Since the beginning of the year, this 20-year-old college student from Baltimore’s East Side has been caring for her parents almost like they were her children.

She’s met with a notary about setting up guardianship for her younger sister. She’s had discussions with her mother and father about what to do with their house, cars and business once they are gone. That’s because the young woman is now saddled with the stress and responsibility of preparing for the loss of her parents.

Her parents — both from Mexico — are undocumented. And after President Donald Trump vowed to conduct the largest deportation in the country’s history, her anxiety over her parents being detained by ICE and sent back to their native land has grown.

Immigrant families — regardless of status — are increasingly having conversations about, and planning for, the possibility of a family member being detained and eventually deported. A tenth of Maryland households have at least one undocumented member.

The new reality hit home for one Prince George’s County family who lost a member last month who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement after an “administrative error.”

That mistake banished Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia — a Salvadoran with a protected immigration status because of threats of gang violence — back to his home country and more than 3,000 miles away from his spouse, who is a U.S. citizen, and their 5-year-old special-needs child.

Some immigrant families say they have altered their daily routines and avoided being publicly visible as a result of fear of encountering ICE. The children, often the first generation in the family born in the U.S., are finding themselves thrust onto the front lines.

“It’s a hard topic because as a young adult, I’m learning all these new things, I can’t imagine having to take care of all their responsibilities all at once,” said the young woman, who asked not to be named because she fears retaliation against her family.

Law professor Maureen A. Sweeney, who serves as the faculty director of the Chacón Center for Immigrant Justice at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, said she has heard the anxiety expressed by families at her civil rights training sessions.

“They are asking how to do this emergency planning so that they have something in place where they walk out the door and do not come back,” she said.

One option for family members is standby guardianship, a legal authority granted to a third party to stand in for an undocumented immigrant who needs help taking care of their children if the immigrant is detained or deported.

This type of guardianship does not affect the custody of a child, and parents do not lose their parental rights by appointing a standby guardian, according to legal experts.

Standby guardianship can sometimes create confusion for immigrants from Central America because they often seek legal advice from non-attorneys. The problem comes because the people sought for advice are in fact just notary publics (“notario publicos”) without the ability to secure such guardianships, says Cate Scenna, the head of Maryland Immigrant Legal Assistance Project. In Central America, notarios have a different role than notary publics in the U.S.

As a result, immigrants unknowingly seek “power of attorney for child care” and waste money paying someone to execute a power of attorney which is unenforceable, Scenna said.

The process to establish guardianship or control of assets can be long and expensive, said Yoscaisa Jorge, an immigration attorney based in Silver Spring.

If an attorney is fast and well-versed in the various forms of estate planning, and the process to establish guardianship, it can take as little as 20 to 30 days, or more than three months, legal experts say. The cost of putting in place an estate plan as well as a protection plan for the children of immigrants at risk can range between $700 to $2,500, Jorge added.

Many immigration attorneys do not handle estate planning in their firms, Jorge said. “Finding one could add another barrier of issues for them,” she said.

T., who has lived in Maryland for nearly two decades since arriving from Mexico, said she didn’t believe Trump’s campaign promises that only undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions would be arrested. That’s why she has granted a family member access to her bank account. (The Banner is naming some immigrants and family members by their initials because of fear of retaliation by immigration authorities).

Another has been designated to take care of her daughter. She also makes sure her daughter, who has dual citizenship, carries that documentation with her.

In her Annapolis home, T. has the phone number of her lawyer written on a blackboard in case she is detained by ICE due to being in the “wrong place at the wrong time.”

“It’s very worrying because they don’t realize it affects not only the separation of the families but also the finances and mental health,” she said.

If a family member is detained by ICE, T. has a contingency plan. She will first contact her lawyer or a nonprofit versed in immigrant rights. If things progress faster, she’s prepared to leave the country and be with those family members who have been deported back to Mexico.

S. and her younger sister, who just turned 18, are considered adults, but they heavily rely on their parents for support, she said.

“I don’t know how to raise her,” S. lamented. “I’m barely dealing with getting into young adulthood.”

These conversations and dilemmas are happening “every day, all the time,” said Michelle Mendez, an attorney at National Immigration Project, a national nonprofit that litigates, advocates and educates on behalf of immigrants.

One aspect that is often forgotten about in planning is what happens to pets left behind by departing immigrants, Mendez added.

The fear of being split up is a major concern of the immigrants that work with Annette Karanja, a Baltimore County community activist working primarily with the East African immigrant population.

“The topic is consistent — especially among multigenerational families,” she said, adding that child separation and a lack of support for elderly family members is most common. “Some live alone and may not have the command of English necessary to self advocate.”

A big question for family members is whether to follow their deported family members back to a country that they may not know well.

If faced with being separated from her parents, Monica Camacho Perez said she would go back to Mexico with them to take care of them. The 30-year-old old Essex resident is protected from deportation under DACA. But her parents, ages 61 and 70, and two older siblings are not.

“For my parents — I will go back with them. I have to take care of them,” she said about her parents. “I have the responsibility to take care of them because they have done so much for me. It’s the least that I can do. They are my American dream. Wherever they go, I will go with them.”

But S., who hasn’t been to Mexico in 10 years, said she would come back to live in the U.S. eventually.

“Although it was a beautiful experience, I don’t know anyone there,” she said. “The life I am used to is here in the U.S. I don’t think I could have the same opportunities in Mexico I have here.”

TIPS FOR IMMIGRANT FAMILIES AT RISK OF SEPARATION:

• Find an attorney who is well-versed in the various forms of estate planning and the process to establish guardianship.
• Develop a family safety plan that includes: biographical and medical information about your child, information about the person you want to take care of your child, and legal documents establishing guardianship or power of estate.
• Make sure your child’s school, day care provider, doctor, or other people who supervise your child’s after-school activities have the preferred caregiver’s contact information.