found.

Their next joint class — which is free — will be in March. They will help anyone who shows up.

Disclosure: Odessa College has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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