Concern is continuing to mount among New Jersey's immigrant communities as they process new executive orders from the white House targeting undocumented migrants and the first new law of the administration, the Lake and Riley Act, signed by President Trump on Wednesday, requiring the detention of unauthorized immigrants who are accused of theft and violent crimes.

At the bill signing, the president said he wants to detain migrants at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

But as senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports.

Actions from the Oval Office are also causing panic among those who are here with legal status.

You know, we received a hundred hundred calls specifically from mothers.

Reverend Bolivar Flores spoke about panicked calls from terrified immigrants reaching out to Latino pastors at more than 470 churches across new Jersey since the Trump administration launched Ice raids into their communities.

In particular, to me, this is affecting me.

When I heard Pastor, I don't want to send my children to school, or when I heard an old lady say to me, Reverend, can you go to the supermarket and buy food for me?

Because I'm scared to go to the supermarket in 2025, in a free country, the United States, he said Ice arrested immigrants worshiping at a church in Elizabeth last Sunday, and now people fear to attend.

Ministers today announced a new hotline 551 255 5500, to offer legal counsel and support.

But he also explained even conservative ministers didn't expect this from Donald Trump.

What I will say is that that we know that he we implement that policy because that's a part of the campaign, and that's why that he always say that.

But we never think in this way where he don't care, he don't treat people as a human being.

And I know the, the the fear that the community feels right now is real.

But I also want to send them a message.

We got to stay calm.

A sudden barrage of executive orders from the new administration has caused chaos.

And not just among advocates who help undocumented immigrants.

Ten agencies with a decades old refugee resettlement program received a cease and desist order last Friday.

Their federal funding remains on hold while investigators determine if their missions consistent with Trump's America First agenda.

It's an ideological litmus test, says Pastor Seth Copper Dale.

Large nonprofits like ours, when there's uncertainty about financing, we can't hold on for very long.

You know, we don't have a gigantic piggy bank over here.

His church based nonprofit just laid off 20% of its staff, and he's worried about paying $134,000 a month to rent 67 apartments for newly arrived refugees.

He says others who have already settled in put their kids in school and gotten jobs feel deeply threatened.

They now have fears about whether they're documentation, which was absolutely legal, will be legal in a couple of weeks as the president takes a swipe at humanitarian parole programs and at TPS and all the other forms of protection.

So the cruelty hits on every angle.

These orders aren't going to are going to get people like me to stop.

Right.

Courtney Maginnis with Church World Service, she won't abandon hundreds of refugees legally resettled through her program.

This is my mission.

And, I have a vision of a world where we're people have access to food and have access to a safe home.

And, I'm going to keep working towards that.

It doesn't matter what a presidential order says.

Another order.

Pause.

The temporary protected Status program, which admits refugees fleeing wars, disasters and political upheaval for a Jersey coalition that provides safe haven for Afghan refugees, says it recalls the terror of Trump's Muslim ban at U.S. airports back in 2017, says organizer fresh to Tab.

During the Muslim ban, Afghanistan was not on the no fly list, but folks were being turned away, visas were being revoked.

Folks are volunteering at airports.

So this is a retraumatized mission.

Meanwhile, copper Dale says advocates met with Senate Democrats in Trenton today to ask the state to step up with some interim funding as they work to regain federal support.

I'm Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.