LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Now we'll hear from Latinos in two neighboring Massachusetts communities about how they're feeling about Donald Trump's inauguration. Latino support helped him win back the White House. Simon Rios from member station WBUR in Boston reports.
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP: (Singing in Spanish).
SIMON RIOS, BYLINE: A Uruguayan murga group rehearses in an old mill building in Leominster, a small industrial city an hour north of Boston.
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP: (Singing in Spanish).
RIOS: Murga is a theatrical music, steeped in politics and the skewering of whoever's in power in Uruguay. On the eve of Trump's inauguration, group leader Ignacio Viana says it's even more important for Uruguayans here to uphold the murga tradition.
IGNACIO VIANA: (Speaking Spanish).
RIOS: "This is a disaster," he says of the incoming president. "A guy who wants to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico, annex Canada, take over Greenland. This is Napoleon."
VIANA: (Speaking Spanish).
RIOS: Viana is a carpenter by day and directs the murga troupe at night. Despite a rightward shift among some Latino communities, he says he doesn't know any Uruguayans who back Trump.
VIANA: (Speaking Spanish).
RIOS: Viana says a lot of Latinos believe Trump will bring a better economy. But at what cost? He says most Uruguayans are too distrustful to buy into promises from politicians.
VIANA: (Speaking Spanish).
RIOS: The majority of Latino voters lean democratic, but a shift toward Trump last November was key in helping him win. Polls show the economy was the No. 1 issue for Latino voters, just as it was for all registered voters.
(SOUNDBITE OF POWER TOOLS)
RIOS: The city of Framingham is home to one of the state's biggest Brazilian communities. Among the workers at a mechanic shop in the city, support for Trump is unanimous.
JOEL DE SILVA: (Speaking Portuguese).
RIOS: That's owner Joel de Silva. Originally from Brazil, he's lived in the area for 17 years. De Silva says Trump is honest, a defender of Christian values and truly looks out for the country's best interests. De Silva is in the U.S. without legal status.
DE SILVA: (Speaking Portuguese).
RIOS: De Silva says his whole life is invested in the U.S. He owns a house, a rental property, two businesses. He's raising a family here and pays taxes.
DE SILVA: (Speaking Portuguese).
RIOS: De Silva says he doesn't see why he'd be deported. He hopes to see drug dealers and robbers facing removal, not people like him. But some immigration attorneys, like Boston-based Julio Henriquez, say, don't count on leniency.
JULIO HENRIQUEZ: What we saw during the first Trump administration, at least the lessons that we have from that, is that a lack of criminal record and many years in the country and good standing are not going to protect many people.
RIOS: Back in Framingham at the nonprofit Brazilian-American Center, executive director Liliane Costa is helping dozens of immigrants. She says many are fearful of what's to come.
LILIANE COSTA: (Speaking Portuguese).
RIOS: A few are even returning to Brazil, she says, and more are getting their Brazilian passports in order, just in case. Regardless of what the new administration does, Costa says the threat of immigration enforcement is far more powerful than the enforcement itself.
For NPR News, I'm Simon Rios in Boston.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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