Saul Servin sells Mexican candy and party planning services at Dulceria El Girasol, his store on the corner of Shields Boulevard and SE 29th Street in Oklahoma City. He remembers parents weighing the cost of a child\u2019s birthday party against the need to save \u2014 in case one parent got deported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe were all feeling a lot of anxiety because we didn\u2019t know what was going to happen,\u201d Servin said about his community. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know if we, as immigrants, were going to be able to stay in this country.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was three years ago when the Trump administration encouraged local law enforcement to identify, flag and hold undocumented immigrants in local jails. Flagged individuals faced increased prospects of deportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recent immigration data, however, shows Servin\u2019s customers, who are primarily Hispanic immigrants, may now have less cause for concern. Fewer people are being flagged for immigration detention. The majority of those detained in Oklahoma stand accused of serious crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The number of people arrested locally and flagged for questionable immigration status fell 45% nationally<\/a> and 38% in Oklahoma as of June 2020, according to data by Syracuse University\u2019s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. The Syracuse organization \u2014 which bills itself as an independent and nonpartisan source of federal enforcement, staffing and spending information \u2014 obtains the data through litigation and public records requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n