Timur Karimkulov came to the United States from Russia as a student seven years ago, moved to Baltimore and became a U.S. citizen.

He said the Trump administration’s promise to crack down on illegal immigration hasn’t disrupted his life the way it has Black and brown immigrants.

“I am a white man. I have my Maryland ID. I will be fine,” said Karimkulov, a 30-year-old bartender who lives in Upper Fells Point.

While immigrants from Latin America, Africa and Asia have expressed anxiety, fear and uncertainty about their futures — regardless of whether or not they are U.S. citizens — a half-dozen white immigrants living in Maryland said in recent interviews that their experience has been very different since President Donald Trump took office with dire warnings for immigrants.

Kyle Antel, a 37-year-old South African native who has a permanent resident green card and lives in Odenton, said he has witnessed the fear among non-white immigrants. He moved to the U.S. 24 years ago.

“As a white person with a slight accent, I don’t have to worry about being randomly stopped by ICE,” he said. “At the end of the day this isn’t about legality — it’s about fairness, dignity, and the ability to go about one’s life without unnecessary fear.”

In the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries, the rising tide of immigration into the U.S. was made up almost completely white Europeans. But those numbers dwindled as immigration from Latin America surged by the mid-20th Century, with Mexico as the largest country of origin.

In 2023, the U.S. foreign-born population reached a record 47.8 million, an increase of 1.6 million from the previous year, largely driven by immigrants from Mexico, according to Pew Research Center. The vast majority of foreign-born immigrants are here legally, with an estimated 23% here with undocumented status. About one-third of those undocumented immigrants were born in Mexico, according to Pew.

It is immediately unclear the race and ethnicity of immigrants who have been investigated and detained since the increased ICE activity began last month. But immigrant advocates say Trump’s racially-tinged comments, as well past academic studies exposing disparate treatment, means that immigrants of color will likely bear the brunt disproportionately.

Officials with the Trump administration argue that undocumented immigrants must be identified and deported because they are in the country illegally and threaten the country’s nation’s safety and security. On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced it would create a national registry for all people who enter the country illegally. Those who do not self-report could face punishments ranging from fines to prosecution, according to the directive.

But immigration advocates say Trump’s executive orders and policies focusing on immigration are unjustly and racially targeting non-white populations. They also point to the history of the language the president has used.

During his first administration in 2018, Trump questioned why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and less desirable countries in Africa rather than places like Norway. Both Haiti and Africa have majority Black populations.

On the campaign trail in April, Trump told an audience at an event in Palm Beach, the types of immigrants he wanted to come to this country, according to an unnamed attendee. The New York Times reported Trump said: “And when I said, you know, ‘Why can’t we allow people to come in from nice countries,’ I’m trying to be nice. Nice countries, you know like Denmark, Switzerland? Do we have any people coming in from Denmark? How about Switzerland? How about Norway?”

Trump also angered critics in January after saying he could tell the type of “trouble” an immigrant would be by their “look” during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity. Last week, Trump offered refugee resettlement to white Afrikaners and cut funding to South Africa.

Trump’s critics say his policies are based on race and enforcing those has resulted in improper detentions, including Native Americans, and a U.S. military veteran.

Annette Karanja, a Baltimore County community activist working primarily with the East African immigrant population, said she has seen the difference in the way race plays in the administration of immigration policies.

“The reality is all Black and brown people are being targeted. The Eastern European immigrants — none of them are worried. Their lives have not changed at all,” she said.

Cathryn Paul, policy director at CASA, said Trump’s actions his first weeks in his second term has been “extremely disturbing” when it comes to Black and brown immigrants. Paul said Trump specifically targeted the Venezuelan community when he called to cancel their access to Temporary Protected Status, which she described as a form of humanitarian relief.

Black immigrants are disproportionately harmed by deportation policies because they have the added layer of experiencing the same racial profiling as Black Americans, Paul said.

“They are at a higher risk to be pulled over for being Black. And then they also go through ICE enforcement. Those individuals have harsher charges, and are more likely to be disproportionately deported,” Paul said. Research published by the advocacy group Black Alliance for Just Immigration found that in 2016, Black immigrants made up 7.2 % of the noncitizen population in the U.S., but comprise more than 20% of those people facing deportation after a criminal conviction.

None of the white immigrants interviewed recently said that they have altered their daily routines as a result of Trump’s immigration policies.

Ronnie Pasztor, 47, an accountant from Medfield who is a first-generation American of Hungarian descent, said his personal life has not changed much since Trump’s executive orders. His father came to the United States in 1956 at the age of 7, and he was born in this country, giving him automatic citizenship.

Growing up Pasztor didn’t even consider his father an immigrant — except for his father’s mother and her “thick Hungarian accent.” Pasztor knows that he appears outwardly to be a multi-generational white American.

“I have not needed to change my daily routine. I have not once thought to carry any documents besides my driver’s license,” he said.

Carol L. Cleaveland, an associate professor in social work who studies immigration at George Mason University, said she is not surprised that there is a disconnect among white and nonwhite immigrants.

“Trump has used racialized language that is anti-immigrant. There’s a sense that his immigration enforcement is going to be very targeted against Latino communities,” she said, adding that she had not seen the most recent data showing who has been deported.

Cleaveland stressed that because some Latino immigrants are seeking asylum, that has also contributed to their heightened stress.

Maria Colon, a Lutherville-based immigration attorney, said her non-white clients are experiencing a “pervasive sense of vulnerability” under the Trump administration.

“This environment has resulted in individuals avoiding public spaces, refraining from speaking their native languages in public, and even hesitating to access essential services such as health care and education due to fears of detention or deportation,” she said.

Raymond Griffith, a Baltimore-based immigration attorney for the last 24 years, said he’s received an uptick in inquires since the election from all immigrants regardless of race.

“I wouldn’t say they are unscathed. I see white immigrants in court every day,” he said, adding that maybe Black and brown immigrants have a perception of race being a factor because of media coverage showing the racial disparity in ICE detentions.

Black and brown immigrants also comprise a larger percent in the Baltimore area, Griffith said.

“It would take many, many raids before some Canadian is swept up in a raid,” he said.