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Venezuelans in North Dakota fear being targets of Trump deportation plans • North Dakota Monitor [1]
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Date: 2025-06-16
Daniela Helfenstein as a teenager would go to protests of Venezuelan authoritarian leader Hugo Chavez.
Now she is a U.S. citizen, raising a family in Fargo, but she said she has some of the same feelings she had in Venezuela.
“I feel like I am living this twice,” Helfenstein said. “To relive an oppression, it’s just a scary feeling.”
Helfenstein came to the United States in 2014 and attended Minnesota State University Moorhead.
She married an American and became a U.S. citizen at a naturalization ceremony in Fargo in 2023.
But she still has fears for other Venezuelan family and friends and even for herself under the Donald Trump administration’s determination to deport immigrants, especially those from Venezuela.
The White House says that Venezuelan gang members are “preying on American citizens.” It is attempting to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport Venezuelans.
The Trump administration’s efforts to use that law has fueled multiple court cases,
A federal judge on June 4 ordered the Trump administration to allow Venezuelan men sent to El Salvador under that law to have their cases heard in court.
Helfenstein said a lack of due process is not just an issue for Venezuelans.
“Everybody should feel apprehensive,” she said.
Helfenstein said there are likely gang members and criminals from Venezuela who are in the United States, but not in the numbers asserted by the Trump administration.
She said most Venezuelans would be like her father, who came across the U.S.-Mexican border seeking asylum from the authoritarian regime now headed by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Her father is living in Florida as are some other family members.
Helfenstein’s best friend from Venezuela was lucky enough that, through a lottery system, she was granted a green card allowing her to live in the United States. The green card will eventually need to be renewed.
It is not normal for people who are not criminals to be afraid of the police. – Colin Helfenstein
She and her family are living in Fargo, too, but without the assurances of having U.S. citizenship, fear they could be deported, according to Helfenstein.
Daniela Helfenstein’s husband is Colin Helfenstein, who said this is not the kind of America that legal immigrants should expect.
Even with his wife having become a U.S. citizen, Colin Helfenstein said there are concerns about deportation.
“Having citizenship is definitely somewhat reassuring, but it’s still no guarantee,” he said.
The Trump administration also has tried to remove temporary legal status for some immigrants.
In another case, a federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from invalidating the temporary legal status of 5,000 Venezuelans. An appeal of that case is pending.
Leah Hargrove works with immigrants at Bismarck Global Neighbors, helping them with issues such as housing, employment and transportation to integrate into the community.
“My hope would be to see the federal government honor the commitment it made to these individuals,” Hargove said of immigrants with temporary legal status.
Bismarck Global Neighbors had a Spanish language information session in April, with participants including Venezuelans and some people who drove more than an hour to learn about their rights.
“I see a lot of people who are nervous,” Hargrove said, even if they are in the U.S. legally.
She said the overwhelming number of immigrants in North Dakota are here legally, though for some that status is temporary.
She said her group’s workload has shifted from assisting people who are new to the United States to people who are moving to the Bismarck area from places such as Chicago and Miami to help fill jobs in education and health care.
“So it might shift a little bit who we’re serving. Maybe we’ll serve fewer refugees and more nurses, but we’re not any less busy at my office, that’s for sure,” Hargrove said.
Daniela Helfenstein said she would live to visit Venezuela, but does not dare because of the risks in her home country and potential hassles with U.S. officials.
She said she worries about the next generation of Americans, like her daughter.
“I think about all the things that she could lose,” Helfenstein said. “All these changes are going to affect the next generation.”
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