Immigrants, regardless of status, fear a Trump presidency

STAMFORD — Wendy Cardenas has worried about her citizenship status since before she could work or drive a car — since before she could decide on her own where to live.

“It’s a fear we live with every day,” she said. “It’s not something that happened because of Trump. It’s a fear because the immigration system is broken.”

Cardenas emigrated with her family from Peru at the age of 12 after her father lost his job as a mechanical engineer.

Now that she’s 27 and has built a life in Stamford, Cardenas is among the undocumented immigrants whose already high anxiety has escalated since Donald Trump — who has vowed to deport the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants and build a wall separating the United States and Mexico — was elected president.